Macau diocese offers training for Guangxi (China) priests

MACAU (UCAN) – The bishop in the southern Chinese region of Guangxi has welcomed an offer by the head of the Macau Catholic Church to train priests from the former's diocese.

Bishop John Baptist Tan Yanquan of Nanning, capital of the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, said his diocese lacks the resources that Macau diocese enjoys, and can learn much from it.

Bishop John Baptist Tan Yanquan
of Nanning (file photo)

He said he is glad and grateful that Bishop Jose Lai Hung-seng of Macau "invited our priests to receive weeklong training sessions" in Macau. "But we have to seek approval from the local government," he added.

Bishop Lai, 63, made the invitation when he led a six-person delegation that included two priests, a nun and three laypersons to Guangxi from April 20-24.

The Macau and Guangxi Churches have had ties in the past. During the 1940s and 1950s, Guangxi's Beihai diocese sent seminarians to Macau's St. Joseph's Seminary to receive priestly formation.

Bishop Lai, a member of the Vatican's China Commission, told UCA News that he was impressed by the Guangxi Church's focus on evangelization. He said it is important to "update" the knowledge of priests, nuns and lay catechists through ongoing formation, and he was happy to provide that.

Guangxi diocese has an active social service program and its Charity Association in recent years has organized laypeople to visit and help the elderly, sick and needy.

Bishop Lai also expressed hope that the two churches could cooperate more on social services in the future, and that his visit would pave the way for lay Catholics from his diocese to cooperate formally with the Guangxi Church.

The delegation visited the newly inaugurated Our Lady of China Cathedral in Nanning, and churches in Beihai, Guilin and Liuzhou cities.

Officials from Guangxi's United Front Work Department and Religious Affairs Bureau as well as two Macau government representatives accompanied the delegation.

In 2003, the government-approved Church in China merged the four dioceses in Guangxi – Beihai, Guilin, Nanning and Wuzhou dioceses – into one diocese, Guangxi diocese. It has 107 priests and nuns, 70,000 Catholics and 101 churches and meeting venues.

Bishop Jose Lai Hung-seng
of Macau (file photo)

CHINA Shanghai Catholics reach out to migrant workers

SHANGHAI, China (UCAN) – A parish in Shanghai is reaching out to migrant workers in the city who are worried about keeping their jobs and looking after their families in these tough economic times.

Bishop Aloysius Jin Luxian
of Shanghai diocese

The migrant workforce that flocked to the big cities in the east during boom times has been devastated by the global financial crisis that has left 20 million people jobless in the country.
The Church in China has called for Catholics to respond to the concerns of the migrants. Bishop Aloysius Jin Luxian of Shanghai diocese, in a Lenten pastoral letter, urged people to reach out to these workers.

Sacred Heart Church of Songjiang answered the call, setting up a forum for the migrant workers to air their grievances and receive support.

A migrant worker, with his belongings over his shoulder,
walks past a truck in the town of Xichuan, China,
on February 18. Photo: CNS/Reuters

Centro Universitario Claretiano (Brazil) welcomes Bro. Sid

Our brother writes from Brazil:

….The CMFs in Brazil are really doing “big time.” Well, a history of more than a hundred years (the first CMF missionaries came in 1895), and more than a 100 living members really make a big difference. Still, they are still very few for the different ministries they have since they are engaged in family and youth ministry, health care, radio, TV, publishing and printing, internet, schools, both face-to-face and online distance education, popular missions, parishes and others.

The provincial superior said that a number of bishops in South America had asked him for CMF missionaries to work in their dioceses, as they had come to know about the many Claretian ministries, specially the distance education. But in reality, there is only 1 or 2, or not even one Claretian directly working in these ministries. It is the lay people who are actively involved in most of these.

So I came to Brazil for an exposure to and immersion in the life and ministry of our Claretian confreres here, especially in the online distance education they are doing in the Centro Universitario Claretiano - www.claretiano.edu.br - in Batatais, a city more than 300 kms away from São Paulo. Their program began with only 200 students, but after three terms, the number increased to 12,000 enrollees. Now, the Claretians in Argentina, Chile and Colombia have translated the interface of their virtual learning management system into Spanish to offer online courses suited to the needs of the people in their respective areas.

We hope to make this Claretian enterprise accessible to the English-speakers, especially in Asia, and also eventually to make it available in Chinese.

