Columban Centre for promoting communion with the Church in China
The Centre for promoting communion with the Church in China was established by Fr Cyril Hally in 1997 at the Columban Mission Institute. The Centre’s mission was to promote within the Australian Church a knowledge and understanding of the history and suffering of the church in China. Columban missionaries have always had a special concern for the church in China as it was there that the Mission Society in 1920 began its missionary work.
One of the first activities of the Centre was to offer the services of Columban priests to the Chinese Catholic communities in Sydney, Parramatta and Broken Bay dioceses. Columban Fr Paul McGee, began to publish and distribute an information newsletter called China Exchange. The newsletter contained articles about the early history of the church in China, the political circumstances that led to the present situation of the divided church and reports on how the Catholic communities were coping with life under the antireligious policies of the Communist government. The articles were written by experienced Columban and religious missionaries and lay academics. Forty-eight issues of China Exchange were published and distributed.
In 1998 Bishop Anthony Li of Xian requested the Centre to facilitate a university study programme in social communications for a young woman from his diocese. The bishop desired to have a qualified social communication expert in his diocese to develop ways and means of spreading the good news of the Gospel beyond the walls of the parish compounds. In 2004, the Centre arranged for the candidate to be accepted as a student at Macquarie University in Sydney where after completing two courses was awarded the degree International Communications (MA) from the Faculty of Arts and the degree MA from the School of Politics. Besides providing tuition fees, the Centre also accommodated the candidate at the Mission Institute house in North Turramurra and supported her with living and travel expenses while in Australia. In 2006, the young lady returned to China to work for the church in the diocese of Xian.
In 2002, Bishop Aloysius Jin of Shanghai again asked the Centre to send a Columban priest to Shanghai for an extended period to organise and conduct renewal programmes for all the priests and sisters under 50 in the diocese. The bishop wanted each programme to be a full time live-in community experience of five months’ durations for groups of 25 priests and sisters. Five programmes were conducted successfully over a period of three years. These programmes helped the young priests and sisters to develop their English speaking, reading and writing skills and also introduced them to some of the theological and spiritual thinking of the Second Vatican Council.
By the year 2012, information about the church in China was freely available in periodicals, religious newspapers and on the internet. As a result, it was decided the publication of China Exchange was no longer necessary. In addition, key staff members of the Centre had reached retirement age and wished to engage in other works of the Columban Mission Society. Accordingly, at the end of 2012, it was decided to formally close the Centre. However, priests who had worked with the Centre over the years, continued to provide Sunday liturgies for the Mandarin and Cantonese speaking Chinese communities in Sydney.
Related Links
- Read more from The Far East - August 2017
