Hong Kong hosts international lay ministry conference

About 170 Chinese Catholics from 27 cities around the globe gathered in Hong Kong to discuss their lay ministries and establish a world network during a six-day assembly from October 26 to November 1. The Hong Kong diocese has organized this Lay Ministries Plenary Assembly to conclude its Years of the Laity (2011 and 2012).

Fr. Dominic Chan Chi-ming, vicar-general of Hong Kong

Father Dominic Chan Chi-ming, vicar-general of Hong Kong, said recently that there were at least three outcomes that they expect to achieve: to enhance understanding of lay ministries, to deepen friendships between Chinese Catholics around the world and to contribute to the evangelization work of the Church.

“In the past three decades, development of local lay ministries has put emphasis on liturgy. In fact, our Catholics also make witnesses in society. We have 13 years of service in prison visits and seven years in pastoral care in hospitals and for the bereaved,” he said. Eleven diocesan committees and organizations as well as 20 out of 51 parishes are involved in staging the assembly. 

Chinese Missionaries: With feet on the ground

Fr. Huang is a great friend of Claretians. He is one of our associates in China for over seven years, ever since he was a newly ordained priest and doing an English course in Beijing. He has been an exceptional bridge for our work in China. He has been in charge of the project "Parish Libraries - Sister-Parish". We helped him to travel to our institute in Manila and obtain his Masters' in missiology. Returning to China, he is now in charge of the formation of seminarians. Today he shares with us his missionary experience. Here it is:

 Our 'family': the seminarians and their formators

"On August 20 we begin our new school year. This year, three priests, one religious sister and three seminarians are responsible for our seminarians, and six teachers give high school courses. We have 42 seminarians this semester. Please pray for us and especially for our job training. We know this is not our job, rather it is God who forms them as followers of Jesus.

 The Province of Guizhou,  2000 miles away from our Centre

"In the summer, I went to a poor village in the Province of Guizhou,  2000 miles away from our Centre and we were in a small neighborhood for a week, along with three seminarians. All the people of this village are Catholics. Due to the remoteness of the village, a priest visits them only once a year. 

 This is the village church. It looks isolated, but is in the center of village

 The people live a simple and primitive life. No doctor, no medicine. There is a school, with one teacher for the first levels. 

 The people are very devout

A pleasant surprise! In the shelves you can see the Bible in Chinese, 

published by the Claretians!

For higher levels, the children have to go to another village and live there all week, because they have to walk for four hours from their village to the nearest school. 

 And these are my new friends

Their simple life, with a very sincere faith in God and warm hospitality, the lives of these people impressed me very deeply.

 "We had to make our food."

 Fr. Huang preparing his meal with the seminarians

People gave us plenty of vegetables: beans, peanuts, cucumber, bamboo shoots, potatoes, tomatoes, green corn and all the best from their farm-land. Almost every day, they offered us chicken. These are the best foods for the most honored guest.

Our bedroom: two beds and two on the ground ...
We were the 'richest' people of the village.

This is the best house in village: an unused clinic...
because there is no one to attend to.

 Help! ... we do dishes!!
Now two of them want to be priests

 We looking for possibilities to collect some second-hand clothes and are seeking ways to help. Another need is to find scholarships for some of these young people to be better educated. For higher education, they should move to a city.  Now, there are two guys who want to go to seminary once they finish their secondary education.

 

This picture is of the day we left the village. An old woman said tearfully: "Thank you Father for coming. We will missed you. We could not eat for 15 days. Will you come again? "

                     I had to answer: "Yes, we'll see next year." 

Project aid:
If any of the readers of this blog
would like to help with small contributions 
for the educations of these children, you may write to:
rossa6@gmail.com

Frankfurt Book Fair

A group of Claretian editors from the Philippines, Argentina, Madrid, Barcelona, ​​Brazil and China have come together again for the annual Frankfurt Book Fair.

This is our little place at the Frankfurt Book Fair-the largest book fair in the world.

