– Marco Carvalho
The Catholic Society of the University of Macau Students’ Association (CATSO) celebrated last Saturday the beginning of the new academic year with the celebration of the Eucharist at Saint Joseph Seminary and Church. Apart from praying, those who took part in the event had also the opportunity to socialize and play. The event also included recreational activities and a welcome lunch for students that have recently started a new cycle at the University of Macau.
Despite being directed to current and future students of Macau’s biggest higher education institution, the invitation to attend the reception of UMAC’s new Catholic freshmen was extended to students from other universities, namely the University of Saint Joseph: “We want to cooperate with other universities. As you know, Macau is a small city, and the Catholic groups of the different universities are not big either,” Billy Bosco Kwok told O Clarim. If we only look at our own students, our power won’t be big, but if we gather the students from different universities, our capacity will be way greater and it will benefit all students,” the president of CATSO sustains.
The Catholic Society of the University of Macau Students’ Association has currently about four dozen members, half of whom are staff or former graduates of the institution. The remaining ones are currently students at the University. The 15 to 20 members of CATSO are but a small minority amongst the student body of the University, but Billy Bosco Kwok is convinced that the number of Catholics attending UMAC is higher: “I don’t really know the exact number of Catholic students in the University, but I believe there are some more Catholics studying at the University which are not in our group. However, we are happy that there were some catechumens and some non-local students that took the initiative to join us and try to discover God in their lives.” says the student leader.
The greatest issue that the small group of Catholics that study at the University of Macau face is the inexistence, at the Hengqin campus, of a place where they – or the believers of other religious denominations, for all that matters – can pray: “At the University of Macau, students don’t have a place where they can pray. We have created a little prayer corner in our own room. Some may say that if you want, you can pray everywhere, but in my own opinion, a specific prayer room or prayer corner is important,” Billy Bosco Kwok says. “We do not want the University to build a splendid chapel, because we know that the UMAC statutes do not foresee this possibility, but we would like to have a prayer room like the ones that exist at the airports. That is our wish, but we know it is merely a dream,” the president of the Catholic Society of the University of Macau Students’ Association admits.
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