OUR LADY OF FATIMA CELEBRATION

  As in previous years, the Diocese of Macau celebrated the Feast of Our Lady of Fatima on May 13 with a High Mass and a Procession through the streets of Macau: From the Cathedral to the Church of Nossa Senhora da Penha, or Our Lady of Penha. Our Bishop Jose Lai, DD, led us in the concelebrated Mass in the Macau Cathedral and in the Procession.

  Our Priory of St. Dominic participated in both celebrations. The great majority of our priests and brothers were significantly present. A good multitude of people attended the Mass and the Procession (the most popular in Macau), particularly the hundreds of members of the Portuguese community in Macau, which was a Portuguese colony until 1999.

  The Procession ended in front of the Church in the Penha Hill with the Consecration to Our Lady and the Bishop’s Blessing of the City of Macau with the Blessed Sacrament. It was a beautiful day dedicated to Our Lady of Fatima. May she continue blessing the citizens of Macau and in particular its thousands of Catholics, so that we all may witness in our lives Christ’s message of respect, freedom, kindness and compassion.

Silver – Golden Jubilees Macau 2012

  Every year at this time, on the “Good Shepherd´s Sunday” (fourth Sunday of Easter), the Church celebrates the “Day of the Consecrated Life”, when women and men religious, renew their promises (sometimes of long ago…) and ask the Lord to help them be faithful to Him and to their fellow men and women until the very end of their lives. They also beg the “Good Shepherd” to increase their diminishing numbers, so that they can reach farther and deeper in their task of  the construction of his Kingdom.

  In Macau, this ceremony is usually marked by great solemnity, for not only it offers the Religious the opportunity to gather together in communion, but also the joy of honoring those of their “mature” members who are celebrating this year their Silver Jubilee, or the Golden Anniversary of their profession, or ordination. All this, within the frame and the joy of a Solemn Mass, presided by the Bishop himself, with the assistance of numerous faithful Catholics, animated and led in the chant by a very professional outstanding choir.

    This year, the Dominican Family of Macau, all of us present for the occasion, had an extra motive for joy: to the surprise of many, for he still looks very young and full of enthusiasm, fr Fausto Gómez, OP, was among those Golden Jubilarians (the only man among six women!), so ostensibly thanked and acclaimed by the assembly present at the Eucharist. He will soon celebrate the 50 years of his Ordination to the Priesthood. Those of us who know him closely, can attest that those have been 50 very laborious and fruitful years of fidelity to the Lord and of happy and unceasing dedication to teaching and preaching his Word, and of  service to His children.

Congratulations, Brother Fausto, and “ad multos annos”!

Dominican Community. Macau.

CHRONICLE OF ST. DOMINIC’S PRIORY(January-April, 2012)

NEW YEAR 2012 – We began the New Year half an hour before midnight of December 2011 and January 2012. Before the Blessed Sacrament, all the Members of St. Dominic’s Priory said Good-Bye” to 2011 with their gratitude to God, to one another and to so many wonderful people who accompanied us on the journey of life. Forty seconds before twelve, we ate the traditional grapes and wish one another a Happy New Year. May it be so for us and for all!

On January 14, Fr. Jose Luis de Miguel, OP, arrived in our Priory. Fr. Jose Luis comes after finishing his apostolate in Chile, where he worked for the Kingdom for about twenty seven years. He will be the new Moderator of Studies and also the Assistant Master of Students. A most cordial and fraternal welcome!

CHINESE NEW YEAR – On January 22 in the evening we celebrated the coming of the Chinese New Year with a sumptuous dinner. We had a short program in which all the members of the community and the support staff received from the Prior Fr. Alex the traditional “laisi(red envelope)”. The Chinese New year, the Lunar New Year, represent the most significant holidays for all the Chinese throughout the world. Known as “the Spring Festival,” it is above all a family celebration. This year of 2012 is the Year of the Dragon, and therefore, a prosperous, successful and happy year. May it be so for all of us working with and among our Chinese brothers and sisters!

GENERAL ASSEMBLY, PAV – On February 11, 2012, Fr. Fausto Gomez, OP went to Rome for the Annual Conference and General Assembly of the Pontifical Academy for Life (PAV), of which he is a member, since 2000. The topic of the Conference was: “Management of Infertility Today.” After PAV Assembly, Fr. Fausto stayed for a few days at our community in Via Condotti and was able to see that our four students pursuing postgraduate studies – three at the Angelicum and one at the Sancta Croce University – are fine and doing very well in their studies. They are Brothers Edmund, Philip and John Bosco, and Fr.  Krzysztof Wojciech.

ST PAUL SCHOOL “CLASSROOM 2012 PROJECT” – The Partnership Signature Ceremony for the innovating “Saint Paul School Classroom 2012 Project” was held at the school hall on 28 March, 2012 It was witnessed by Most Reverend Don Jose Lai (Bishop of Macau), Fr. Javier Gonzalez (Provincial of Our Lady of the Rosary Province) and Mr. William Wai (Adviser of Office of the Secretary for Social Affairs and Culture of Macau). The Director of the Education Department, the Principal of Saint Paul School, representatives from Macau University of Science and Technology, Microsoft, DyKnow, Mediasite, Automated, H3C, Lenovo and Hp compromised in partnership for the further development and implementation of the “Classroom 2012 Project”. Fr. Alejandro Salcedo, OP, Principal of the School of Saint Paul and the moving spirit behind the project presented the vision of the “Classroom 2012 project”. He said that the vision was born after realizing that the current traditional approach of the School to learning and teaching was not addressing fully the technological needs of our 21st Century students and ICT was not improving the quality of education of our students. It was visualized, he added, on the requirement to review our curriculum and pedagogical practices to accommodate new learning and teaching styles aiming to develop systems and structures that excite, engage and motivate our students and increase parental involvement. With the implementation of the project the School has passed from the traditional single-source paper textbooks and moved towards electronic based textbooks so that students will be able to reference information from multiple sources. Likewise, the a 1:1 table-pc to student ratio enable students to use their own table-pc at home and at school in a technology-rich learning environment. Most Reverend Bishop Jose, Lai, the Director of the Macau Education Department Ms. Leong Lai and the representative from Microsoft gave an opening speech each praising and thanking Saint Paul School for the innovative, challenging and unique project in Asia and Europe. After the ceremony all guests were invited to the classrooms where they could eyewitness the project in action.