The contacts we have in Frankfurt mark the next year's work. They buy and sell rights and offer our books for distribution elsewhere.

There was time for celebration ... Our friends from the press in China we were treated to a nice dinner. We have been for long 15 years working with them and we have printed millions of Bibles in Amity.

From Our Publications

We await the New Testament and Psalms with Lectio Divina in Spanish to be out of the Press soon:

Audio Recording of the New Testament in English

Claretian Publications, Macau comes

 online with free audio recording
of the New Testament (English)
from our own Christian Community Bible.

This Catholic Bible recording  is done
in order to help the faithful 

to love the Word of God better.
We owe this work to our friend
from Australia, Paul Ginivan .
We would appreciate a prayer 

as he is battling a cancer.

China: the missing piece of the Synod of Bishops

262 bishops from all five continents. The largest number ever invited to a Synod. From the Holy Land, where it all began two thousand years ago, to the newest nation, South Sudan, which only gained independence last year. The sense of a truly universal Church is one aspect of this meeting which many participants find really rewarding. Yet there is one country where the Catholic Church is growing, where bishops are regularly invited to Rome, but where their government does not give them permission to travel. That country is China. Half way through this 3 week meeting, the archbishop of Hong Kong, Cardinal John Tong appealed to the government in Beijing to grant greater religious freedom for all…..

John Cardinal Tong Hon, Bishop of Hong Kong at Synod of Bishops

“I think it’s a pity that no Chinese bishop is allowed out to attend the Synod….we must all pray that one day they will enjoy full religious freedom and the government would enjoy a greater reputation worldwide…..so more dialogue between the Holy See and the Chinese government is needed”

In his own diocese of Hong Kong, Cardinal Tong said, the Catholic Church is thriving with over 3.000 adult baptisms each year. Speaking of the importance of lay people and especially the family, which is emerging as a key theme at this synod, the cardinal said the family is an important part of traditional Chinese culture and customs. Our ancestors, he said, teach that we must first convert our own hearts, then care for our families, and from there reach out to bring peace and harmony to our society and to the wider world. That’s what the Church in mainland China is trying to do.

- Report and Photos Courtesy: Kung Kao Po

New Center for Seafarers and Migrants at Keelung Sacred Heart of Jesus Church

 Frs. Mario and Bobin together with the faithful in front 
of the Sacred Heart Church, Keelung, Taiwan 

The Keelung Seafarers Center (KSC) was inaugurated on Taiwan’s Migrants Day at the Sacred Heart Church. The center is sponsored by the ITF (International Transport Workers’ Federation) to assist seafarers, migrants and youth. The KSC, though simple compared to other centers in the different ports in Taiwan, responds to the need of seafarers, migrants and youth, even as it shows our concern for their welfare.

 

The inauguration began with the celebration of the Mass in English presided by Fr. Bobin Punnackapadavil, and with the participation of a lot of migrants. During the eucharistic celebration, special prayers were said for the welfare of the migrants in Taiwan, as well as acknowledging their contribution to the development of the society and the local church.  

The Keelung Seafarers Center has officially opened its doors to the public on October 21, on the occasion of World Mission Day, coinciding also with the day our parish celebrated the feast of St. Anthony Mary Claret.

Visuals from the Claret Feast celebrations in Macau

Welcome to the China-Macau Bulletin, October 2012

The temperature in China has become more benign with the early Fall, after five months of intense heat. Yet, in turn the political temperature is soaring high, with the pending changes at the top of the Chinese political leadership, which are held every 10 years.

Mid-Autumn Festival, China National Day & the boat tragedy

The last week of September and the first week of October were two eventful weeks in this part of the region. What was supposed to be a time of festivities, exchange of moon cakes, celebration of the National Day and the subsequent holidays were suddenly turned into a time of tragedy,shock and sorrow. 

The Mid Autumn Festival

“May we live long and share the beauty of the moon together, even if we are hundreds of miles apart,” says the romantic Chinese poem. These ancient sentiments are still embodied in the way Chinese people celebrate the Mid-Autumn Festival: together, and preferably under the glow of a full moon.

