Fwd: [USCCBnews] Digest Number 688
3 views
Skip to first unread message
Catholic Voice
Feb 11, 2013, 10:14:54 PM2/11/13
to catholi...@googlegroups.com
3 New Messages
Digest #688
Messages
Fri Feb 8, 2013 2:45 pm (PST) . Posted by:
"USCCB News" tpl_0719
UCA News - http://www.ucanews.com/
Confreres come from around the world to learn and then to preach
Jesuits give Chinese lessons to aid their mission
Francis Kuo, Taipei
Taiwan
2013-01-31 12:00:11
Santosh Benedict, a Jesuit seminarian from India, found intonation the most difficult part in learning the Chinese language. He says he spent six months trying to differentiate the four tones of spoken Chinese, before being able to coverse and listen easily.
He was one of the first of many confreres the Society of Jesus says it plans to invite from around the world, to study the Chinese language and culture to sustain their mission in China and countries with large Chinese populations.
Benedict, 30, who joined the congregation nine years ago, says he decided to come to Taipei after reading a recruitment notice issued by the General Mother House and talking with his provincial superior.
Besides intonation, he was also confused by the euphemistic way Chinese people express themselves. He says he once invited a friend to dinner but was told to make it “another day.” He understood this as rearranging the date, but he later realized it was a polite way of saying “no thanks.”
Thanks to computer software, Benedict can type Chinese words by using the Roman alphabet, which spares him from having to learn to write the complex Chinese characters. Now almost speaking fluent Chinese, he often joins student activities in Taipei.
When he completes his language course, he says he will either serve in Taiwan or go to southern India where many Chinese people work in high technology firms.
Former Provincial of China, Father Louis Gendron, says the Jesuit China Province also wants to open a learning center in Beijing to train their confreres.
The Canadian priest, who served as provincial from 2005-2012, says he has asked his fellow superiors to recruit confreres to join a special program with “the first year being spent in Taipei and a second year in Beijing.” The program was put together by students at a Jesuit university in the United States.
For confreres, “it would broaden their horizons and make Jesuits truly members of an international congregation,” Fr Gendron said in a recent interview.
China has become more open and more appealing, he noted. Confreres are mostly interested in the academic field, he said, adding that many opportunities will present themselves to work in the mainland where tertiary education institiutes need them.
“We have a heavy responsibility in China, as the Society considers China a top priority in its working plan,” Fr Gendron said.
“Our society was the first religious congregation to arrive in China and we are continuing our mission here,” he added.
Today, the China Province faces several problems which include aging confreres and a lack of local vocations.
Fr Gendron said the province had more than 300 members in the 1950s, with many more leaving the mainland for Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macau. Most have now died, leaving around 90 confreres, many of whom are elderly.
Campus ministry has become difficult if there is no vocation in Taiwan. The Fu Jen Catholic University, for example, struggles to find Jesuits to take up teaching posts. There are no more confreres working at St Ignatius High School, a famous private school in New Taipei city which was founded by the Society in Shanghai in 1850 and moved to Taiwan in 1963.
Nevertheless, the Jesuits do not intend to withdraw from Taiwan, but wish to develop, he stressed. They are providing formation to lay Catholics, sparing confreres from ministries that do not need to be performed by priests.
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
Fri Feb 8, 2013 2:46 pm (PST) . Posted by:
"USCCB News" tpl_0719
AsiaNews - http://www.asianews.it/
02/06/2013 19:35
CHINA
Year of the Snake brings usual hectic traffic and "great upheaval"
by Chen Weijun
For most Chinese workers, the lunar New Year is the only time for holidays. As legions of migrant workers try to get home to their families, they seek out all available means for a total of about 3.4 billion journeys. However, as wages stagnate, prices rise with state approval. Many are thus forced to take to the road on their motorcycles. Many more are now waiting what new things the Year of the Snake will bring.
Beijing (AsiaNews) - Rising prices are making travel home for Chinese New Year that much harder. For two weeks, China will stop to celebrate the event. The country's transportation system is bracing for an estimated 3.4 billion journeys on trains, buses and ferries as millions take advantage of this once-in-a-year opportunity to be with their family. However, the observance also underscores the country's social facility.
On Friday, as the Year of the Black Water Snake begins, the Year of the Water Dragon will end. According to Chinese tradition, with the new year, fire drops into water. Politically and personally, chaos will rise; confusion will grow, and will not necessarily be negative for snakes tend to mind their own business.
