(Above) Fourteen children received the Sacrament of the Eucharist on September 25 in the Cathedral. The Feast of the First Holy Communion was celebrated by Father Daniel Ribeiro, SCJ.
Marco Carvalho
The twenty-sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time, celebrated on September 25th, marked the beginning of a new catechetical year in the Diocese of Macau and, in the largest parishes in the Special Administrative Region, there are plenty of reasons to smile, judging by the number of children that will be actively involved in catechism.
According to the Diocesan Commission for Catechetical Formation, the number of children and adults that will pursue catechetical formation surpasses 100 students in Macau’s biggest parishes. The organization, which aims to promote evangelization and lead the community to know, welcome, celebrate and experience the mystery of God, believes that it is possible to convince a greater number of people to walk with Christ and to discover the Word of God: “We are aware that in some big parishes there are about 100 Sunday School students,” Benny Leung of the Diocesan Commission for Catechetical Formation told O Clarim.
“We are hoping to gather with catechists more, to discuss how we can provide better support for Sunday School teachers. After all, supporting Sunday School teachers and their formation is very important to us,” Mr. Leung adds.
The preparation of catechists, the publication of teaching materials and the dissemination of the Church’s doctrine with regard to the spiritual formation of Catholics are among the main intents of the Diocesan Commission. The organization planned ahead and devised several initiatives in order to achieve its aims and promote its values: “We invested a lot of time and effort in the dissemination of Saint Joseph’s example of faith, within the scope of the ‘Year of Saint Joseph’. We have prepared slideshows, videos and flashcards for educational purposes. All these materials can be found on our website,” Mr Leung recalls.
“This year, apart from a book on Saint Roch’s life, ‘Virtue bookmarks’ are about to roll out too. Besides publications, a course on morals, Sunday school teachers’ development day, formation for catechists and the promotion of Motu Proprio ‘Antiquum Ministerium’ are coming one after another,” Mr. Leung concludes.
A New Beginning in Faith
For most of the local parishes, the last Sunday of September – the twenty-sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time – marked the beginning of a new catechetical year. Dozens of children all over Macau took their first steps on a long journey of faith and the Portuguese-speaking Catholic community was no exception. Faith-based education can increase critical thinking and the process of education in the Christian faith should engage around 130 Portuguese-speaking children, distributed by two different parishes: Cathedral Parish on one hand and Our Lady of Carmel, in Taipa, on the other.
In both parishes, in-person registration will remain open until mid-October, but the number of enrolled children should not stray too much from what has been the rule in recent years. In the parish of Our Lady of Carmel, the pastoral care team in charge of the Lusophone community will guide and teach around 50 children. In the Cathedral parish, the tally should somehow be superior, with pre-catechesis and catechesis students totalling around 80 children and youth. In recent years, there has been a renewal of interest in the catechumenate, but this year that interest seems to have been obliterated, Father Daniel Ribeiro told O Clarim.
“We will only know the exact number of enrolled children after a couple of weeks. We expect around 80 children, nonetheless. This year, no one enrolled as a catechumen, but we will endorse once again Pre-K classes. We will have around five to 10 children in this pre-K group. These are our expectations, but we will only know the exact number later,” the Dehonian missionary claims. “If we manage to maintain the same number of students that we had last year, then, we will have around 90 children. However, there were many families that left Macau and, therefore, that number should be lower. We are expecting around 80 children,” the parish vicar of the Cathedral of the Nativity of Our Lady adds.
The beginning of the new catechetical year also marked the end of a cycle for 15 children, who celebrated their First Communion Feast on September 25th. The ceremony was originally slated for the Corpus Christi festivity, but it was postponed due to the largest COVID-19 pandemic recorded in Macau since the SARS-CoV3 pandemic was declared. The cycle that began on September 25th should end on June 11th 2023, when a new group of children will celebrate their own First Eucharist.
New Faces in Our Lady of Carmel Parish
In Taipa’s only church, persistence and continuity are key aspects, with a few changes nonetheless. Conditions are met, Father Eduardo Aguero claims, for the Portuguese-speaking Catholic community in Taipa to keep growing. The Argentinian missionary took on the challenge of guiding the Lusophone flock in Our Lady of Carmel parish and, ever since, the community has been flourishing. Earlier this summer, catechesis in Taipa lost one of its main dynamos when Sister Maria Lúcia Fonseca returned to Portugal due to health issues. The catechesis team that works with Father Aguero in Taipa’s sole parish underwent a renewal. Three new faces joined the group and are ready to go all out to help children to get acquainted with God and His word.
“We still don’t know the exact number of students, but I think we will have more or less 50 children enrolled. They will, quite possibly, be divided into five or six groups. We also have a new sister, Sister Maria. She is from Brazil and she will work with us,” Father Aguero told O Clarim. “We no longer have Sister Lúcia, but we have a few new sisters. Sisters Verónica and Nerissa, from the Daughters of Mary of Nazareth, a new congregation here in Macau, will also lend a helping hand. We will also work with the Missionary Youth who are in charge of the Missionary Childhood children. We will prepare youth, so that some of them can celebrate their Profession of Faith and a few others can celebrate their Confirmation,” the Dehonian missionary adds.
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