Hong Kong: Church celebrates Chinese Autumn Festival
The Diocese of Hong Kong has combined the traditional Chinese Autumn festival dedicated to family unity with a Church celebration of the family. According to the diocesan bulletin Kong Ko Bao, more than 200 people took part in a Diocesan Family Day meeting on the theme "Everyone loves coming home", held at St Paul's Catholic School on 25 September, China's Autumn Festival day when families are reunited. The participating families reflected on the theme of the family sharing experience and difficulties encountered. One of the Sisters who organised the meeting said: "The family is the place where human life is conceived, the family influences the person. Therefore good family relations are important, so children are healthy in mind and body". Lay family pastoral worker Ms Bi Yan Ping said: "the family today is so fragile that it needs special care from all of us. If we protect the family we are helping young people face social life". The vicar general of Hong Kong diocese, Mgr Domenico Chang, encouraged those present to work together to build a good family based on Christian principles, saying: "Christian formation is the source of the life of the family. In this way children too become salt of the earth and light of the world". Source: FIDES