 

HOLY WEEK AND EASTER – The Priory celebrated the Triduum of Holy Week and Easter (April 5-8) with great solemnity and devotion. We were accompanied at our Masses and other liturgical services by a good number of faithful who filled our chapel. After the Easter Vigil celebration, the faithful attending the Mass were invited to partake of our simple and plentiful table. For its part, the University of Saint Joseph had its Easter Mass on Easter Tuesday with the Bishop of Macau, Bishop Jose Lai as main celebrant and our students as the choir.

 

USJ CELEBRATES ITS PATRON’S FEAST – The Catholic University of Saint Joseph (USJ) of Macau celebrated the Feast of its Patron Saint, St. Joseph on March 16, 2012. The simple celebration centered on the Concelebrated Mass held at the University’s Speakers Hall at noon. The Eucharist was presided by His Excellency the Most Reverend José Lai, Bishop of Macau. It was concelebrated by seven priests-religious from the Society of the Divine Word (SVD) and the Order of Preachers (OP). About one hundred people, including professors, students and the administrative staff attended the Mass. The students of the USJ School of Christian Studies animated the celebration with appropriate songs and prayers.

 RELIGIOUS MEN AND WOMEN IN MACAU – On April 13, 2012, the religious men and women working in Macau had a meaningful Easter Celebration at the St. Joseph Seminary Hall. The evening program included: The Exposition and Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament; a short talk, and a fraternal agape. As the previous one for Christmas, the celebration was prayerful, serene and joyful. Fr. Jose Ruíz Márquez, CFM, talked briefly on The Birth of Christ: The Acts of the Apostles Yesterday and Today. All the religious congregations present contributed food and drinks to the common table. Our Priory was represented by some priests and student brothers.

OUR VISITORS – Fr. Provincial stayed with us from January 4 to January 23, while he taught Canon Law at the University of Saint Joseph. Fr. Jerome from the community of Binondo, Manila, was with us for a few days in January. Fr. Augusto Antolinez, OP, from the Community in Avila, was also with us a few days in Jan. Luciano Lopez, a well-known Spanish lawyer visited us on January 25 and stayed with us for some weeks. He was a Dominican and loves the Dominican life. Fr. Felicisimo Martinez, OP, lived with us over one month (March-April), while teaching The Trinity and Christology at the University of Saint Joseph. Fr. Secundino Vicente visits us every month to be available for spiritual direction for our students. We are also happy to mention that brothers from the two Dominican communities in Hong Kong and the communities in China visit us from time to time. We were happy receiving some of the brothers who participated in the meetings of the Commission on Formation (April 16-17, 2012) and of the Extraordinary Council of the Province (April 18-19, 2012). Both important meetings were held at our Convent of Saint Albert in Rosaryhill, Hong Kong. (FGB)

(For these and other news and developments you may wish to visit our web page:  www.dominicansmacau.org )

“Explosive” growth in S. Korean Catholics may be world’s fastest’

There may be no other country in the world that over the past half century has seen growth as sustained as that of South Korea, including conversions to Christ. From 1960 to 2010, the number of inhabitants went from 23 to 48 million; per capita income from 1,300 to 19,500 dollars; Christians from 2 to 30 percent, of which about 10-11 percent, 5.5 million, are Catholic; there were 250 Korean priests, today there are 5,000. I first went to South Korea in 1986 with Fr. Pino Cazzaniga, a missionary of the Pontifical Institute for Foreign Missions in Japan, who speaks Korean.

Even back then it was a Church with many conversions, and it is still so today. Every parish has from 200 to 400 baptisms of converts from Buddhism each year. Most of the converts are city dwellers. Each year there are 130-150 new priests, one for every 1,110 baptized. In 2008, the proportion of Catholics exceeded 10 percent of South Koreans, and grows by about 3 percent each year. In 2009, the number of baptized reached 157,000, and 149 priests were ordained, 21 more than in 2008. More than two thirds of the priests are under the age of 40.

“Over the past ten years, the Catholic Church in Korea has gone from three to five million faithful; in Seoul we are 14 percent,” Cardinal Nicholas Cheong Jin-suk, archbishop of Seoul, has said in an interview. The Catholic Church in South Korea is the one that is growing most vigorously in Asia.

Full Story: South Korea, the Asian Tiger of the Church [Note: the text of this article appears after a lengthy preamble by Sandro Magister. Please scroll down through the article to reach it.]

Source: Chiesa Espresso/La Repubblica

Article taken from ucanews.com – http://www.ucanews.com
URL to article: http://www.ucanews.com/2012/04/19/explosive-growth-in-s-korean-catholics-may-be-worlds-fastest/