The second part of September, we
spent in China.
The most important event was the acceptance of our two first Chinese brothers
for profession. Together with Bro.
Adrian, our associate members Fr. Zhang and Fr. Joseph, our postulants James
and Bernard and of course our two novices Peter and Jose, we left Beijing on the 17th
of September with the train. The sisters of Bianciun, and especially our
associate member Sister Whang, arranged everything that we could celebrate the
profession in their chapel. It was the vicar general of the diocese (who has no
bishop for the moment) who presided in the Eucharist. For all of us it was an
emotional moment when Peter and Jose expressed their profession. We were reflecting the past 20 years, because
it is from 1991 that we are going for several times to China together with the Verbiest foundation, in
order to explore the possibilities to collaborate in China and to start the
congregation. The Lord has blessed
finally our efforts and we are thankful to all who collaborated for it, and of
course in a special way to Bro. Adrian, the vicar general, who sacrificed
himself to learn Chinese in order to stay in Beijing.
From the 21st until
the 24th we gave lessons at the National Seminary in Beijing. We were glad to see so many young people who
prepare themselves for the priesthood.
Yes, in China,
even in a very difficult situation, the Catholic Church is alive! We were asked
to give a course of pastoral care towards the sick. It was a nice experience,
for us, and we hope also for the students…. Finally we visited Xian where we
were invited by Janssen-Pharmaceutica, the famous pharmaceutical factory from Belgium,
with whom we are collaborating in many fields.
They are the experts in the conservation and restoration of the famous
terra-cotta soldiers, and so we could visit the workshops where with high
technology experts they are working on these very famous statues.
We returned to Belgium on the 28th of September and
the following days we had some meetings in Ghent, we visited the community of Sassenhout
where a sister-hermit is now joining the community. We had the meeting with
“Natural Family Planning” that is progressing in its scientific work and we met
the “Friends of the Brothers of Charity”.
Then we left for Rome, where a lot of work
was waiting after an absence of more or less two months. We were preparing the general council; we had
the final profession of Bro. Francis who is staying in the Generalate helping
in the house and appreciated as cook. And we were glad to participate in the
celebration, organized by the Belgian
College, where a statue
of the Blessed Pope John Paul II was inaugurated in our chapel.
The 16th we will leave
again for Belgium to participate the “Think tank”, organized by our
international foundation “Global Action Against Poverty”, in order to reflect,
as part of the preparation of the general chapter, on the way we have to
develop ourselves as organization in the world.
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