TAIPEI (UCAN) — Hundreds of charity workers in Catholic organizations from across Asia have gathered in Taipei for a spiritual exercises program organized by the Pontifical Council “Cor Unum” (one heart).

Cardinal Paul Josef Cordes during his visit to Taiwan

 

Among the 450 participants from 29 countries are five cardinals and more than 80 archbishops and bishops, as well as priests, Religious and laypeople.

The Sept. 7-11 retreat has the theme, “… you did it for me (Mt 25:40)” and is designed to help charity workers “recharge.”

Organizers say it was planned after “enthusiastic feedback” from the first spiritual exercises, held for the Americas in June 2008 in Mexico.

Cardinal Paul Josef Cordes, president of the “Cor Unum,” the Holy See’s department for charitable activities, told a press conference on Sept. 7 that he was happy to welcome 22 nuns and laypeople from mainland China.

Through the conference they could feel the “link with the universal Church” and “feel how important they are to us.”

The Chinese government refused, however, to grant travel documents to a bishop and priests who had registered for the meeting.

Cardinal Cordes expressed his hope for “more freedom to practice faith” on the mainland, since “there is no reason at all to fear the Christian faith.”

The Vatican official also explained the need for spiritual renewal for charity workers, which Pope Benedict XVI spoke about in his first encyclical, “Deus Caritas Est” (God is love, 2005).

The Mexico program further showed that “many collaborators in charity desire a foundation for their activity, rooted in faith and Christ’s love.” The pope approved a similar event for Asia, saying that “charity is Christianity’s ‘identity card’ in a predominantly non-Christian environment,” the German cardinal said in his opening speech.

 

Sister Mary Prema (center), superior of the Missionaries of Charity nuns, during the spiritual exercises

Cardinal Cordes advised Church workers to always “find a link between the proclamation of God’s Kingdom and the action of helping” in the Christian ministry toward those in need.

It is also time to reaffirm the importance of prayer amid the increase in activism and the growing secularism of many Christians engaged in charitable work, he said, citing the papal encyclical.

The five-day program is being guided by Brother Yesudas, former superior of the Missionaries of Charity (MC) Brothers, and MC nuns led by Sister Mary Prema, new superior of the congregation founded by Blessed Teresa of Kolkata.

Taiwanese President Ma Ying-jeou is scheduled to visit on the final day, when he and Cardinal Cordes are to hold a private discussion.

Monsignor Paul Fitzpatrick Russell, the Holy See’s charge d’affaires based in Taipei, told UCA News on Sept. 7 that he was confident the spiritual exercises would benefit the participants after they return home by allowing them to “recharge.”

The largest groups of participants are from India and the Philippines, numbering 127 and 92 respectively.

Besides mainland China, the other participants have come from Bangladesh, Cambodia, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Iraq, Israel, Japan, Korea, Lebanon, Macau, Malaysia, Myanmar, Nepal, Pakistan, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Syria, Taiwan, Tajikistan, Thailand, Turkey, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and Vietnam, as well as the United States and the Vatican.