ASIA/CHINA.100 years of the Maryknoll missionaries: their first foundation was in China

Shi Jia Zhuang (Agenzia Fides) - Catholics in China's mainland, which was the first foundation of the Maryknoll missionaries abroad, participate with great joy and gratitude to the Lord in the celebration of 100 years of the Society for Foreign Missions of the United States of America, whose members are known just as "the Maryknoll Missionaries" MM (29 June 1911-29 June 2011). According to reports sent to Fides by Faith of He Bei , which has dedicated a memorial and thanking the missionaries who have contributed greatly to the mission in China and are still active in this area, there are a series of celebrations to mark the event.
Over the past 20 years, through the Chinese Seminary Teachers & Formators Project, in collaboration with the local Church, the Maryknoll missionaries have formed in America many bishops, priests, religious women and Chinese lay in China, giving a further contribution to the evangelization today. In fact, once they finished the course, they all returned to China and became protagonists of the mission today.
The Society for Foreign Missions of the United States of America, or Maryknoll MM, is the first American missionary congregation, which was founded by Father James Anthony Walsh (1867-1936) and Fr Thomas Frederick Price (1860-1919) in 1911 in New York, USA, and approved by Propaganda Fide, on June 29 of that year. On September 3, 1917, Fr. James A. Walsh left for China in search of a possible venue for the first house outside America. On September 7, 1918 the first four Maryknoll missionaries left for the mission in China, settling in the district of Jiang Yang, in the Guang Dong province. In the following years, the Holy See entrusted the Maryknoll missionaries with 5 dioceses, from south to north. After 1949, the missionaries moved from mainland to Taiwan: today there are 32 missionaries working in the diocese of Tai Pei, Hsin Chu, Tai Nan, Kao Hsiung, in the field of pastoral care and social service. The Maryknoll missionaries arrived in Hong Kong in 1918. Today the community has 25 priests, 3 religious brothers, who have always worked in education, pastoral and missionary field. According to Faith, the Maryknoll Missionary Society has more than 30 houses with 550 members, priests and religious, active in Africa, America, Asia, with a house in Rome. The mother house is in New York. In addition to priests and religious, nuns and lay people are also part of the religious family of Maryknoll. (NZ) (Agenzia Fides 30/06/2011)