Aerial view of Centro Universitario Claretiano

A Challenge

One of the main tourist attraction in Macau is the 388 Macau Tower. Those who dare (and have enough money to pay for it) jump from the tower for the trill of it. I came to Macau but not as a tourist but to begin my yearlong pastoral exposure and to work in our community. Soon after arriving I took notice that being a missionary in this part of the world requires also some daring – compared to jumping from the Macau Tower.

Do you want to challenge yourself? If so, come to Macau and be a missionary. Here you will know if you have what it takes to be a Claretian Missionary. The host, Fr. Alberto Rossa will be your guide as you begin this adventure.

First, you will be trained in physical toughness as you walk, or I should say, run with him around the city, as he walks leisurely in strides. By the way, you do not have to pay your tuition; it is completely free. The second week you will be tested in your mental stamina through which you will know your IQ as you deal with proofreading, editing, and translating all kinds of stuff either in print or digital. The third week you will be invited to test your psychological fitness, that is, if you’re still sane with all the deadlines you have to meet, plus all the demands of community. Then, the last week you will learn to have faith as you entrust everything that you do into God’s hands, as if jumping from the Macau Tower which is 388 meters at its highest.

To be in Macau either as a missionary or a visitor is always exciting. I came to Macau this May to live and work here for a couple of weeks as part of my pastoral year. I really enjoy my time here. The Macau community consists of two Claretians – Fr. Alberto Rossa and Fr. Jojo Ancheril – and three Claretian co-workers, Ian Dacayanan and Ate Divine de Leon, working in the publications, and Ate Tess Pardo, in charge of the house. I help in editing the Chinese translation of the Bible. I had never worked like this, but after a few weeks of training I came to realize that it is exciting to work in publishing.

I am so impressed by them and the work they do. I see it as an adventure and a challenge. So why not come and face the challenge with me! If they can “safely” jump from the tower… why ever not join the missionary adventure… Impossible is nothing!

Bro. John, CMF is a Claretian seminarian from the East Asian Delegation presently doing his pastoral year. He has finished his second year of theology in Manila.

Welcome, John!

Claretian Fr. Jijo Kandamkulathil

A Claretian from North India, Fr. Jijo, CMF stayed in our community during the month of May. Let him tell you his experience:

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Somewhere around the South China Sea, a typhoon was in formation and the city of Zhuhai was in the grip of an untimely downpour on 23 May, when I (Fr. Jijo, cmf) first set foot on mainland China. I mumbled a little prayer for the land for which the Barbastro Martyrs offered their lives, nearly a century ago. Fr. Rossa woke me up from my ruminations with his typical hilarious voice, ‘Welcome to China.’ A five-minute drive from the border took us to our house by the sea side. It was high tide, so was my soul. Until then I had only a glimpse of our house from the Macau waterfront, almost every day that I stayed there. Going around the city gave me the feeling of a very eco-friendly development model with parks and gardens all along the roads. It was surprising to note that the taxi-driver who dropped us to our house from the border refused to take a little tip, which Fr. Rossa offered.

I came to Macau for my internship as part of my master’s studies in English. Teaching at Yuet Wah College was quite an experience. The internet-activated smart classrooms were new to me. But I got adjusted to them readily. While teaching, a certain reference to Punjab came about. One of the students was curious about what Punjab was like and its people. We had the ready reference on internet on Manmohan Singh the New Prime Minister of India which changed their idea of Punjab as a land of exotic curiosities. Students everywhere behave the same way. If they like your class you get their attention. Ill-prepared teachers beware, expect villainy according to their age.

Macau, home to the largest casino in the world, is a haven for gamblers. With a total land area of 28 sq. kms., it has 26 casinos, and the number is expected to increase by the end of this year. I went to some big casinos and felt dazed by the obscene use of wealth. I mused on my vow of poverty as I looked around those mansions of vice and greed. It is good to be poor, I realize, lest I build my own Babels of defiance.

Dear Jijo: You were an excellent companion in the community. We put you also to work: writing and editing for long hours and you did it with dedication and joy. THANKS!

From left: Ian, Jojo, Alberto, Tess, Jijo, Divine and John

Meanwhile Fr. Jojo in Hong Kong

These days Fr. Jojo is practicing his Cantonese going back and forth from Hong Kong to Macau. He is still studying while working at the parish of Christ the Worker in Hong Kong and, at the same time, beginning his new assignment at St. Lawrence Parish near our house in Macau, where the bishop of Macau asked him to help in order to improve his Cantonese language skills.

