ASIA/LAOS – CHRISTIAN MINORITY GROUPS IN REMOTE AREAS KEEP FAITH ALIVE THANKS TO RADIO VERITAS AND THE MISSIONARY OBLATES OF MARY IMMACULATE

Monday, 12 January 2004

Vientiane (Fides Service) –Hmong peoples living in remote mountain areas of Laos, mostly Catholics, listen to the Gospel and pray the Rosary thanks to Asia’s furthest reaching Catholic Radio service Radio Veritas, broadcast from Manila. Hmong programmes on Radio Veritas are co-ordinated by Father Daniel Taillez a member of the Oblate Missionaries of Mary Immaculate.
His pastoral ministry among the Hmong continues thanks to Radio Veritas which has a range of 6.000 km. and broadcasts in 17 different language programmes including Chinese, Vietnamese, Urdu, Hindi Indonesian, Russian and Hmong
Hmong programmes were started in 1994 by Father Yves Bertrais, for Hmong speaking Catholics in China, Vietnam, Laos and Thailand. Padre Bertrais began by broadcasting passages of the Old and New Testament, homilies on the Sunday Gospel to keep the flame of faith alive in remotest areas many without priests for years .
Today, thanks to Father Daniel Taillez, these 25 minute programmes have been enriched with prayers, lives of the saints, teaching from the Catechism of the Catholic Church, traditional music and songs and well as news.
“My dream – Father Taillez told Fides– is to return to Laos and China. I would like to know how many listeners we have, what they think of our programmes and what they would like to hear. We receive little post from those remote areas. But then the people are poor and even sending a letter is a difficult undertaking. But the letters we do receive are all full of thanks ad encouragement.”.
(PA) (Fides Service 12/1/2004 lines 51 words 512)


Share: