On October 9, the Yale Center in Beijing will host a forum dedicated to Father Ferdinand Verbiest’s life and legacy. Co-organized by the Macau Ricci Institute, the initiative takes place on the exact day when the 400th anniversary of the birth of the influential Flemish Jesuit will be celebrated. Ferdinand Verbiest, Father Stephan Rothlin says, is still a perfect example of a rational and scientific approach to dialogue with China.
In an interview with O Clarim, Fr Cyril Jerome Law, Chancellor of the Catholic Diocese of Macau, speaks about his participation in the Asian Continental Assembly on Synodality. He highlights the multilingual and multi-cultural dimension of the local Church in Macau and the need for effective communication. Fr Cyril further believes that Catholics in Macau can contribute to the synodal process by engaging in spiritual conversation and promoting the Church’s teachings through pastoral outreach.
Fr Timothy Wan Kwok Kwong shares his encounter with Bom Jesus dos Passos and how it led him to consider his journey to the priesthood. He explains how the event inspired him to offer himself to Jesus and consider his vocation. Fr Tim talks about his experience with the procession and how Jesus called him, leading to a series of events that ultimately led him to enter the seminary.
The Rui Cunha Foundation will host a forum on business leadership on March 14. Promoted by the Macau Ricci Institute, the initiative is a warm-up event in preparation for the ceremony of the First Deignan Award for Responsible Entrepreneurship. Nine companies from Macau have been nominated for the prize.
The Old Court building on Avenida da Praia Grande hosts, until March 17, the largest inter-religious event organized in Macau since the handover. With a particular focus on the cultural and religious heritage of the six religions that move the most followers in Macau, the exhibition “The Journey Over a Thousand Miles” brings together more than a hundred artefacts and sacred objects appurtenant to Buddhism, Catholicism, Taoism, Islam, the Baha’i faith and the Anglican communion.
The combined effort is the result of a long process of dialogue and deliberation that extended, well, for over a year. Benedict Keith Ip, curator of the exhibition, claims that the greatest challenge that he had to deal with was to ensure that religion was the essential focus of the event. The exhibition was inaugurated last Sunday and draws together 109 sacred artefacts, representing the culture and heritage of Macau’s six largest religions.
Caritas Macau has launched a fundraising campaign to collect donations for the victims of the earthquake that devastated eastern Turkey and northern Syria last week. The Catholic aid agency opened bank accounts in five local banking institutions and will place donation boxes across the city. The initiative, Paul Pun told O Clarim, will run until May.
From mid-December to mid-January, Father José Ángel Hernández had his hands full. Chaplain at the Conde de São Januário public hospital, the Mexican priest divided his time between Macau’s two largest health facilities. His mission? To offer spiritual comfort to those that were readying themselves to embark on their last journey. Despite being surrounded with people that were sick, he managed to evade catching COVID-19.
Forty Catholics and catechumens aged 18-35 years old will represent Macau at the 37th edition of the World Youth Day. The Diocesan Delegation will travel to Portugal in late July and remain in the country for two weeks. The pilgrimage will include time in Fatima and an opportunity to be with thousands of other young Catholics and Pope Francis. The Diocesan Youth Commission will offer several leadership and formation workshops over the next few months to help the participants prepare for this life-changing experience.
Bishop Stephen Lee has exhorted the faithful to pray for the shepherds and for more vocations, especially for the Catholic Diocese of Macau.
While the Catholic Church reinforces and integrates the particularities of Macau’s uniqueness as a multicultural space through religious practices, the Portuguese authorities in Lisbon need to pay attention to the Portuguese people who have already left Macau in recent years and others who say they will soon do so, claiming to some extent the “orphanhood” they feel in relation to the expected support from official institutions in Portugal.
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