May 1 was the feast of the parish of Christ the Worker in Hong Kong. Here are some remembrances of the day:

Fr. Dominic Chen, Vicar General, Hong Kong

Fr. Thomas Peyton, MM - Parish Priest

Lunch Hong Kong

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A few days later it was Mothers’ Day celebration
and Jojo was at a home for the elderly in Hongkong.

Day of Recollection

Hong Kong Mother's Day

Jojo and his magic

Meet Ian Dacayanan – your blog designer

Divine shares about her teammate and co-worker:

Jack of all trades… an expert in so many things….

Let me share with you what our partner is doing during his extra time in Macau. Aside from being our artist in the Publications, he does other things in our office and community, even as he is also a volunteer in numerous activities in Macau. Since March, he has been like a doctor, nurse and a medical secretary every third Sunday of every month, recording the information of patients during the Free Medical Mission conducted by the Overseas Medical Center in Macau in coordination with the Filipino Pharmacists Association in Macau and in cooperation with the Philippine Overseas & Labor Office in Macau. Our other companion, Ate Tess Pardo also works as a volunteer in this in assisting the patients.

In the pastoral ministry to the Filipino migrants, he is the full-time artist, who does all the brochures, flyers, newsletters, and certificates, designs t-shirts, collates multi-media resource formation materials, and also the purchasing officer and coordinator with the printing press in China. Even without knowing the language, he can bargain for a good price for whatever we need in our pastoral ministry. He has also built a relationship with some middlemen in Zhuhai, who help us get what we need, whether it’s printing job, signage, souvenir items for some speakers, you name it and he’s got it all for you! He too is our photographer.

To his friends, he is their source of information and consultant, creating and editing résumés for them, application letters, visa processing, labor law consulting, finding cheap airline tickets, and the ever-available and always-willing tourist guide (not only to his friends but to the guests of our community as well).

To the “young once,” he has that special charisma for them, as he patiently listens to their stories and helps them in their need, making him their darling and favorite grandson.

This is our Jack – our Ian of all trades and expert in so many things… So we always tell him, “What will happen to us if you are not around…”

Well, he does most of these things during his free time. During office hours he has other assignments: today (May 26) he finished layouting the Chinese Daily Gospel 2010. How can he do it without knowing Chinese? Well… “impossible is nothing”!

Here is the Chinese Daily Gospel 2010

Here you see the cover for 2010.
As we write, the files have been sent to the press for
at least 25,000 copies that will be distributed in
Mainland China, Singapore, Malaysia,
Taiwan, Hong Kong, Macau, and Canada…

Half a million and counting…

Books recently published

This month of May we finished several books that were sent or are about to be sent to the press in China. We average half a million books printed in China every year, most of them bibles.

Recently 80,000 copies of Diario Bíblico 2010 left for 20 international ports. Also somewhere on the oceans are other titles: “Praying with St. Paul – Acts of the Apostles and Lectio Divina” (a co publication with Paulist Press); “Salmos y Primera Carta de Pedro” for our Bishop Ruben Medina of Puerto Rico; “Mi Hora Santa Eucarística,” a book by Fr. Pedro Garcia CMF. There are 50,000 copies of the Christian Community Bible arriving in the Philippines, this time printed in India with the help of Fr. Benny Kanjirakatt, Director of Claretian Publications in Bangalore. There are thousands of La Biblia de Nuestro Pueblo on the way to different ports and also on the way to the press once again, as we continue answering the big demand for this bestseller. And, last but not least, the work that has taken countless hours and efforts: The New Testament in Creyol. Thanks to the tireless work of our missionaries in Haiti, Marta and Anibal and their teams, soon they will have the fruit of their labor.

Here is the cover.

Creyol New Testament cover

Meanwhile we are working hard on the revised edition of the Chinese Pastoral Bible, and other projects… but we shall leave some news for the next month.

Just marvelous!

Take a look at these videos…
(Thanks to my friends from Argentina!)

They are shouting:
“Impossible is nothing”!

Chinese Deaf Dancers

www.youtube.com/watch?v=xgHmSdpjEIk

The 21 Chinese dancers are deaf-mute.
They receive instructions from the four corners of the stage.
They have already performed in more than 40 countries

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Some more:

Britain's Got Talent: Scala sexiest musician ladies
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vx9lTR6yzVI&feature=related


Britain's Got Talent: Gin the clever funny dog
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1kKnNyJvRAY


Britain's Got Talent: Susan Boyle’s “I Dreamed a Dream”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=31yzafJerZk

Britain's Got Talent: Paul Potts’ “Nessun Dorma”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=USRw5FQJuG0