This year our Congregation is celebrating the 200th anniversary of St. Anthony Mary Claret’s birthday. In such a time of grace I want to remember the apostolic work I’ve being carrying out from the time when I first went to China in 1994. Since then I have been appointed many times by my community to come to China and visit some Christian communities, mainly in Heilongjiang province and diocese. Sometimes I was there for three months, sometimes just 20 days, but always experiencing the missionary zeal and impetus that moved Claret to go into the world and preach the Gospel. No fear or danger could put Claret off in his missionary trips even as he accepted all hardships for the sake of announcing the Gospel, which was foremost in his work as a missionary. Finally, his apostolic spirit is now present in this vast Chinese land. Our Congregation of the Missionary Sons of the Immaculate of Mary with the aim of giving a living witness to God’s love in China is already present in Beijing, Harbin and Macau. Luis, a Korean Claretian priest, and I, Paolo, live in Harbin. Actually, our most noticeable ministry, apart from studying the language, is to celebrate the Sunday Eucharist with the large Korean-speaking community (China’s Chaoxian minority group and Korean nationals) in Harbin Cathedral. We also visit and support many Christian communities scattered over a 300-km radius around Harbin in different small villages and rural communities.
As a way of celebrating the 200th anniversary of our Founder I decided to pay him homage by imitating his apostolic mission. I again visited those places I had visited the first time I came to China. It was a two-week missionary trip. I went to Dudanjiang, Dongning, and Heping. Dudanjiang is located 400 km away from Harbin. There is a church there used by the local Chaoxian minority to celebrate the Eucharist. They are about 200 Catholics; in the last 14 years there has not been any increase in their number since many have migrated to South Korea for better economic opportunity. There is also a Han Chinese community in that parish composed of about 200 people. I was in Dudanjiang for 2 to 3 days proclaiming the Word, instructing in the faith and guiding a retreat.
After 11 hours on the train we arrived at Dongning. That morning we went to Suifenhe. Seventeen years ago Suifenhe had only 17 Catholics; today there are 140. This is the first time the parish priest is visiting this parish this year. Apart from Suifenhe he also takes care of Dongning, Heping, and Daohua parishes and other 16 villages without a church.
The distance between these parishes and communities is from 40 minutes to more than three hours by car. I also had a special opportunity in Suifenhe to instruct the community when the priest asked me to say the homily during the Mass. The next day the parish priest and I went to Dongning parish. Many people, about 550, came to celebrate the Eucharist. The church there was built just 12 years ago; many people came for the Mass and a lot of them had to stand outside the church, which was too small to accommodate so many people. Even though the number of Christians had grown over the years, most of them are very poor and do not have the means to build a new church.
From Dongning we went to Heping parish, a Christian community of about130 people.
The parishioners there have strong faith with a number of vocations to the priesthood and the religious life. Such a small parish has already a priest and two religious sisters. After Heping we moved to Daohua. This place has special significance for me. There were only 130 Christians the first time I came here in 1995. The next year a new church was built with donations from Catholics in Korea.
After ten years, we celebrated the 10th anniversary Mass in this parish in 2006. The patron of this church is our Founder, St. Anthony Mary Claret. Today there are about 390 Catholics and vocations are flourishing with two priests, 13 sisters and 2 seminarians of the diocese from this parish, and there are 3 candidates preparing to start their formation for the priesthood. The number of Christians has also steadily increased during the years. I experienced, first hand, God’s blessing and providential care for the Chinese Church.
Through this entire apostolic trip I was able to realize something very important, that is, the toil of the apostolic missionary amounts to nothing – everything is God’s grace. The apostolic missionary announces the Gospel for the greater glory of God, that’s all: he, as a good servant and useful tool in the hands of God, tries his best to make the Kingdom of God present in the midst of our world. I think Claret will also agree with this thinking. – Br. Joo Paul cmf.
