Asia’s Catholics celebrate Year of the Goat with acts of charity
Seoul (AsiaNews) - While the Asian continent celebrates the arrival of the lunar New Year dedicated to Goat, Catholics are uniting traditional celebrations and charitable activities that are part of the period of Lent.
In Hong Kong some missionaries of the Pontifical Institute for Foreign Missions (PIME) launched a program of support for the prisoners in the Territory; South Korea has sent two containers full of medical aid for TB patients in the North; in the Philippines, the Church is asking the faithful to give a "new impetus" to Alay Kapwa, the support program for the poor, which this year celebrates its 40th birthday.
In the former
British colony, Fr. Fabio Favata told AsiaNews
, "there are many types of poverty. Although the city is rich, by Western
standards, there are many problems and they are all related to the very nature
of man. People here often choose their career, professional ambitions or money
as their ideal. But at some point they realize that this is not enough to
ensure a satisfying and happy life, and they return to the faith. "
But the problem also relates to the many people who, instead, pay the price of
this modernity: "Fr. Franco Mella is currently working on the situation of
foreign women in Hong Kong's prison. They are mostly prostitutes or drug mules,
who are cheated by alleged friends at home or are forced out of poverty to
choose crime. Once caught, they end up in jail where they are completely alone".
Fr. Favata continues, "first we have to establish a human contact, visit them and think of their basic needs such as personal hygiene. These women, mostly African or Latin American, cannot bring their children with them into the prison, who end up in the hands of social services . Fr. Mella is a linke between the prison and the foster care homes, he brings news to the prisoners of their children. But we must also think about when they come out, so we are organizing school projects: we are looking for funds " . In fact this Lent the Italian parish of Fr. Favata, St. Leonardo di Porto Maurizio in Milan, is collecting money to support this project.
Another concrete gesture of charity linked to the lunar New Year is from South Korea, where the Maryknoll missionary fathers are supporting the Eugene Bell Foundation in humanitarian aid to the population of the North. Today, the Regional Superior Fr. Gerard Hammond told AsiaNews, " two containers full of medical aid were closed and shipped for those suffering from tuberculosis beyond the border".
The Foundation's commitment to people with TB has gone on for years, and takes the form of a series of trips - approved by both the Seoul government and Pyongyang - to support local hospitals and sanatoriums, bringing medicines and instruments necessary for the treatment of this disease. Fr. Hammond is a veteran of these trips - he has made more than 35 - and is preparing for the next scheduled trip in the spring.
Although not a
country in East Asia, the Philippines living marks the Lunar New Year because
of the presence of a large community of Chinese origin. To assist the party's charitable
commitment, the president of the National Secretariat for Social Action -
Justice and Peace (the Nassa, organization of the local Bishops' Conference)
has invited the faithful to give "new impetus" to Alay Kapwa, the
support program for the poor, which this year celebrates its 40th birthday.
Speaking to Radio Veritas, Msgr. Rolando Tria Tirona (Archbishop of Caceres)
asked the Filipino Catholics to "realize it is our responsibility to help
our neighbors in need. In Lent we dedicate time and resources to those who need
it most, remembering that our responsibility as Christians is first of all to serve".
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22/02/2018 13:29
