New priests at the beginning of the year, a sign of hope for the mission

The Diocese of Kai Feng and the Diocese of Zhu Ma Dian, in Henan province in mainland China, had the joy of welcoming six new priests at the beginning of the year, a sign of hope for the mission of the Church.

According to information sent to Fides Agency, over a thousand faithful attended the priestly ordination of three deacons of the Diocese of Kai Feng and one from Xing Tai. The solemn celebration was held on January 2, presided by His Exc. Mgr. Lian Jian Sen, Bishop of the Diocese of Jiang Men, the new church dedicated to the Sacred Heart. Fifty priests concelebrated and also forty seminarians of the Seminaries of Shi Jia Zhuang (He Bei), Tai Yuan (Xi Shan), Chi Feng (inner Mongolia) and Wu Han (Hu Bei) were also present, as well as several religious sisters. For the diocese it was most numerous ordination in recent years. Instead, for the diocese of Zhu Ma Dian the two ordinations held on January 1 was also a historical moment: it was in fact the first ordinations since 1933.

Map of Henan Province

The Population of Henan Province is close to 100 million people and 167,000 square kilometers. Henan is often referred to as Zhongyuan or Zhongzhou (中州) which literally means "central plains" or "midland", although the name is also applied to the entirety of China proper. Henan is the birthplace of Chinese civilization with over 5,000 years of history, and remained China's cultural, economical, and political center until approximately 1,000 years ago.