Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies since 1927
Nan An (Agenzia Fides) - On the feast day of Saint Therese of Lisieux, patron saint of the missions Fr Lin Yong Quan, parish priest St Therese Catholic parish in Quan Zhou in the province of Fu Jian, in the south east of mainland China organised great celebrations and told his parishioners “Every Catholic is invited to cooperate more closely with joyful announcing of the Gospel. I hope we will all do as the Pope has asked and be missionaries of life carrying Christ to everyone”. On October 1, taking advantage of the long 1 October National Holiday, many Catholics in Quan Zhou set out early make a pilgrimage to St Therese's Catholic parish in Jin Tao and begin the month of mission and missionary brotherhood. In his homily during mass the parish priest made several references to the letter which Pope Benedict XVI addressed to Cardinal Ivan Dias prefect of the Congregation for the Evangelisation of Peoples on the occasion of the Year of Mission organised in Lisieux for 2007. He explained the importance of Saint Therese of Lisieux to whom Chinese Catholics are very devoted: “In unity with the universal Church we celebrate the 80th anniversary of Saint Therese's proclamation as Patron Saint of the Missions. As the Pope recalls ‘although she never left her convent, with her contemplative prayer and correspondence with a few missionary priest she was an authentic missionary and she offered the world a new spiritual 'way' which earned her the title of Doctor of the Church ten years ago. We must follow her example: ‘with prayer and life witness and Christian commitment in all its many forms, every Catholic is a missionary and vocations are born to announce the Gospel to those who have yet to hear it ”.
The area of Quan Zhou was evangelised 300 years ago by Franciscan, Augustinian, Jesuit and Dominican missionaries. (NZ) (Agenzia Fides 11/10/2007 - righe 27, parole 366)
