TAIPEI (UCAN) — Taiwan bishops have discussed the possibility of developing Taiwan as a distance-learning center for students, especially in Hong Kong and the Philippines, to study theology in Chinese.

This would involve providing online courses or videotaped lectures, according to a press release the Chinese Regional Episcopal Conference issued on Dec. 3. The bishops’ Commission for Education and Culture will coordinate preparation of the proposal, according to the press release.

The proposal was a major topic of discussion for of the Taiwan bishops during their Nov. 24-28 plenary assembly.

Father Joseph Cheng, secretary general of the bishops’ conference, told UCA News on Dec. 5 that Fu Jen Catholic University had asked the bishops to support the proposal. According to Fu Jen, he explained, Chinese-speaking Catholics in the Philippines want to take theology courses in Chinese, whereas such courses are offered only in English there.

Fu Jen has sufficient teaching staff, Father Cheng continued, and it could make use of information management and communications know-how from other departments to facilitate distance learning.

The Church official clarified that the proposal would not be aimed primarily at mainland Chinese but as a service to all Chinese. He pointed out that it would provide another choice for Catholic students from Hong Kong, which uses mainly the Cantonese dialect in its seminary college. Taiwan, like mainland China, uses Mandarin Chinese.

As a first step toward realizing the plan, the Taiwan bishops’ Commission for the Doctrine of the Faith and Catechetical Instruction as well as the Commission for Clergy will invite the dean of Fu Jen’s theology faculty and counterparts in Hong Kong and the Philippines to set up a committee. This committee is expected to meet after Lunar New Year, which falls on Jan. 26, 2009, the press release says.

Meanwhile, the Commission for Clergy will set up another committee together with Taiwan Regional Catholic Seminary and Fu Jen to look into the possibility of mainland Chinese studying philosophy and theology in Taiwan.

Taiwan law currently does not allow mainland Chinese to study on the island, but the government’s education department in November proposed allowing this. Accordingly, Taiwan’s Executive Yuan (council) on Dec. 4 amended the Statute Governing the Relations between the People of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area, the University Act and the Junior College Law.

However, the Executive Yuan said it would limit the number of mainland students as well as the number of universities and the kinds of degrees open to them, so as not to affect local students’ prospects.

At their meeting, the Taiwan bishops also discussed summer courses for priests set to begin in 2009. Under this plan, Fu Jen’s theology faculty will offer masters’ degrees to priests who want to further their studies through summer courses over a period of 10 years, Father Cheng said.

In 2009, according to the press release, the Church in Taiwan will organize three major events — the closing of the Pauline Year in June, the Caritas Asian Congress Sept. 7-11 at Fu Jen and the closing ceremony on Nov. 22 for the 150th anniversary of Catholicism in Taiwan. Pope Benedict XVI declared the Pauline Year to commemorate the 2,000th anniversary of Saint Paul’s birth.

Seven active bishops took part in the five-day bishops’ meeting held in Shen Keng, Taipei county. Auxiliary Bishop John Baptist Tseng Chien-tze (Kingzi) of Hualien could not attend the meeting, which Archbishop John Hung Shan-chuan of Taipei, president of the Taiwan bishops’ conference, chaired.

Cardinal Paul Shan Kuo-hsi, retired bishop of Kaohsiung and former president of Taiwan’s episcopal conference, and Monsignor Paul Fitzpatrick Russell, the Holy See’s charge d’affaires in Taiwan, also spoke at the meeting. Jesuit biblical scholar Father Mark Fang, who attended the Synod on the Word of God at the Vatican Oct. 5-26, was invited to share theological reflections.

On the last day of the meeting, the bishops visited the Carmelite Monastery of the Sacred Heart of Jesus in Shen Keng and held Mass there, during which two nuns were assigned to pray for each of Taiwan’s seven dioceses in all their prayers in the future. The bishops also asked for the Carmelite nuns’ prayers for their ad limina visit to the Vatican Dec. 9-13.