My dear Brothers,
Peace of our Risen Lord!

Please find form the attached some photos taken at my Final Vows ceremonies. For those of you who were present at the ceremonies, I am grateful for your presence and encouragement. It was an enjoyable and memorable evening for me. And for those who could not be there, I trust that you were praying for me. :>

I am very grateful for my being incorporated definitively into the Society of Jesus. It has been a while! 🙂 Please continue to remember me in your prayers so that I can remain faithful and effective with my Jesuit mission from our good Lord!

Stephen

Celebrations…….

Tien Educational Center, with a church to the right of its entrance lobby and a big hall on the left, is indeed a place suited for celebrations. Here are some of the recent events.

On June 18, the hall was used to welcome friends of the Inter-religious Dialogue and Cooperation Service Center for its 5th anniversary. Friends of its director, Father Albert Poulet-Mathis, representatives of many different religions, men and women in different religious habits (including even some Roman collars), lay people and priests filled the hall, where a generous vegetarian buffet was offered by friends of Father Albert. On the occasion, we had two very moving testimonies by a Buddhist monk and a Sister on their care of drug addicts and HIV-infected persons. At that time, the book by Mister Chen Shi-xian, “Your Jesus, my Buddha,” due to be published this month by Kuang Ch’i Cultural Group, was almost finished. Father Albert and his rich, in-depth experience of Inter-religious Dialogue is the occasion of this publication. When the book comes off the press, there will be another occasion to celebrate!

No matter whether there is a big hall or a church, on July 31st, wherever there are Jesuits, there is a celebration.

This year in Sacred Heart Parish, the celebration of our Founder started with a three-day activity meant to make the Jesuits and their mission better known. On the first day Fr. John Lee and Mr. Lee spoke about the work of Ours in China. The second day, through the help of excerpts from the movie “The Mission,” the audience was invited to share the struggles of the Jesuits as they labor in the vineyard of the Lord. Finally on the third day, the “stars from the screen” came down on the stage to share their real lives. Frs. Rabago and Martinson and Br. Pedro Chia captivated the audience with their sharing. Interviewed by two young Catholics, they had no choice but to reveal everything about their vocations, the challenges of Religious Life, their relationship with women, etc. Their starring was successful: the gap between the Jesuits and lay people has now disappeared, paving the way for Pedro to look for vocations!

On September 30, Sacred Heart Parish, a little ahead of time, celebrated the 90th birthday of Father Rabago, thanking him for thirty years of services: confessions, Masses, celebrations with the Sunday School and his always very successful impersonation of Santa Claus at Christmas! On that day, six concelebrants and the Nuncio were around the altar. After the Mass, the birthday party was enlivened by speeches and performances of representatives from each class of the Sunday School. The Parish Council, shyer than the children, had prepared a PowerPoint projection on the vocation and life of Father Rabago. Everybody was eager to show his affection to Father, who in turn was also happy to show his gratitude and joy with hugs and kisses.

On September 30, Fr. John A. Coleman, S.J. (CFN), arrived at Fu Jen for a period of two months in the capacity of the Ladany Professor in Christian Social Teaching. His topic is globalization. He gives a lecture once a week (translated into Chinese) and holds a seminar in English also once a week. Fr. Coleman entered the novitiate with our late Fr. Francis Conn, and was also a co-novice with Fr. Dan Ross. He also knows Fr. Bernard Chu very well from the time that Fr. Chu worked in California. Although Father has travelled quite a lot, he had never experienced a typhoon until typhoon “Krosa” on October 6.

Our Treasurer, Fr. John Chi has moved to the infirmary as a temporary measure, following a fall.

The 4th Taiwan Youth Day was held August 22-26 at Tseng Wen Reservoir in Tainan. More than 400 young Catholics, mostly university and high school students, from all seven dioceses in Taiwan took part in the event. The theme of the gathering was the theme Pope Benedict XVI chose for WYD 2007: “Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another” (John 13:34).

This 4th Taiwan Youth Day was organized by the Taiwan Episcopal Conference Pastoral Commission’s Youth Desk, headed by Bishop Thomas Chung An-zu, and by the Tainan Diocese’s Youth Commission. The five-day event included various activities, as well as 11 workshops on such issues such as family, ethics, gender relations and vocations.

