Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies since 1927
Beijing (Agenzia Fides) – Home visits to poor families, to lonely elderly and sick persons, Catholics and non ; carrying the sacraments to faithful unable to reach the church; community prayer meetings of thanksgiving for the fruits of evangelisation over the past year: these and other activities are involving the faithful in Catholic communities all over the continent on the occasion of the Chinese New Year.
According to information obtained by Fides , several parishes in the diocese of Ji Ning, Inner Mongolia, despite intense cold and thick ice, paid home visits and offered assistance to inmates at the Old People’s Home, to people in the most remote Catholic villages, to families of priests and women religious, to demonstrate gratitude and community support for their vocations. In Nan Chong diocese a new year Mass of thanksgiving was celebrated on 12 February. Before and after the Mass local priests and sisters formed groups to carry the sacraments to elderly and the sick Catholics “as a sign of the Lord’s love for them and to live out the teaching of Jesus”. The diocese of Zhou Zhi, in Shaan Xi province also organised home visits to the elderly and to poor families.
Since this year Ash Wednesday, day of fasting and prayer which opens the Season of Lent fell on 18 February and coincided with the eve of the Chinese New Year, the Liturgy Commission of the Regional Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Taiwan suggested “substituting the fast with an act of charity”.
From 13 to 19 February the traditional New Year market held in Victoria Park in Hong Kong, hosted an “Evangelisation Stand”, run the local members of Catholic Action. As every year volunteers distributed New Year leaflets and small objects carrying Gospel verses and good wishes connected with evangelisation .
Pope Francis, in Rome, at the end of the midday Angelus prayer on Sunday 15 February, sent “wishes of serenity and peace to men and women in the Far East and in various parts of the rest of the world, preparing to celebrate Lunar New Year”.
(NZ) (Agenzia Fides 2015/02/21)
