SINGAPORE — When AsiaOne, a secular Singapore news site, posted a 14-minute video interview with Father Marcus Dominic Chew on Oct. 21, it introduced him as Singapore's youngest Catholic priest, at 31. By Nov. 8, the video — part of its "Of Beliefs & Faiths" series — had drawn more than 160,000 views on YouTube.
Chew was one of four men ordained as priests by Cardinal William Goh at St. Joseph's Church (Bukit Timah) on June 1. He now serves as assistant parish priest at the Church of the Holy Spirit, where he was filmed when he was still a transitional deacon.
In the video, Chew admits that as a teenager he was "Catholic in name." God, he says, was someone he prayed to "when I need to pass my Chinese exam."
That changed at a morning Mass after an argument with his parents about what to do after his O-level exams. The Gospel that day was the story of the rich young man who was told to sell everything, give to the poor, and follow Christ.
"I felt like it was a direct response to my prayer," Chew says. Looking up at the priest at the altar, he realized "this guy could be doing anything else with his life."
He entered the seminary at age 22, straight after National Service. At first, his parents were not supportive. His mother told him a priest's life was difficult, that it seemed "a bit of a waste," and that she feared he would regret spending his 20s in the seminary. Then, on Mother's Day, she told him: "You're my son and I think you will make a good priest."
His father came around earlier. After his father lost his eyesight, Chew feared he would be "an unfilial son." At an evening Mass, the Gospel was Jesus' reply to a man who wanted first to bury his father: "Leave the dead to bury the dead." Weeks later his father phoned him in tears after a Mass on Vocation Sunday. "If this is what God wants you to do, you go," he said.
How did such a story land with Singaporeans who do not share the Catholic faith?
Sam Ho, 43, who works in communications and has no religion, found Chew to be "a very grounded person who has clarity in his purpose. He is also very Singaporean, which makes him relatable."
The video did not change how he sees priests, he said. "I already know that priests make a lot of sacrifices to do what they do." He noted Chew's honesty about once treating God as "transactional" for "self-centered gains, such as doing well in school," and called him "an exemplary ambassador of Catholicism, with his humility and prioritization of God and serving the community, while acknowledging his imperfections and sacrifices."
He said it did not make him curious about the faith because he already has "deep admiration and respect for many Catholics" he knows. Still, the story's themes resonated: "How we can consistently maintain clarity on the bigger picture or larger purpose; how we can better serve; and how we reframe what we think are sacrifices?"
RP Singh, 47, a director who is Sikh, saw Chew as "very calm and aware of what he wants to do in life." The words that stayed with him were the ones Chew heard at that evening Mass, "Leave the dead to bury the dead," which he took to mean "we should not hold on to the past."
"To me, this wasn't a religious story," he said. "It was a personal story of how someone chose to be religious." Chew's journey, he added, "showed how some people know from the very beginning about what they want in life."
Tang Song Hee, 49, a pilot who attended a Catholic school as a teenager, was less moved. He recalled school prayer sessions that "couldn't end fast enough."
"I explored religion when I was younger. Nothing happened," he said, adding that he had no epiphany like the one the young priest described.
Chew himself says his clerical clothing invites exactly these encounters. Strangers often ask, "Are you a pastor?"
"I get it a lot," he says in the video. "And then it opens up a conversation."
The video ends on his ordination day, as people arrive to celebrate with him. "Even before ordination tears were already shed," he says, "to see the people love God and love the Church."
