宗座外方传教会在香港传教一百五十周年
罗马（亚洲新闻）—二OO八年四月十日，是宗座外方传教会在香港传教一百五十周年纪念。一八五八年，首批“外方传教会伦巴蒂修道院”的传教士们踏上了这片土地。最初，他们只为为数不多的当地或者澳门天主教徒服务；为殖民地内英国驻军中的爱尔兰籍士兵服务。后来，一些会士立即开始在九龙和西贡的中国人村子里福传。时至今日，宗座外方传教会会士仍然活跃在当地的宣讲、爱德、教育、为正义和民主而斗争的领域中。
香港的宗座外方传教会和教会，将在四月十日和十一日两天举行纪念活动，庆祝修会在港传教一百五十周年。
四月十日，将在香港的宗座外方传教会会院为“纪念碑”揭幕，纪念在一个半世纪的历程中在东方明珠开展福传的百余名传教士。第二天，香港教区主教陈日君枢机将在主教座堂主持隆重弥撒圣祭。当晚二十点，在明爱中心举行文化活动，恩保德神父和梁洁芬修女主讲“地方教会的福传与建立”；杜逸文神父和关杰棠神父主讲“通过牧灵服务展开福传”；周伟文神父和圣神研究中心的林瑞琪博士主讲“通过教育与社会活动开展福传”。最后，陈枢机将做总结性发言。
值此庆祝宗座外方传教会在香港福传一百五十周年纪念之际，宗座外方传教会总会长赞基神父致函全体香港-中国省会会士。全文如下：
TO P.I.M.E. MISSIONARIES
HONGKONG – CINA Region
Dearest,
Since I could not be physically present I am participating in your celebration of the 150th anniversary of PIME’s presence and work in Hong Kong through this message and this for three reasons. First, I want to offer you my most cordial congratulations and share with you the joy of this celebration. Second, I want to join you in thanking the Lord and all those people who have helped and help you in your missionary tasks. Lastly I want this letter to spur and encourage you for the future of your community.
From the beginning of its history Hong Kong has always offered great challenges and presented great difficulties to the work of evangelisation because of its status as a ‘British colony’ founded primarily for economic and political reasons with a predominantly Chinese population but with the presence of groups of various nationalities.
Once the Congregation for the Propagation of the Faith assigned our brothers to this mission in 1858, they not only started offering their religious ministries to foreign groups but also especially took care to spread the Gospel among Chinese villages on Hong Kong Island as well on mainland areas that were part of the Mission.
Life was hard and the means at their disposal very limited; they were always on the move: visiting and helping the faithful who had already been baptised but also trying to establish new contacts and raise awareness about the Christian faith among non Christians.
Life for the brothers who toiled in Hong Kong city or on the mainland required undoubtedly a great spirit of self-sacrifice and constant involvement.
It was this spirit of theirs, shared by Chinese priests and nuns as well by members of other congregations and missionary institutes, that led to the gradual but worthy creation and development of the Hong Kong Mission so that by 1968 it could be handed over to the local clergy on solid foundations and with good institutions.
The history of our presence in Hong Kong shows us that among our brothers, and this despite their human frailties, there were some exceptional people. And I don’t mean only the bishops who led the Hong Kong Church during times that were often hard, but also the ordinary missionaries, the true saints, who spent all their energy and their life to evangelise. Their names are written in heaven but you have chosen to tangibly remember all of them in a special commemorative book.
On this, the 150th anniversary, we must first and foremost enjoy their spirit of total dedication to evangelisation and their strong missionary passion, and thank the Lord for it, but we must also view it as a model and a spur to continue in our work, today as well as tomorrow.
With as example your predecessors, who always welcomed and faced the challenges thrown at them by different situations and different times, today your community must know how to meet in the same spirit and with the same faith the challenges of modern Hong Kong society.
Since July 1997 Hong Kong is an integral part of the People’s Republic of China, and acts as a bridge for other communities in the Chinese Diaspora. It is also highly urban and cosmopolitan place, basking in an atmosphere that is modern, secularised and sophisticated.
The challenges to evangelisation that such a reality poses require courage and creativity. Together with the local Church it is also up to Hong Kong’ PIME community to find ways and means to tackle them in positive and appropriate terms.
The missionary charisma of the early evangelisation which the Lord gave to our institute must stimulate us in this search and lead us continue our commitment to pass it on in the communities in which we are called to work.
The celebration of the 150th anniversary of PIME’s presence in Hong Kong must therefore not only be a motive for rejoicing and thanksgiving but should also be an important moment in which to reflect and analyse the current tasks that your local community is called to perform, so that it can pursue them in a renewed spirit and adopt more appropriate methods to meet the challenges that Hong Kong society now has in store for you.
This is my hope and prayer as well as that of all PIME missionaries.
Cordially in the Lord
Father Gian Battista Zanchi
Rome, 31 March 2008
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