Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies since 1927
Hong Kong (Agenzia Fides) – The Paris Foreign Missions Society (MEP) is celebrating this year its 350th anniversary of foundation of their Asian missions. According to a report from the Kong Ko Bao (the Chinese version of the diocesan bulletin), on October 1, the feast of the Patroness of the Missions, Saint Therese of the Child Jesus, the MEP community in Hong Kong celebrated a special Mass in the Cathedral, attended by local Catholics, in which three fundamental tasks of society were affirmed: spirituality, pastoral activity, and mission. The Vice-Superior General, Fr. G. Colomb, along with Fr. Pierre Lam Minh, Provincial Superior for the Chinese Province of MEP and some 50 priests, concelebrated the Mass which was attended by over 7,000 faithful, among whom were many Vietnamese immigrants who had received a solid formation from the MEP. Fr. B de Terves, the youngest in the MEP community in Hong Kong, presented the relic of the Bishop and Martyr Gabriel Taurin Dufresse, symbolizing the missionary flame passed on from generation to generation.
The Paris Foreign Missions Society has organized various events for this important anniversary, including the presentation of a documentary on the history of the Asian missions, especially in China, presented by the religious themselves in the parishes. According to the MEP missionaries, “there have been over 1200 religious in China, about 200 martyred or killed on Chinese territory. Among them, there are 23 blesseds, and 20 canonized by John Paul II.” According to a Vietnamese immigrant who arrived in 1979, with the arrival of many Vietnamese refugees, “the missionaries took care of them, having a Mass in Vietnamese every week and visiting the immigrant fishermen.”
Founded in 1659 in Paris, by two French priests: Pierre Lambert de la Motte (1624 - 1679) and François Pallu (1626 - 1684), the Paris Foreign Missions Society (MEP) was the first Society of apostolic life that dedicated itself completely to foreign missions, in the history of the Catholic Church. Approved by the Holy See on August 11, 1664, they reached Fu Jian (China) in 1680 and Hong Kong in 1847. The MEP founded many dioceses, including: Cheng Du, Shen Yang, Kang Ding, Chong Quing, Guang Zhou, Ning Yuang, Kun Ming, Ji Lin, Shan Tong. Many missionaries wished to be buried in China, after having dedicated their entire lives, some crowned with martyrdom, as was the case of Bishop Gabriel Taurin Dufresse, Fr. Augusto Chapdelaine, and Fr. Giovanni Pietro Neel. The Chinese people have a great gratitude towards them and it is a source of renewed strength in evangelizing. Agenzia Fides will soon publish a dossier on the 350 years of missionary activity of the Paris Foreign Missions Society. (NZ) (Agenzia Fides 13/10/2008)
