Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies since 1927
Hong Kong (Agenzia Fides) –Mrs Stephanie Ling, of the parish of St. Margaret in Hong Kong on 18 December will receive the missionary mandate of the Hong Kong Catholic Lay Missionary Association to spend three years on a mission in Calcutta, India. The news was given at the recent Annual Meeting of the Association, the 23rd, and the meeting of spiritual formation for evangelization abroad. According to information gathered by Fides, Stephania Ling will be the fourth lay of the Association to go on a mission at this period, the other three are in fact already in Cambodia, Thailand and Kenya. At the same meeting Rev. Pierre Lam Minh, MEP, General Vicar of the diocese with a long missionary experience in Vietnam, presented to fifty participants, "the situation of the Vietnamese Church", and Fr. Giovanni Giampietro, PIME, spoke on the testimony of the faith of the laity through the works of charity.
According to information provided by the Association, this lay missionary experience was born in 1988 with the Gospel motto "Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature" (Mark 16:15). It was the first lay association that sent lay missionaries abroad. Until now there have been 11 lay people who have responded generously to the call of Christ paying the service of evangelization in Africa (Zimbabwe, Mauritius, Kenya) and Asia (Cambodia and Thailand). The objectives of the Association are: To answer the call of Christ as a lay person in Hong Kong by putting all the effort in the mission of evangelization; to be with the poor by helping them know how much they are worth, dignity and abilities given by God; to help the missionary areas achieve self-sufficiency through evangelization, fostering the growth of a mature local Church. (NZ) (Agenzia Fides 25/11/2011)
