The Salesian Society of Don Bosco took over the leadership of St. Bridget’s Chinese Catholic Center in Los Angeles in 1991.
Since that time the Chinese Catholic community has experienced a tremendous rejuvenation. The Center has actually doubled its facilities, allowing the parishioners to greatly increase their programs and services and above all, their enthusiasm.
In 1991, the Salesian Society of Hong Kong (China province) officially sent Fr. Francis Lau, SDB, assisted by Bro. Paul Lee, SDB, to Los Angeles. Together they totally renovated and refurbished the facility and founded a non-profit association to raise funds to support and expand the work.
Now the Mary Help of Christians House holds religious education sessions for children, karate and computer classes, Legion of Mary and sodality meetings. It also opens regularly for cultural and recreational activities for the neighborhood.
The parishioners attending St. Bridget’s actually reside in some 11 different regions of Greater Los Angeles. At the same time, new efforts were made to serve parishioners spread across the Southland through neighborhood rosary, family visiting and an Immigration Services Committee. A publication committee offers a monthly bilingual newsletter of Bible meditation outlines and spiritual messages.
Religious services have been expanded to open up various ministries to the lay men and women of the parish. Pastor Fr. Joseph Cheng, SDB, has added a second Chinese Mass to accommodate the overflow. The Sacred Heart Sisters run weekend religious education classes. In October 1995, Fr. Cheng engaged Maryknoller Sr. Molly Mertens to do full-time community pastoral work, especially in the outreach programs.
At last, Fr. Cheng feels that St. Bridget’s centrally located mission for all Chinese is ready for the next steps in pastoral work:
To increase membership, the parishioners share special programs and events with Chinese Catholics and non-Catholics in the outlying suburbs (i.e. on-site retreats, walkathon fund raiser, and our Chinese New Year activities). A special English "Friendship" Mass was held asking each parishioner to bring one extra person to participate in the services.
Evangelization has been a pervasive theme. There is a very large non-Christian population. St. Bridget’s has recently offered an increasing number of retreats, special evangelist speakers and documentaries. The most impressive event was "St. Bridget’s Chinese Together in Mission" Evangelization Rally, held on October 29, 1995.
Because one-third of the community consists of young people, both foreign and native-born, Fr. Cheng has targeted this group as a top priority. Step one was to charter Scout groups for the boys and girls. A youth group, "Shepherd," was formed by Chinese-speaking young immigrants. A group of second-generation teenagers has formed an association called "Serving to Unite," or STU. Their main goal is to build bonds of friendship with others by serving them in some capacity.
In 1996 a six-week summer program was organized for children living in the vicinity. This project is part of the continuing outreach efforts to evangelize through contact with the young. Twenty-four youngsters participated in the program. There were classes in English,
math and Chinese in the mornings, and activities in the after noon.
A major evangelization project was undertaken at the beginning of 1996 with the opening of St. Bridget’s Outreach Center at the core of Los Angeles’ Chinatown. Open to the public, classes are offered in English, citizenship, senior citizen activities, exercise and reading. A parish member who is an expert on tax reports assists people who come to the center for help. At the present time St. Bridget’s depends totally on volunteers to run the center. If they are able to obtain sufficient funding in the future, they plan to expand services and thereby further the work of evangelization.
What are St. Bridget’s hopes for the future?
|
|