HK Diocese opens the Year of Faith

Over 7,500 people gathered  at AsiaWorld-Expo in Chek Lap Kok on 16 December to mark the closing  of the Year of Laity and the opening of the Year of Faith.

 Rev. Fr. Dominic Chan, Cardinal Joseph Zen and John Cardinal Tong Hon, 

during the opening ceremony of the Year of Faith

During the two-hour programme that began with community singing of "We are all Catholics", the bishop of Hong Kong, John Cardinal Tong Hon, announced the formal opening of the Year of Faith.

Rev. Dominic Chan, Vicar General, lead the gathering in the recitation of the Prayer for the Year of the Laity and that was followed by a pictorial summary of various activities that took place during the year, projected on big screens hung around the giant exhibition hall.

 

The online chat sessions from Kolkutta, Sydney, Taipei and Toronto, where an innovative idea, which provided a glimpse of the the lives of Chinese Catholics living outside of Hong Kong.

 A group of Catholics from St Benedict Church, at the venue

The reflection on the seven sacraments in the Church summarized the life of a Catholic in Faith and that proved to be an apt platform for the opening of the Year of Faith.

A beautiful rendition of Psalm 51 by the  well-known Chinese singer, Francis Yip Lai-yee, lead the gathering into pray with one accord: “Have mercy on me, O God, according to your steadfast love; according to your abundant mercy blot out my transgressions. Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity…”