This year’s Taiwan Youth Day was aimed at deepening the faith of young Catholics and also at encouraging them to join the International World Youth Day (WYD) celebration scheduled for July 15-20, 2008 in Sydney, Australia.

It was the 17th of September and the Mass of Robert Belarmine, Patron of Catechists and Catechumen, since he worked so successfully in spreading the teaching of the Church. At 5:00 p.m. at Ricci Hall, the Matteo Ricci Community met with Jubilarians Fr.John Russsell, as Main Celebrant, Fr. Joseph Mallin and Fr. Stanislaus Yuan, and fifteen others.

Fr. Russell had recently been in Ireland and had dinner with his fellow Diamond/Golden Jubilarians, Patrick Crowe and Gerard Bourke, but not with William Johnston who was at Sophia, Tokyo. Twelve had taken First Vows together in Ireland, and twelve were ordained in 1957. Fr. Russell had taught Canon Law for many decades, and has been deeply involved in the Diocese of Hong Kong with marriage cases and with the work of Caritas. At the moment, he is Rector of the Catholic Center Chapel.

Fr. Joseph Mallin had come to Hong Kong as a priest sixty years ago in 1947. Teaching in Wah Yan, and helping to supervise building, he has been famously in charge of Pun-U Primary School for decades, where he knew not only the names of the students, but also of the teachers and parents. Always involved in saying Sunday Masses in parishes, he is deeply revered. We all rejoice in his 75th anniversary in the Society.

Fr. Yuan Shiang-pin is the only survivor of the seven who joined the Society in Peking on August 15, 1947. By early 1949, he found himself with the ten Shanghai novices who entered on August 30. They moved to the Philippines, and fifteen took First Vows in Baguio, before going to Areneta Farm for Juniorate. He has been in pastoral work all his life, and now is Assistant Pastor at St. Ignatius Chapel WYK. Of course, Fr. Yuan’s co-novices and fellow-Jubilarians are Frs. Aloysius B. Chang Ch’un-shen, Joseph Hsia Chin-po, Wang Yuan-ming, and Bernard Chu Meng-ch’uan.

So we now continue in our vocations, hoping that the example of our faithfulness will encourage many to follow in our way of life.

November 1-5, more than a hundred Chinese Catholics from 17 countries and regions attended the eighth meeting of the United Chinese Catholic Biblical Association (UCCBA). The meeting was hosted by the Macau Diocese, and conducted in Mandarin Chinese. The theme of the meeting was “The Experience of Community Building with the Word of God.”

The meeting began with an evening Mass at the Cathedral of the Nativity of Our Lady and a homily by Cardinal Joseph Zen Ze-kiun. Thirty-two priests from Chinese Catholic communities around the world joined in concelebrating the Mass in Mandarin Chinese. About 300 Catholics took part in the liturgy including the 116 delegates and invited guests from Australia, Brunei, Canada, mainland China, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Japan, Macau, Malaysia, Myanmar, New Zealand, the Philippines, Singapore, Taiwan, Thailand, the United States and Vietnam.

UCCBA, established in 1990, is a union of Bible groups of Chinese Catholics worldwide. It aims to promote sharing and daily reading of the Bible, and evangelization in Chinese communities around the world.

To commemorate the 150th birth anniversary of Blessed Brother Francis Garate, an exhibition is set up at the University of Deusto (Bilbao) where he labored faithfully for 40 years as porter, receptionsit, public relations officer, student counsellor and benefactor of the poor. Br. Garate was born on February 3, 1857, and died at the University of Deusto on September 9, 1929, the feast of St. Peter Claver, leaving behind a reputation of sanctity.

The exhibition is meant to highlight the human values of Blessed Garate, which are also models for present-day society, namely, his abiliity to shelter and to serve, his simplicity and his persevering work. The exhibition aims at spreading out, in a comprehensive and attractive way, the living experiences and values of Br. Garate and their enlightening influence for current society. With this in mind, the organizers of the exhibition propose that the personality and life of Blessed Brother Francis Garate is a model, not only for the brothers of the Society of Jesus, but for all people.

Dear fathers and brothers,
I am pleased to inform you that the summer issue of ISC Taipei is now online. Point your browser to here for a look.