Sister with get up and go
Jim Mulroney
Fr Mulroney tells us how young Sisters resurrect an old Columban dream.
In 1936, Bishop Edward Galvin began a congregation of sisters in his diocese in Wuhan, where the Han River meets the Yangtze.
Suppressed during the dark years of Communist rule, the older sisters began regrouping with the reopening of China in the late 1980s. However, the small convent of the Handmaids of Christ, tucked away behind the old Columban church in Hanyang City looked destined to end its days as a home for the elderly, until a teenage Zhang arrived in the city eager to expand her religious horizons.
"When I was a young girl I was excited when I was offered a chance to spend time at a church in the city helping the priest, because I had already developed a liking for community work."
She explained how she met young priests in the city and spent all her spare time visiting the sick with them, teaching catechism to children and visiting Catholic people.
"I developed a whole new perspective on religion," she noted, "and the old ladies at the convent told exciting stories about religious life."
At the age of 18 she joined the moribund congregation and is now one of eight young Sisters who are giving the remaining few a new energy with the hope of seeing their work live into the future.
Sr Clara said their small group was desperate for someone to speak English to help them to communicate with the outside world. "I had some background in the language," she said, "so I was encouraged to go off and study. I was lucky," she continued, "I was able to get a scholarship and some financial help."
Her newly-acquired and above-average ability in the language has taken her to Gaungzhou, just north of the Hong Kong border, where she has spent the last 12 months learning how to care for both children and adults with physical and mental disabilities. "I have been with the Huiling Foundation," she said, explaining that it is a non-government organisation founded and run by Chinese Catholic people. She said that she and her compatriots need such skills, not only to serve the people, but to provide some income as well. "We cannot just expect to be supported from outside," she explained.
However, this is not the type of work that Sr Clara feels called to do. "Guangzhou is much more advanced than my home city," she said. "The Sisters here have all sorts of programmes and resources for teaching the young people in the parishes. There is nothing like that in Hanyang, but I can see the need is great." She said, "I would really love to do that kind of work."
"I want to do so many things, I do not know where to start." Nevertheless, the enthusiasm of the bright and articulate young member of the community, is indeed a sign of hope in a Church that struggles against restrictive government policies.
Fr Jim Mulroney is currently the editor of the Sunday Examiner newspaper in Hong Kong.
