Returned from Taiwan

FABC BILA meeting has been finished on Thursday evening with a closing Mass in near by parish in Taoyuan. Mass was attended by both participants of the meeting and local Catholics of the parish who organised a welcome party for us after the Mass. As the time-table of our meeting was so tight, I could not go out from the building where we stayed since our arrival on Monday. So it was good for us to have a chance to be away from the meeting site and be with local people. Also it was good occasion to know the talent of our participants to entertain others. Especially we are all amazed and enjoyed dancing performance of Korean group led by a Sister who is a wonderful dancer.

During the meeting, besides a talk by Bishop Tagle, Sr. Choi Hae Young, RSCJ, a provincial superior of RSCJ sisters in Korea, gave a talk on the title, "Mary, Model of discipleship in the Church." Also the drafting committee worked so hard that we could manage to complete the meeting with a wonderful final statement. The main objectives of the meeting was: to encourage the Church to look Mary as a woman who lived through many of the trying situations that women experience today, and to encourage women to draw courage and inspiration from her, and to provide for the continuing process of awareness of women's role and hence provide a guide to do this program in the home diocese of the participants. In many countries in East Asia, though the majority of the Church community are women, still decisions are made by men.How to encourage women to be involved in the decision making process in Church community would be one of the crucial point we have to seriously look into, including in my diocese.

On Friday, finally released from sitting in a meeting room, we went out to Taipei city for a day tour. Photo above is taken at our first stop, the Museum of World Religions which is run by Buddhist monks. The museum provides information on several major religions in the world and also invite visitors to find the meaning of meditation. A Buddhist nun gave us an introduction talk and invited us to join the vegetarian lunch in the museum cafeteria. In fact, we were surprised to see so many varieties of vegetarian dishes. It seems the cafeteria is also popular among local people. Also we visited the Taiwan National Women's Center after the museum.

Thanks for those who organised the meeting and thanks for our host in Taiwan.