China: Two new churches opened

Image: Fides

Source: Fides

Two new Catholic churches have been inaugurated in China.

In Beijing, a church dedicated to St John was inaugurated on 30 December by Bishop Joseph Li Shan. The new church is located in Beijing's largest economic-technological development area, known as BEDA or Beijing E-Town (Beijing Yizhuang), in the fifth Southern Ring Road of the Chinese capital.

Twenty priests, dozens of religious sisters and more than 300 lay people took part in the consecration. The bishop emphasized that the new church is located in the heart of Beijing's new development zone, a 225 square kilometre area intended for a resident population of 290,000 people, primarily young people familiar with digital networks, entrepreneurs, professionals and people who work in intellectual professions.

Bishop Li Shan urged everyone to imitate the patron saint of the new church and become "beloved apostles of Jesus", giving to all the witness of Christ himself and serving the entire community with words and deeds of the Gospel.

On 1 January the solemnity of Mary Mother of God, which is also World Peace Day, Bishop Anthony Dang Mingyan, of the Diocese of Xi'An, consecrated a new church in Guanshan (on the site of an old church with a long history) in the poorest area of the diocese. Thirty-three priests, twenty nuns and numerous lay people from the surrounding parishes and communities attended. Some of them accompanied the consecration ceremony with choirs and orchestral music. The pries thanked all those who contributed financially to the reconstruction of the Lord's House.

With the beginning of 2024, the Tangshan community in Hebei Province opened a special pastoral 'Year of Evangelization'. The priests of the eight deaneries jointly presented a missionary pastoral plan, presented at the opening Mass, inviting all the baptized to "proclaim the Gospel of Christ together". The lay members of the community agreed to cooperate with their ordinary and daily actions in the works that "the Holy Trinity wants to do in the Year of Evangelization." The priests also committed themselves to showing everyone the horizon of mission through preaching and priestly work.