Every crisis is a God-given opportunity
EAO Region, 4 February 2020 -- During the last few weeks, most of the EAO Salesians have directly felt the impact of the recent Corona Virus crisis, especially after the Lunar New Year (25 January) with the worldwide spread of affected people throughout countries in East Asia and, indeed in Oceania. You can follow ongoing reports about the situation on social media or on TV or on the internet. The situation is far from coming to an end soon.
More than 17,000 people in 23 countries are affected, 300+ people have already died due to this new tricky virus with its rather long 'incubation period' that preventing immediate detection and prevention. Not only in many parts of China - Macao - Hong Kong, unlimited school holidays have begun and the population is affected in many ways, especially those who travel to other countries.
At the same time, the Catholic communities around East Asia, while following their governments ' policies and emergency guidelines, are coming out with a variety of pastoral responses:
The Filipino Bishops are asking all Catholic believers to offer this ORATIO IMPERATA during each Eucharistic celebration: "God our Father, we come to you in our need, to ask your protection against the 2019 N-Corona Virus, that has claimed lives and has affected many..." (full text on the attached photo file).
The Bishop of Macau, Stephen Lee Bun-sang, asked on Sunday that local Catholics "actively carry out the preventive measures that have been placed in full cooperation with the government to fight the corona virus epidemic in the territory... and also invited all Catholics to avoid the waste of time.
(link with text of the message below)
Also in freezing Mongolia (-33 degrees Celsius) the Catholics are asked to abstain from Eucharistic celebration in all 8 parishes.
The Vietnamese bishops addressed few guidelines to their faithful in a short note...
Catholic and other Christian Churches in Hong Kong will carry on with the Sunday liturgy, but also with live streaming of their worship. (According to the latest official figures, Hong Kong in 2016 had about 380,000 Catholics in 52 parishes and about 480,000 protestant Christians with about 1,450 congregations.)
Maybe in the next few months more of our Salesian Family schools, parishes and other education or social welfare institutions will be affected by the epidemic.
Starting with prayer for affected people, the medical personnel and all who are helping directly in this crisis - this is another opportunity to witness to Christian love of neighbour. It is a good opportunity to give more time to family members and make good use of our time at home to grow closer to our family members by listening and talking more to each other. Students also need to be self-disciplined, cultivating a studious attitude of learning and reading. The faithful are encouraged to read the Bible and access other faith-related books or movies.
Maybe it is also a good opportunity to exchange our local responses in this time of crisis, prayer and resilience in many of our EAO countries.
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