austraLasia #1853

Cardinal Zen visits North America

HONG KONG: 22nd May 2007 --  Cardinal Zen is currently making a tour of Chinese emigrant communities in North America, covering both the Eastern and Western seaboards and some other cities.  The visits began in Los Angeles on 9th May and will continue throughout the US and Canada until 2nd June. We will undoubtedly pick up more information from Salesian sources as he moves through the US and Canada.
    Cardinal Zen celebrated Mass for the Salesian administered Chinese Parish of St Bridget in Los Angeles on 10th May.  It was a weekday so numbers were down.  The parish priest is Fr John Lam sdb.  The Cardinal is making his first visit as Cardinal, to North America.  He visited earlier (2000) as Bishop.
    Cardinal Zen will be visiting Boston, Chicago, New York, San Francisco and Washington DC in the US as well as Calgary, Montreal, Toronto and Vancouver in Canada. Last Sunday May 20th, the Cardinal celebrated Mass in Cantonese at St Agnes Kouying Tsao Catholic Church (not a Salesian parish) where the 1,000 or more parishioners watched him install the relics of Saint Joannes Dufresse, a bishop of the Paris Foreign Missions Society.  The bishop, as also St Agnes Tsao, are among the Chinese martyrs canonized along with Sts Louis Versiglia and Callistus Caravario, Salesians, in 2000.
    On the Feast of Mary Help of Christians, 24th May, Cardinal Zen will open a meeting of the North American Chinese Clergy and Laity Association in Chicago. He will also receive an honorary doctorate from Amherst College, near Boston.
    In his talks to Chinese Catholics, as he moves through the two countries, Cardinal Zen is heightening expectations of the Pope's Pastoral Letter to Chinese Catholics, once thought to be likely for publication at Easter, but now predicted as possibly for Pentecost.
   
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