A Colorful Meet: Art meets Faith and Hope at the Diocesan Center this Saturday

Marco Carvalho

The new Diocesan Center, which was inaugurated in mid-June by the Bishop of Macau, Stephen Lee Bun-sang, will open its doors on Saturday for an initiative that combines art with faith and hope. In charge of coordinating and mobilizing the younger generations, the Diocesan Youth Commission is inviting teenagers and young adults aged 14 to 35 years old to paint a mural on the new premises’ basketball court.

Entitled “Come and See: Sail Your Dreams,” the initiative aims to promote a greater involvement of the local youth in the life of Macau’s Catholic Church and in the initiatives promoted both by the diocese and the different parishes.

The initiative was originally scheduled for early summer, but the largest Covid-19 outbreak ever recorded in Macau forced the Diocesan Youth Commission to change its plans. The artwork that will be painted this Saturday is, therefore, the result of a vast planning process that started almost two months ago. “Originally, our aim was for the content of the mural to be chosen entirely by the participants. Unfortunately, due to COVID-19, we were not able to bring young people together so that they could decide on the creation process,” Brigid Leong  from the Diocesan Youth Commission told O Clarim.

Ms. Leong added, “On the 19th of July, we organized a video conference meeting in order to discuss the contents of the mural and collect some ideas and suggestions. We invited local artist Debbie Tai Pek Kuan to create the mural based on the ideas and suggestions we collected at that meeting. On Saturday, what the participants will do is bring life and color to the mural.”

Today, the Diocesan Center will open its doors from 10 to 11:45 am and from 2 to 4:45 pm so that the participants can offer their contribution to the project. Interested parties can choose to leave their mark on the new mural in one of several time slots, either in the morning or in the afternoon.

The artistic event is the first to be promoted by the Diocesan Youth Commission since it organized its yearly program of summer activities. The initiative should have started in mid-July, but it was postponed due to the latest Covid-19 outbreak.