This year, the Quebec Foreign Mission Society [SME] is celebrates the centennial anniversary of its foundation [1921 to 2021], and we would like to take this opportunity to share a summary of our missionary journey along the years in the Chinese-speaking world.
Our missionary society was founded in 1921 by the Bishops of Quebec and its first missionary territory was Manchuria, in China, where the first missionaries arrived in 1925. Nearly 15 years later, their work was disrupted by the Second World War, which resulted in internment in concentration camps from 1939 to 1945. Finally, it was in 1954 that the last member of the society in China, Monsignor Gustave Prévost, was expelled from the country.
The Quebec Foreign Mission Society then left the Chinese world and continued its commitments in other countries: the Philippines in 1937, Cuba in 1942, Japan in 1948, Honduras in 1955, Peru in 1956, Argentina in 1961, Chili in 1962, Indonesia in 1974 and Guatemala in 1977.
But with the reopening of China to the world in the early 1980s after the dark years of Cultural Revolution, the society decided in 1983 to attempt a return to the Chinese world by sending a few missionaries to Hong Kong.
They were not only acting as China watchers waiting for a possible return to the mainland. They fully committed to the pastoral and missionary work of the Church in Hong Kong, according to the needs of the place and according to the interests of each one. Richard Brodeur involved himself in parish ministry, Rhéal Désy in a ministry of presence and pastoral service in hospitals, Jean-Yves Isabel and Frank Alvarez in pastoral ministry with Filipino foreign domestic workers, and Grégoire Vignola in a ministry of presence and concern for ordinary industrial workers, while also working part-time in a factory.
As soon as these missionaries arrived in Hong Kong, they made it clear to the diocese that they were missionary in their work, going where the people were, and therefore declining the possibility of taking responsibility for a parish as a permanent base and centre for their group.
Then with the approach of 1997, marking the return of Hong Kong to China, along with the growing interest of being present at this historic moment of change and transformation in Greater China, a few SME who were present in the territory, among them Eloy Roy and Rhéal Désy attempted, as early as 1993, to return to China, which became the beginning of a new missionary presence in the former region of Manchuria, more precisely in the cities of Changchun and Jilin, from the years 1993 to 2013.
It was also during those years of missionary presence in the continent that the first lay missionaries joined the local China Group: Ana Gloria Flores and Silvia Pucheta from 2002, then Ever Amador Arteaga from 2004, Majorie Jacob and Lucie Auclair from 2006, Orlando Benitez from 2009 and Rocio Araujo from 2011.
However as foreigners, and being closely watched by the Chinese authorities, these missionaries, both lay and clergy, had to limit themselves to a ministry of presence and discreet witnessing, all openly pastoral and missionary activities being completely forbidden to them. Then in order to get a work permit [a visa], which gave them the right to stay in China, some of involved themselves in teaching foreign languages, while others cared for the physically and mentally handicapped people.
During this time, when most of the effective members of the SME were in mainland China, Jean-Denis Tremblay, a veteran of 42 years in the Philippines, maintained a presence in Hong Kong by continuing the pastoral ministry with the Filipino foreign domestic workers from 1998 to 2010.
Finally, the reduction of personnel in the missionary field forced the society from 2012 to anticipate a return to Hong Kong. Today in 2021, the local China Group is made up of only three members: two lay missionaries, Ana Maria Jara Fierro and Mary Ann Ofialda, and one priest, Grégoire Vignola.
And it is again through different commitments [apostolate to Filipino foreign domestic workers, support of refugee groups, visit to women prisoners, accompaniment of mentally handicapped people and other people in difficulty, and ministry in parish] that it continuously tries to accomplish its pastoral and missionary priorities in Hong Kong.
Being now a small group in Hong Kong, we decided to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the foundation of our society in quite a simple and sober manner, with a Holy Eucharistic celebration, on November 21, at the parish of Mother of Christ in Sheung Shui, the New Territories, at the 6.00pm. John Cardinal John Tong Hon, the apostolic administrator of Hong Kong will preside at the English-language Sunday Mass.
Why Sheung Shui? Simply because it is an expression of our wish to continue to respond to the call of Pope Francis who, in Evangelii Gaudium [Joy of the Gospel], invites us to leave our comfort zones and try, as much as possible, to live “out” in order to reach all the “peripheries” in need of the light of the gospel—and because Mother of Christ Parish is under the responsibility of the Guadalupe Missionaries who have always generously opened their doors to us for different pastoral services.
And being a missionary society, it is together with all our inters, which make up the identity of our missionary family today [priest and lay missionary, man and woman, from different nationalities, cultural backgrounds, and generations] that we continue searching for the avenues on which the God of life invites us to go forward. Since we identify ourselves as servants of the gospel and as promoters of the missionary charisma and vocation, the ever-faithful God continues to ask: “Whom shall I send?” and even as a small and fragile missionary group, we continue to answer: “Here we are, Lord, send us” (Isaiah 6,8).
We cordially invite you to join us and participate in this Eucharistic Celebration on November 21, together thanking God who has accompanied us during these 100 years in different mission fields and who to this day continues to invite us to be his co-workers.
