100 years of the Maryknoll missionaries: their first foundation was in China

Fr. Brian Barrons M.M. presiding over the
Eucharistic Celebration at Stanly

Catholics in China's mainland, which was the first foundation of the Maryknoll missionaries abroad, participate with great joy and gratitude to the Lord in the celebration of 100 years of the Society for Foreign Missions of the United States of America, whose members are known just as "the Maryknoll Missionaries" MM (29 June 1911-29 June 2011).

Fr. Luis Ruiz S.J (98) [seated on the right] was a special
guest at the Centenary Celebrations

The Society for Foreign Missions of the United States of America, or Maryknoll MM, is the first American missionary congregation, which was founded by Father James Anthony Walsh (1867-1936) and Fr Thomas Frederick Price (1860-1919) in 1911 in New York, USA, and approved by Propaganda Fide, on June 29 of that year.

From the Eucharistic Celebration

The Maryknoll missionaries arrived in Hong Kong in 1918. Today the community has 25 priests, 3 religious brothers, who have always worked in education, pastoral and missionary field.

Chat time...!

The Maryknoll Missionary Society has more than 30 houses with 550 members, priests and religious, active in Africa, America, Asia, with a house in Rome. The mother house is in New York. In addition to priests and religious, nuns and lay people are also part of the religious family of Maryknoll. - Courtesy: Agenzia Fides, 30 June 2011

Fr. Tony Brennan's 50th Anniversary of Ordination

Fr. Anthony Vincent Brennan, MM

Fr. Tony Brennan is a Maryknoll priest and good friend of the Claretians, ever since our priests began their stay in his parish at Ngau Tau Kok, Hong Kong for their Cantonese classes in the Chinese University in 2007. Earlier Fr. Jojo and now Frs. Ezakias and Jose stay in Christ the Worker Parish at Ngau Tau Kok, where Fr. Tony serves as the Assistant Parish Priest. He is also in-charge of one of the Maryknoll Schools in Hong Kong.

From the Jubilee Celebrations at Ngau Tau Kok:
Fr. Tony cuts the cake

He was ordained a priest June 10, 1961. Fr. Anthony Vincent Brennan was born on March 25, 1935 in Brooklyn, New York, the son of Patrick and Margaret Doogan Brennan. He graduated from Cardinal Hayes High School in the Bronx, New York in 1952 and entered Maryknoll in September or that same year.Tony was ordained a Maryknoll priest on June 10, 1961.

Fr. Tony with a Memento, presented by the Parishioners

We sincerely thank Fr. Tony for his great support and encouragement he offers us. With his great sense of humour, he brings cheer to all around him. Congratulations and Prayerful wishes, dear Fr. Tony on your Jubilee

The solemnity of Corpus Christi: An opportunity for evangelization

More than 2,000 faithful attended the solemn Eucharistic procession from the parish of Fan Ga Da, of the diocese of Xian Xian (today Cang Zhou), in the province of He Bei.

Faithful carry the statue of Our Lady at the beginning of the
Eucharistic Procession in Hong Kong

His Excellancy. Mgr. Joseph Li Lian Gui, Bishop of the diocese of Xian Xian, presided over the celebration of the Holy Mass in the parish of Zhao Lin An, concelebrated by 12 diocesan priests. Four altars in the four main points of the village were set up, where many of the faithful gathered for the prolonged Eucharistic adoration.

A Scene of the Eucharistic Procession at Pokfulahm Road, Hong Kong

Mgr. Li also led the solemn Eucharistic procession along the whole village. Many non-Christian farmers attended the religious event, which was thus transformed into an opportunity for evangelization.

Cardinal Joseph Zen Ze-kiun, S.D.B. leading the Eucharistic Procession in Hong Kong

The parish of Gao Shan Lu of the Diocese of Liao Ning, dedicated to the Body and Blood of Christ, celebrated on this occasion its first year of life. In fact, the parish church was consecrated and opened just a year ago. During the solemn celebration, the pastor gave the mandate to 19 lay volunteers so "they help priests and religious women to improve the structure of the parish, to promote Eucharistic spirituality of the parishioners with the Eucharistic adoration and the reading of the Word of God, to put into practice evangelism in everyday life through the testimony of love and service".

Cardinal Joseph Zen Ze-kiun, S.D.B. leading the Eucharistic Procession

In Hong Kong, the Celebration of the Solemnity began with the Eucharistic Adoration and Confessions at 2 pm at the Sacred Heart Canossian College, Pokfulam.

Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament at Our Lady of the Rosary Church

The Eucharistic Celebration at 3 pm., presided over by His Excellancy Cardinal Joseph Zen Ze-kiun, S.D.B. was attended by over 800 faithful. The Eucharistic Procession from the Sacred Heart College to Our Lady of the Rosary Church, Kennedy Town was indeed an instance of one's own profession of faith and an act of evangelization.

Fr. Francois Barriquand joins our Chinese Bible Project

We are very happy to have Fr. Francois Barriquand helping the Chinese Bible projects. Fr. Francois Barriquand is a MEP, a Scientist and Biblical Scholar, with fluent Mandarin and Cantonese, had been conducting researches in the Centre for Catholic Studies in the Chinese University of Hong Kong.

