The first group of priests from China came for the seminar for priests in Medjugorje

date: 17.07.2015.

28 priests from China participated in the seminar for the priests held in Medjugorje. Fr. Joseph Dong from Xian town, province Shaan Xi, told us more about how that all came to be. “This is like a real miracle to us. Nevertheless, the pilgrimages from Hong Kong to Medjugorje are more frequent in the last few years. It was faithful from our parishes who found out about this seminar and informed us about it. We were preparing for this more than one month as it is really difficult to leave our country. The situation in China varies from one province to the other. Some provinces are going through real persecution and in some Church was completely destroyed. Twenty years ago it was forbidden to celebrate Holy Mass publicly. Today, that is possible, but with great restrictions and monitoring. Personally, I am allowed to lead the seminars, Masses or prayers, but I am also very often taken for the questionings and they ask of me to renew my licence for all what I am doing. The whole atmosphere is far from good. On the other hand, people are longing for God. Every year up to 300 baptisms of the adults take place in my parish. You can see how great our pastoral needs are when you see the following: there are 1.4 billion people in China, 100 million are those who believe in God, and we only have 2000 priests and 3000 nuns. I am more than pleased with this seminar. I feel as if I had renewed my priesthood and my care for people. I was able to make my mission clearer: to bring hope, love and courage to all of the people. Now I feel as if I can see flaming torch in front of me that enlightens my way and gives me strength.”