ASIA/CHINA - "Heart to Heart": a heart that continues to beat to support the vocational path

Friday, 17 January 2014

Beijing (Agenzia Fides) - "Heart to Heart" is the name of the Group that supports vocations in the parish of Bei Tang of the Archdiocese of Shaan Xi, in mainland China, born in 2009. According to information collected by Fides Agency, the group was born almost by accident, following the visit of some lay people to an elderly priest. They had brought some wool garments for him to wear in the cold weather, but the priest said, "I am old now, I’d rather you brought them to my seminarians". They then went to the Seminary, without giving much weight to the priest’s words, but when they arrived there, they were surprised: the seminarians in fact lived without any heating, without warm clothes, without being able to adequately feed themselves to tackle the icy cold weather of the central plains of China. From that experience the group "Heart to Heart" was born, in support of seminarians, nuns, priests and elders in need, by providing material and spiritual resources.
All costs are in fact dealt only with the voluntary offerings of the members of the group.
At their annual meeting held on 11 January, the participants summarized the work carried out in 2013 and planned their work for 2014. The group members collected a total of 58,000 yuan (about 8000 Euros), which were used to help seminarians and nuns (76%), to visit sick elderly bishops and priests (10%), to help other communities in the diocese (10%), to welcome groups of pilgrims and visit the sick lay people and the poor (3%), for administrative expenses (1%). As every year, the members of the Group offer 30 yuan (about 6 EURO) per month for each seminarian. The spiritual director of the group, rev. Antonio Jia, stresses: "With our sincere prayer we want to build a bridge of hearts between the faithful and vocations". (NZ) (Agenzia Fides 17/01/2014)


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