The Chinese have been celebrating this festival since at least the early Tang dynasty (618 – 907). In the past, people would make offerings of alcohol, fruit and other foods to the moon god, to express gratitude for a bumper harvest. 

 A lantern display during the Mid Autumn Festival in Hong Kong

The festival is now associated more with lanterns and the eating of moon cakes. Despite the rustic origins of the Mid-Autumn Festival, the highly-urbanised city like Hong Kong still celebrates this holiday.

In fact, the city celebrates it in style and with its characteristic penchant for fusing tradition with innovation.

Today, to be in Hong Kong or Macau during Mid-Autumn is to enjoy a metropolitan manifestation of an ancient harvest festival, complete with fiery dragons, shining lanterns and nouveau festival foods. 

All across the city, people will be gathering for family meals and enjoying lantern displays and a festival atmosphere in the light of the full moon. And of course with the exchange of Moon Cakes! 

What's the big deal about moon cakes?
This traditional pastry is everywhere during the Mid-Autumn Festival, but few actually get eaten.

                               Moon-cakes: can't avoid 'em, can't eat 'em!

The traditional pastry eaten during the Mid-Autumn Festival can have up to 1,000 calories per piece and most Chinese people admit that they don't even like the flavor. According to statistics, each Hong Kong family bought three boxes of moon cakes on average last year, but they discarded a total of 2.5 million moon cakes.

So why is Hong Kong and mainland China caught up in moon cake madness every year during the Mid-Autumn Festival? Come the fifteenth day of the eighth month of the lunar calendar, bakeries set up their special moon cake counters just to service customers seeking a box of the pastries.

The National Day Celebrations

The National Day of the People's Republic of China is celebrated every year on October 1. It is a public holiday in the People's Republic of China to celebrate their national day. The PRC was founded on October 1, 1949 with a ceremony at Tiananmen Square. 

The National Day marks the start of one of the two Golden Weeks in the PRC. Golden Week refers to the week-long public holidays. China Golden Week is when 1.3 billion people are given eight days off from work -- at the same time.
And what happens?

Here are some incredible stats that came out of China Golden Week, which started on September 30

Day 1: The government decides that highways will go toll-free for Golden Week. Very generous. But the result is vehicular paralysis as 86 million people take to the roads, a 13 percent increase on last year. 

Drivers were seen walking their dogs and playing tennis as they wait for the traffic to move.

October 2: The Forbidden City in Beijing has its highest attendance day ever -- 182,000 visitors go to the historical imperial palace.

October 3: The number of travelers to 119 destinations in China in the first four days total 18.2 million people, an increase of 23 percent from last year's Golden Week. 

October 4: The Mausoleum of Sun Yat-sen in Nanjing is visited by 215,000 people. This is 10 times the number of visitors on a regular busy day at the site.  The government decides to take measures to ease gridlock across China. Vehicles with fewer than seven seats can pass through toll gates without stopping.

The National Day is celebrated throughout mainland China, Hong Kong, and Macau with a variety of government-organised festivities, including fireworks and concerts.

Chinese attendees dressed in ethnic minority traditional costumes walk toward the Monument to the People's Heroes during a ceremony marking National Day at Tiananmen Square in Beijing, Oct. 1, 2012.

National Day Fireworks held at Victoria Harbour, Hong Kong 

 These are a few more visuals from the National Day Celebrations in Hong Kong

The boat tragedy that marred the festivities

The festivities in Hong Kong had an abrupt halt as the news media began to carry the news and visuals of a collision of two passenger boats near Lamma Island of Hong Kong, resulting in 39 people dead [as on 6th October] and over a hundred injured. 

 

Hong Kong Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying (4th L), Chief Secretary Carrie Lam (5th L) and other government officials take part in a three-minute silence outside the government headquarters, October 4, 2012, as part of the three-day city-wide mourning for those who died in a ferry collision disaster on Monday.