Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies since 1927
Tai Yuan (Agenzia Fides) - “A small community like yours has evangelised 400 of your co-citizens in only ten years. This is wonderful, you are wonderful! But we must remember our country has a population of 1.3 billion, Catholics are less than 1%. This is a challenge for all of us in every field”. These words were pronounced by the Bishop of Tai Yuan, during a Mass to celebrate 10 years of evangelisation in the community of Bei Han on 20 October with the participation of about 1,000 Catholics and 16 concelebrant priests.
The small community of Bei Han is in the parish of Feng Sheng He, diocese of Tai Yuan. This is a mining area and the people are very humble. Ten years ago there were no Catholics here. Today there is a community of 400, there is an evangelisation Centre with 12 evangelisation groups. The groups engage in mission activity periodically, guided by priests and lay catechists: “the priest is a point of reference for everyone. - a local priest told Fides - He must know how to lead the community. We have wonderful lay people who accompany catechumens during the period of catechism. This Easter we will have seventy adult baptisms. The community is effective because it is united with a clear purpose, evangelisation. We Catholics need to grow in spiritually to be able to respond to the need foe evangelisation”. (NZ) (Agenzia Fides 29/10/2007 - righe 33, parole 422 )