About 400 million migrant workers will travel home by every conceivable means of transportation. In the Pearl River Delta, an estimated 140 million people will be on the move between late January and early February. Of these, only 32 million will be able to buy cheap train tickets. Others will have to pay higher fees, up to 60 per cent. In order to avoid such state-authorised larceny, many will opt for alternatives.
For motorbike riders, toll-free highways will be the preferred choice. Even if distances are huge, a thousand km on average, it has the added advantage that they will be free to decide when and where to go.
"During the trip, we need to refuel five or six times," said one traveller. "We will eat instant noodles or bread when resting at petrol stations. If it rains, we will pay 80 yuan for a cheap inn room. If the weather is good, we will only have a rest on the roadside and set out again at dawn." The two-day journey will cost about 400 yuan (US$ 65) for each motorbike.
For most people, low-cost travel is a necessity, not an option. Low wages are an obstacle to China's development. On average, a skilled worker makes 3,000 yuan per month (US$ 500). An unskilled worker will make instead about 1,200 yuan (US$ 200). In the countryside, workers can make as little as 700 (US$ 120) a month.
Experts, even government officials, have been urging Beijing to improve the situation. However, the world's financial crisis has been felt last year with the worst GDP performance in a decade.
For astrology aficionados, the Year of the Snake will bear ill tidings to investors. Hong Kong's Hang Seng always dropped in the last four Years of the Snake. The snake has also been a time of great upheaval, like the Russian Revolution (1917), the Great Depression (1929) and 9/11 (2001)
Yet, futurologists have not given up. According to the Feng Shui Index issued by the Credit Lyonnais Securities Asia (CLSA), "there are signs that this year's beast will be better behaved: All five of the basic elements or energies are present in the fortune charts (including the market-driver Fire!); and the annual Flying Star energies all return to their 'home' sectors for the first time in nine years."
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
Fri Feb 8, 2013 2:47 pm (PST) . Posted by:
"USCCB News" tpl_0719
South China Morning Post
Beijing and Taipei plan exchange of government officials
Representative offices on both sides of strait will house government officials, who may be granted privileges enjoyed by foreign diplomats
Thursday, 07 February, 2013, 12:00am
Lawrence Chung in Taipei lawrence.chung@scmp.com
Taipei and Beijing plan to exchange government officials and station them in representative offices in the near future, a unimaginable move not long ago for the political rivals, who are still technically at war.
The two sides would also not rule out the possibility of issuing travel permits and granting each other's representatives something similar to the immunity from prosecution enjoyed by foreign diplomats, a senior Taiwanese official said on Wednesday, but that would be the next step for discussion after the establishment of the offices.
Wang Yu-chi, chairman of the island's top mainland policy planning body, the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC), told a news conference in Taipei on Wednesday: "Under our initial plan, as soon as the Straits Exchange Foundation (SEF) sets up a representative office on the mainland, the Mainland Affairs Council will also post officials there at the same time."
As soon as the Straits Exchange Foundation (SEF) sets up a representative office on the mainland, the Mainland Affairs Council will also post officials there at the same time
That would be based on the principle of dignity and equality, he said, given that most mainland officials who dealt with Taiwan did so in a semi-official or non-official capacity. Some staff at the mainland's Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Strait (Arats) are also government officials at the mainland State Council's Taiwan Affairs Office.
Arats and SEF - nominally private - were set up in Beijing and Taipei respectively in the early 1990s to represent their governments in cross-strait matters in the absence of formal relations.
Cross-strait relations improved after Ma Ying-jeou became Taiwan's president in 2008 and adopted a policy of engaging Beijing.
The two sides have signed 18 non-political co-operation agreements since then and have also set up some lower-level tourism and trade representative offices on the other side of the strait. These officials, however, are non-government.
With the rapid increase in the number of non-political exchanges, the two sides found the need to set up more authoritative offices. They finally touched on the issue late last month, when Beijing sent senior Arats officials to Taipei to discuss the issue.
If the two sides needed to discuss the issuance of travel documents, that would be possible, Wang said, adding that he believed representative office officials would enjoy immunity status similar to foreign diplomats "in order to facilitate their work in each other's place".
He said he did not want to give a timetable, but early establishment of the offices would meet the hopes of at least 70 per cent of Taiwanese people.
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
Nima, 泥马
Reply all
Reply to author
Forward
0 new messages