Fr. Francois Barriquand

Fr. Francois is very happy to associate with us in spreading the Word of God for Chinese people in the contemporary world. The MEPs have the great history of starting a very early Chinese translation of the New testament in Sichuan, China around the year 1700.

Fr. Francois with our Chinese Editor Winnie Wong [Right]

Currently, he is in Paris, pursuing his research in Physics and Philosophy on the topic: The New Proofs for the Existence of God: Contributions of Contemporary Physics and Philosophy. We wish Fr. Francois the very best in his research.

The Nobel Peace Prize for Archbishop Menamparampil? Why not!

The Claretian Community of Macau had a special visitor in the Month of June 2011. Archbishop Thomas Menamparampil, President of the Conference of Bishops of North East India and of the Commission for Education and Culture of the Indian Bishops’ Conference (CBCI) was in Macau last Month.

Fr. Rossa with Archbishop Thomas Menamparampil, SDB

We have the following news from the ANS - Rome:

(ANS – Rome) – In recent days the numbers of voices being raised for the candidature of the Salesian Archbishop Thomas Menamparampil of Guwahati, for the Nobel Peace Prize has been increasing. Official confirmation of this comes from the spokesperson of the Indian Bishops’ Conference (CBCI), Fr Joseph Babu Karakombil, as quoted by the Fides Agency.

“It would be a fitting recognition of his commitment and dedication for over 25 years to the building of peace and harmony” “For decades Archbishop Menamparampil has worked tirelessly for peace, reconciliation and stability in north east India, a region marked by constant territorial conflicts and tribal warfare. His work is recognized by religious and civil leaders at local level and is known and appreciated throughout India and Asia. Peace and reconciliation, in the name of the Gospel, are the mission to which he has dedicated his whole life. For this reason the Indian Bishops support whole-heartedly his candidature for the Nobel Peace Prize.”

At present, Bishop Menamparampil chairs the Commission for Evangelization of Peoples at the Federation of Asian Bishop's Conference (FABC)

Enjoy an amazing piece of Chinese Dance!

Welcome to the Macau-China Bulletin, June 2011

Dear Friends, you know that China is a large and very complex country; and it is considered to be the final frontier for the Church. Perhaps you may have already learned, for example, that China has one of the greatest networks of rail lines in the whole world…; recently, they have inaugurated a special route between Shanghai and Beiging (1300 klms.) and the speed train covers the distance in 5 hours, and such other news of the sort. These and the similar news reach you by other means and Media.

We, through this blog, want to share also 'the small news' of our Christian communities in this large and great land. They are drops in the ocean, but they are ferment of the transformation of the Christian communities in the Mainland. And these are the news that you will not have access to through the regular news Media. Welcome to the June 2011 issue of the Macau Bulletin:-

The explosion… of the Word

This happened in Datong, but before a little history...

Datong is situated in northern Shanxi Province. It is bordered by Inner Mongolia to the North and Hebei Province to the east. Covering an area of 14,176 square kilometers (5473 square miles), Datong has four districts and seven counties under its prefecture.
It is the second largest city in Shanxi Province with a population of 2.99 million.

Known as the 'City of the Coal', Datong has developed into the second largest industrial city in Shanxi due to its advantage in energy. Its large reserves of coal make it a very important energy base for China. Datong is one of the 24 famous historical and cultural cities in China due to its ever prosperous history.

The Hanging Gardens, Datong

By the end of March, 2011, the diocese of Datong, China organized a Bible Study seminar. About 160 participants between 20 to 60 years, including university students attended the seminar. This was the first time the Diocese organize a Bible study seminar of this sort. By the end of the seminar, they promised that they would read the Bible everyday by following the methods taught during the sessions.

The Budha Caves

The Religious Sister who conducted the Bible seminar had this to say: "To proclaim the Gospel of Jesus is like throwing a bomb. Wherever the first Christians threw the bomb, it exploded and many were converted to Christianity, as recorded in the Acts of the Apostles, 3000 people were baptized after the speech of St. Peter (3:37-41), and another 5000 were added later. Today I see the bomb is exploding among you, since all of you are so attentively studying the Bible, I see hope in all of you! ”

Towards the New Evangelization

Jinzhong in the Province of Zhanxi. The City has
about 100,000 inhabitants

Participants of the Evangelizers' Training Program

In the Month of April this year, the diocese of Jinzhong in the province of Zhanxi has organized for the tenth time 'The evangelizers' training program. The training camp was held for eight days attended by 148 participants including priests, nuns and the lay leaders. The training session was organized with the theme: “How to be and evangelizer in today's China”

150 Roses

On 8 May 2011, the second Sunday of Easter, was also the Mother’s Day. The Haikou parish priest celebrated special Mass for all the mothers of the parish. In his homily, the parish priest, Fr. Yang praised the mothers who dedicate their life to their families, and encouraged them to continue to live a life after the example of Mary, the Mother of Jesus, and to take the great responsibility of being mothers.

From the Celebration of the Mothers' Day

After the Mass, the priest greeted all the mothers with a rose. There are about 150 roses were given to the mothers together with the blessing of God.

Hǎikǒu (Chinese: 海口), is the capital city of Hainan Province, People's Republic of China. It is situated on the north east coast of Hainan island, and had an estimated population of 1.8 million in 2010, making it by far the largest city on the island. Hainan is formed by different islands.