ASIA/CHINA - New impetus from the first workshop of Evangelization

Thursday, 6 July 2017 missionary animation   orders   priests   laity   local churches  

Faith

Pechino (Agenzia Fides) - It is time to give new impetus to missionary mobilization, nourished by the Word of God and by prayer, led by the Holy Spirit, with greater involvement of the laity: are the reflections of the participants in the First Workshop of Evangelization, organized by the Union of Major Superiors of Religious Women's Institutes in continental China. From 21 to 25 June, 51 religious women met in Beijing, from 19 religious congregations, 17 priests and about twenty lay people active in the pastoral and missionary life.
According to the information gathered by Agenzia Fides, thanks to the direct witness of nuns, priests and lay people involved, the participants reflected on various aspects of evangelization during the workshop: in the urban context, of the rural world, the media, young people, the apostolate, proclamation... the director of Faith, Don John Battista Zhang, who collects the statistics of the baptized every year in China, made everyone reflect, and asked: "With a billion and 300 million people , aren’t the 30/50 thousand baptized a year, too few?".
Starting from this question, the participants analyzed problems, difficulties and obstacles that slow down evangelization, discussed the role of the parish, catechism, catechists, evangelization groups of the basic ecclesial communities. Everyone agreed that nuns have a natural gift to bring Christ's love to the people, with their extraordinary dedication and ability to communicate the spirit of love of the Gospel. What was highlighted was that today the laity are very active and important with regards to evangelization in the contemporary world.
During the reflection, Sister Nan Ying Hui of the Congregation of the Presentation of Our Lady of Shang Hai, said: "I am aware of the "Missionary urgency". The nuns of Shan Xi and Inner Mongolia added another priority: "We must always improve ourselves, as religious, in the knowledge and deepening of faith towards the laity. Today's laity is extraordinary, both at a theoretical and practical level, of evangelization".
"Gratitude and mobilization" are the two terms that participants took home: immense gratitude to the Lord for all the achievements obtained so far and the mobilization to evangelize with new enthusiasm. (NZ) (Agenzia Fides, 06/07/2017)


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