austraLasia #1952
The Bishop of Hong Kong's Life and the China he lives in
TURIN: 3rd October 2007 -- The actual title of Fr Michele Ferrero's book is "Il Cardinale Zen. Rosso Speranza": La Vita e la China del Vescovo di Hong Kong. To the best of current knowledge, the book, published by Elledici, 232 pages including 8 with colour photographs, is still in Italian.
A line in the book runs something like this: "Along the banks of a river, something is always happening - it's called life. It is up to us to decide which of its episodes we want to talk about". In this case the river is the mighty Yangtze, running through China. And the episode of life concerns Joseph Zen, bishop of Hong Kong, born in 1932 in Shanghai, the city where the Yangtze has almost run its course of some five thousand kilometres.
The life and work of Joseph Zen, Salesian and an extraordinary witness of faith in difficult circumstances, is told by Michele Ferrero in this new publication by Elledici. It speaks of a courageous commitment to the Church, to ministry and to social action on the part of one of Hong Kong's most influential and respected figures.
Not for nothing has Cardinal Zen been identified by many as the 'moral conscience' of the ex-colony returned to the sovereignty of the Chinese People's Republic in 1997. The book contains a preface by Fr Pascual Chavez, the Rector Major, with a reminder that the 'Celestial Empire' "occupied an important place in the dreams and spiritual testament of Don Bosco". He points out how in Cardinal Zen "the elements of our charism mingle splendidly with the Chinese culture: from temperance to optimism, from joy to a sense of Church, union with God".
Thanks to Ferrero's deft pen and penetrating mind, Cardinal Zen's story is also one that begins with the period both terrible and glorious for the Catholic Church in China between the 30's and 40's, then swings into the 60's and 70's of Britain's heyday in the Colony, moving to the 80's and 90's of China's reawakening, to finally settle on the 24th March 2006 when the man holding the tiller of the Barque of Peter midst the tempests of our time, Benedict XVI, "asked Joseph Zen to give him a hand, appointing him Cardinal".
Michele Ferrero, Salesian priest, born Cuneo (Italy), has worked in Taiwan, Hong Kong and Shanghai, and today teaches theology in Jerusalem's Studium Theologicum Salesianum, otherwise known as Ratisbonne.
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AustraLasia is an email service for the Salesian Family of Asia Pacific. It also functions as an agency for ANS based in Rome. For queries please contact admin@bosconet.aust.com . Use BoscoWiki to be interactive. RSS feeds - subscribe to www.bosconet.aust.com/RSS/rssala.xml Avail yourself of the Salesian Digital Library at at http://sdl.sdb.org
The Bishop of Hong Kong's Life and the China he lives in
TURIN: 3rd October 2007 -- The actual title of Fr Michele Ferrero's book is "Il Cardinale Zen. Rosso Speranza": La Vita e la China del Vescovo di Hong Kong. To the best of current knowledge, the book, published by Elledici, 232 pages including 8 with colour photographs, is still in Italian.
A line in the book runs something like this: "Along the banks of a river, something is always happening - it's called life. It is up to us to decide which of its episodes we want to talk about". In this case the river is the mighty Yangtze, running through China. And the episode of life concerns Joseph Zen, bishop of Hong Kong, born in 1932 in Shanghai, the city where the Yangtze has almost run its course of some five thousand kilometres.
The life and work of Joseph Zen, Salesian and an extraordinary witness of faith in difficult circumstances, is told by Michele Ferrero in this new publication by Elledici. It speaks of a courageous commitment to the Church, to ministry and to social action on the part of one of Hong Kong's most influential and respected figures.
Not for nothing has Cardinal Zen been identified by many as the 'moral conscience' of the ex-colony returned to the sovereignty of the Chinese People's Republic in 1997. The book contains a preface by Fr Pascual Chavez, the Rector Major, with a reminder that the 'Celestial Empire' "occupied an important place in the dreams and spiritual testament of Don Bosco". He points out how in Cardinal Zen "the elements of our charism mingle splendidly with the Chinese culture: from temperance to optimism, from joy to a sense of Church, union with God".
Thanks to Ferrero's deft pen and penetrating mind, Cardinal Zen's story is also one that begins with the period both terrible and glorious for the Catholic Church in China between the 30's and 40's, then swings into the 60's and 70's of Britain's heyday in the Colony, moving to the 80's and 90's of China's reawakening, to finally settle on the 24th March 2006 when the man holding the tiller of the Barque of Peter midst the tempests of our time, Benedict XVI, "asked Joseph Zen to give him a hand, appointing him Cardinal".
Michele Ferrero, Salesian priest, born Cuneo (Italy), has worked in Taiwan, Hong Kong and Shanghai, and today teaches theology in Jerusalem's Studium Theologicum Salesianum, otherwise known as Ratisbonne.
_________________
AustraLasia is an email service for the Salesian Family of Asia Pacific. It also functions as an agency for ANS based in Rome. For queries please contact admin@bosconet.aust.com . Use BoscoWiki to be interactive. RSS feeds - subscribe to www.bosconet.aust.com/RSS/rssala.xml Avail yourself of the Salesian Digital Library at at http://sdl.sdb.org
