It has been 25 years since a small group of Comboni Missionaries arrived in Macau to begin their work in the Chinese context. The Fen Xiang project was at the center of their pastoral activities. The opening of a community in Macau and, later, in Taiwan, was intended to lay the foundations for the presence of the Comboni Missionaries in the Chinese context. However, his aim was to establish the "Comboni presence" in mainland China.
This goal led to the search for ways and initiatives. Although the task was not easy, by the end of 1998 a plan had already been drawn up to realize such a dream: the 'Fen Xiang' (FX) project. The 'Fen Xiang' project aimed at developing the presence of the Comboni Missionaries in China in order to be in contact with, and in some way share the concerns of the Church in China, and at the same time assist the most marginalized. Since October 1998, FX has carried out its objectives following the itinerant missionary approach, mainly through trips from Macau to the mainland, what we call "the Comboni itinerant mission".
Throughout these 23 years, FX has opened different fronts and places in its collaboration with the Church in China, both the underground and the public community. The project focused on spreading the missionary spirit of the Church, an unconditional commitment to the poorest in society. The Comboni mission in Asia focused on the Chinese context as a priority for first evangelization. The Comboni Missionaries, from the beginning, focused their work on the formation of pastoral agents of the Church in China, as well as on assisting the poorest in society.
Over the years, FX has also focused its energies on helping the poorest and most abandoned in Chinese society, supporting orphanages, relief centers, poor rural children, etc. The training of orphanage staff and Catholic Sisters, through scholarships and spiritual formation courses held periodically and especially in northern China, in the provinces of Gansu, Hebei, Henan, Shanxi, Shaanxi, Henan, Sichuan and Shenyang, have been beneficial and useful to the local Church.
Over the past two decades, hundreds of church personnel, priests, nuns, bishops, seminarians and also lay people have benefited from FX scholarships in the hope of improving their training. The FX team has also provided training courses, retreats, youth camps, etc., especially since 2012, emphasizing the missionary dimension of the Church, biblical spirituality and basic Christian spirituality.
This has been done in a discreet and prudent manner, due to the particular setting in which foreign missionaries are not allowed to conduct religious activities. The communist and atheistic context does not make things easy. A few years earlier, bishops, priests, men and women religious had spent decades in Maoist prisons and concentration camps. When they returned to their dioceses, seminaries and then convents were opened, and so the Church began a new future, despite government control, persecution and obstacles.
In 1996, the Macao community began a project of collaboration with the Church in China in the area of formation. In 2000, a team in charge of the "Fen Xiang" Project was created, whose objective is the growth and strengthening of the local Church. In this regard, several initiatives focus on collaboration with the Church in the field of formation through scholarships for priests, seminarians, professors, religious working in the religious, theological and pastoral fields, as well as in the social, medical and other sectors to better serve society.
The members of the "Fen Xiang" team, during their visits to China, organize formation courses and spiritual exercises and share the concerns of religious and missionary life with seminarians, religious, priests and lay people. 'Fen Xiang' is also involved in human promotion projects to express the social dimension of faith, something inescapable and inseparable from the missionary vocation, in favor of the latter. The FX team also publishes "Fen Xiang News" three times a year in five languages.
The "Fen Xiang" project is inspired by and in tune with the basic features of the Comboni charism: concern for the marginalized of society (support for orphanages and relief centers, offering scholarships for poor students in the countryside), the need to share the missionary spirit with the local Church (through courses, digital newsletter, personal contacts, formation through annual retreats for priests, sisters, seminarians and lay people, formation courses for religious and priests).
Reflecting on the last two decades, we can say that we have developed a kind of spiritual missionary itinerary that fascinated us from the beginning and that was in tune with the context in which it developed: "the Comboni itinerant mission".
In these years of the 'Fen Xiang' trip, we can say that the results have been very satisfactory. Priests, seminary professors and religious have been formed in different places through the help of 'Fen Xiang', and once back in their country they have occupied positions of responsibility to continue helping in their respective places according to their Christian formation.
The challenges of 'Fen Xiang' are not without their difficulties, since they take place in a context of insecurity. There is no doubt that the witness of the Church in China and its pastoral agents, who have suffered persecution and continue to suffer from government control, is something that helps us as missionaries to make common cause with the people to whom we are sent. We learn from the people, and we live with the local church with whom we share our lives. Let us continue to work for a better future for the Church in China, being at its service, promoting missionary work in this complex and challenging context. Today there are five Comboni Missionaries in Macau. Two of them are in charge of a parish and the others are engaged in the "Fen Xiang" project.
[Comboni Missionaries]