XILINGOL LEAGUE (Agenzia Fides): Today “we have inaugurated a place of worship, but we must also build a spiritual temple in our hearts,” said the Archbishop Paul Meng Qinglu of Hohhot, Inner Mongolia, China. He was speaking at the inauguration of a new church dedicated to Saint Anthony of Padua in the Xilingol League on June 13.
More than 400 people took part in the Mass celebrating the feast of the saint, which was concelebrated by about 20 priests and attended by 17 nuns.
Bishop Meng blessed the new altar, the monstrance, the ambo and the chalice. In his homily, he invited everyone to give thanks for the gift of baptism, which has made “our hearts a temple of God, a dwelling place for the Holy Spirit.”
Father Peter Ren Zhongxun, the parish priest said, “The church is small but welcoming and blessed. The Lord Jesus is here, the Holy Spirit is here. Thanks to the generosity and help of everyone—every brother and sister, the bishop, every priest and every nun—we were able to achieve this result: a place of worship in the steppe of the Xilingol League.”
The church is small but welcoming and blessed. The Lord Jesus is here, the Holy Spirit is here. Thanks to the generosity and help of everyone—every brother and sister, the bishop, every priest and every nun—we were able to achieve this result: a place of worship in the steppe of the Xilingol League
Father Peter Ren Zhongxun
The previous church was classified as an unsafe building in 2023. Since then, Father Ren and the parishioners have been working to raise the funds to buy a building and convert it into a church. The new place of worship has an area of over 300 square metres. And the parish has grown through this experience in community and mutual charity.
The Xiligol League belonged to the mission of the Scheut Missionaries [the Congregation of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, CICM].
Just recently, from June 10, the Archbishop Emeritus of Malines-Brussels and president of the Ferdinand Verbiest Foundation of Leuven, Jozef Cardinal De Kesel, visited Inner Mongolia together with Father Charles Phukuta, superior general of the Scheut Missionaries, and other missionaries, including the 92-year-old Father Jeroom Heyndrickx.
Currently the Xilingol community numbers about 40,000 Catholics. Recently, the number of baptised increased significantly, also thanks to the missionary commitment of the local community.
For lay people, training courses are often offered on topics such as liturgy, sacred scripture, the evangelising mission of the sisters and the universal priesthood of all the baptised, particularly emphasised by the Second Vatican Council.
