The Testimony of the Four Priests<br/><br/>

The closing ceremony of the Year of Priests was held in Rome from June 9th to June 11th. Related details were published in Kung Kau Poa, so these will not be described in detail here.<br/><br/>

The Pope attended the evening prayer gathering on the 10th  and the Mass of con-celebration in the morning of the 11th. A sense of satisfaction and unity were felt amongst the group of priests gathered there. The con-celebration of the Mass by The Pope with the other 15,000 priests was considered to be a real historical event.<br/><br/>

I’m going to share with you the witness given by four priests. Two of them had made a public testimony on June 9th at the Paul VI Audience Hall while the other two made their sharing during the journey to Assisi. The latter two are from the Hong Kong group (which includes 18 priests from Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan).<br/><br/>

The first priest came from Africa, Rwanda. He shared that while he was studying at the monastery, an unfortunate event happened there. One day, the armed rebels were forced to shoot the foreign seminarians to death. They asked the seminarians to stand out in groups of different ethnic identities but all of them refused to move and remained in the same spot. The whole group ended up getting killed. This priest was still young at that time and the bullet coming towards him was blocked by his older brother who died instantly on the spot.<br/><br/>

Later, he was ordained as a priest and sent to serve in a parish. While he was there, he recognized one of the rebels who had shot and killed the seminarians before. After a long period of inner struggle, he finally was able to forgive this “enemy” from his heart.<br/><br/>

The second one is a parish priest from Zurich. While he and the parishioners were giving out hot meals and helping foreign workers who had no legal residence permits, they were reported to the authorities and charged. However, their courage had won the support of the community. The City<br/><br/>

Council even changed the law because of them.<br/><br/>

The following sharing are the stories of two other priests who have set their hearts on pursuing their faith towards God.<br/><br/>

One of them is from mainland China and was interested in the Catholic religion since childhood. When he was in university, he started to take part in religious activities. He thought he was Catholic and was not aware that he could only receive the Eucharist after baptism. He was caught by a senior parishioner that he was invalidly receiving the Eucharist. Fortunately, this parishioner did not make much of an issue, but rather gave him good counsel and guidance. In the end, he went through the various stages of the catechumenate and formally became a Catholic.  Later, he was even ordained as a priest. He often joked about it himself: “I was co-habitating together with God first, and then got married with Him later!”<br/><br/>

Another one is a diocesan priest from Chiayi City,Taiwan. He was born into a Buddhist family. His desire was to become a monk when he grew up. He then decided to look for an admirable master. One day, he passed by a Catholic Church and went inside to take a rest. There he felt an unknown surge of peace filling his heart and soul. It is because of this special grace, “the prospective monk” finally became a Catholic, and later even became an "apprentice"of  Jesus.<br/><br/>

What seems impossible in the eyes of man turns out to be a powerful witness to the amazing grace of God!<br/><br/>

(Published in Kung Kao Pao - July 23, 2010)