ASIA/CHINA – “Open your heart to receive the Lord”: retreat for priests and nuns of Ningxia diocese highlights importance of spirituality
Wednesday, July 6, 2022
Ningxia (Agenzia Fides) – Open your heart, close your mouth, meditate in silence, make an examination of conscience to welcome the Lord during prayer, a face to face encounter with the Lord to be able to hear his voice and respond to his call. These were the characteristics of the annual spiritual retreat of the diocese of Ningxia (Yinchuan), mainland China, which took place from June 25 to 28. According to Faith, China’s most authoritative Catholic newspaper and online newsletter, 37 priests, seminarians and nuns from the diocese attended the retreat on the importance of spirituality.
The four effects of spirituality have been explained in depth through the Bible, psychology and spirituality: it gives meaning to pastoral and missionary activity; it helps to find answers to life’s questions; it can renew the mission; it facilitates interaction with God. Archbishop Joseph Li Jing, Bishop of the diocese, joined priests, sisters and seminarians to encourage the synodal journey after the spiritual recharge of the retreat, so that they can transform their pastoral, social and missionary work with a new spiritual impetus .
The diocese of Ningxia is very active in the social field, putting the magisterium of the Church at the service of the concrete. Thus, following the call for the protection of the environment, as taught by Pope Francis in his encyclical Laudato si’ on the care of the common home, the diocesan center for social services often organizes various initiatives related to the subject . These include the production of non-polluting vegetables, propaganda in favor of separate waste collection and the campaign for a world without plastic, the banning of plastic in order to protect the environment and to practices the concept of green development, which has also been revived by the government. Additionally, Bishop Li is personally leading the march of Catholics on World Environment Day, June 5. The diocese has also given the utmost importance to the formation of priests, nuns, catechists, pastoral agents, Catholic volunteers and social workers, so that they can bring Catholic witness alive in all areas of life. .
The diocese of Ningxia was born with the arrival of the Scheut Missionaries (Congregation of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, CICM). In 1879, Father Van Sante Karel and Father Bermyn Aifons CICM brought the Gospel to the Ningxia area, where the majority of the Muslim Hui population lives. In 1922, the Apostolic Vicariate of Ningxia was established, with Bishop Godefroy Frederix as its first bishop. It was later erected into a diocese in 1946, the year the Church hierarchy was established in China. This diocese can boast of having Bishop Joseph Ma Zhongmu (November 01, 1919 – March 25, 2020), who died recently at the age of 101. Bishop Ma was the only ethnic Mongolian bishop. Among the innumerable merits of this great pastor is the translation of the Roman Missal and the Gospel into Mongolian.
(NZ) (Agenzia Fides, 6/7/2022)
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