{"id":2254,"date":"2013-02-09T13:03:00","date_gmt":"2013-02-09T13:03:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.catholicnewsagency.com\/news\/with-new-year-coming-archbishop-sees-vitality-in-chinese-church\/"},"modified":"2013-02-09T13:03:00","modified_gmt":"2013-02-09T13:03:00","slug":"with-new-year-coming-archbishop-sees-vitality-in-chinese-church","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/2013\/02\/with-new-year-coming-archbishop-sees-vitality-in-chinese-church\/","title":{"rendered":"With New Year coming, archbishop sees vitality in Chinese Church"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

Rome, Italy, Feb 9, 2013 \/ 06:03 am (CNA\/EWTN News<\/a>).- Archbishop Savio Hon Tai Fai is preparing to celebrate the Chinese New Year in Rome, and as he takes stock of the Church in his native land he sees many reasons for hope.<\/p>\n

\t\u201cThe Catholic communities in China also give me hope,\u201d Archbishop Hon Tai Fai told CNA in a Feb. 7 interview as he looked ahead to the New Year.<\/p>\n

\t\u201cI noticed that some communities have a good sense of solidarity.\u00a0 Helping other people and working to do good and keep the harmony of the society and family.<\/p>\n

\t\u201cI can see the number of Catholics is growing.\u00a0\u00a0People are accepting the teachings of Christ and his Gospel and are willing to live it.<\/p>\n

\t\u201cSo the vitality of the Church there gives me hope as well.\u00a0 And of course, personally, I believe in God who is the Lord of history and He will guide us,\u201d the archbishop stated.<\/p>\n

\tHe is also hopeful because he believes that the Chinese government is trying to work for the good of the people and take their rights into consideration.<\/p>\n

\t\u201cBut the government has a huge problem of how to satisfy the matter, as I called it, the problem of corruption,\u201d the archbishop explained, adding that corruption can lead to rights being ignored.<\/p>\n

\t\u201cFor me,\u201d he said, \u201creligious freedom is the most fundamental side of human rights because if one cannot have the choice for his or her own belief in that particular country then it would be very difficult for him or her to live.\u00a0\u201c<\/p>\n

\tWhile he believes that religious freedom has improved significantly for common people over the last 50 years, Archbishop Hon Tai Fai says \u201cfreedom is tightened and restricted for Church leaders.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\t\u201cUnfortunately, this includes the selection of these leaders and their appointments.\u00a0 For the Catholic Church what we need is to be in communion with the Holy Father and regrettably full communion with the Holy Father is restricted,\u201d he stated.<\/p>\n

\tBut in spite of the restrictions the Church is growing in China. Archbishop Hon Tai Fai thinks that there are around 12 million Catholics in the country but that the number is hard to pin down because many people don\u2019t want to be registered.<\/p>\n

\tOn Feb. 10, Chinese people around the globe will celebrate the beginning of their New Year. The enormous number of people who flood out of cities to visit and feast with their families has caused some people to call the holiday travel the largest mass migration in the world.<\/p>\n

\t\u201cThe Chinese New Year is a big tradition of feasts. We sometimes call it the feast of spring, though it is more winter,\u201d Archbishop Hon Tai Fai explained.<\/p>\n

\tPeople \u201cstay together to feast with their family for peace and harmony.\u00a0It is time also to give thanks and remember our ancestors.\u201d<\/p>\n

\tAlthough he is in Rome, the archbishop will celebrate the Chinese New Year by inviting \u201call the Chinese students, brothers, sisters and priests to come here to the college.\u201d<\/p>\n

\tThe feast, which is in its third year, brings just under 200 people for Mass and dinner at the college, followed by watching TV programs from China at a movie theater.<\/p>\n

\n<\/a>\n<\/div>\n

<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Rome, Italy, Feb 9, 2013 \/ 06:03 am (CNA\/EWTN News).- Archbishop Savio Hon Tai Fai is preparing to celebrate the Chinese New Year in Rome, and as he takes stock of the Church in his native land he sees many reasons for hope.<\/p>\n

\t“The Catholic comm…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1031,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2254","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-europe"],"yoast_head":"\nWith New Year coming, archbishop sees vitality in Chinese Church<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Rome, Italy, Feb 9, 2013 \/ 06:03 am (CNA\/EWTN News).- Archbishop Savio Hon Tai Fai is preparing to celebrate the Chinese New Year in Rome, and as he takes stock of the Church in his native land he sees many reasons for hope. “The Catholic comm...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/2013\/02\/with-new-year-coming-archbishop-sees-vitality-in-chinese-church\/\" 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