Quote
“What is love? There are times we think of soap opera love. No, that does not look like love. Or love may seem like enthusiasm for a person and then it is extinguished.” | Pope Francis, in his homily during morning Mass Jan. 8 in the Domus Sanctae Marthae. (Catholic News Service)
In the news
Keeping frozen faithful close
HONG KONG— Catholic communities in China’s northeastern provinces are using social media to evangelize in the freezing and smoggy winter while still offering pastoral care directly to elderly Catholics to fill the digital gap, reported ucanews.com.
In Jilin, Heilongjiang and Liaoning provinces, the average temperature drops below freezing for four to six months a year. About 100,000 Catholics live in each of the three northeastern provinces.
According to a seminarian in Harbin, some families do not let elderly parents attend midnight Christmas Mass due to safety fears. “So it is a custom that our priests would go and visit the elderly Catholics before Christmas to hear confession and deliver holy Communion for them,” he said.
A Catholic in Harbin who identified herself as Teresa told ucanews.com that, during the freezing weather, the Internet and mobile apps become valuable evangelization tools.
“We use Wechat and QQ friends groups to connect fellow Catholics,” Teresa said about the Chinese social media platforms similar to Twitter and Facebook. (CNS)
Saints under 40
Modern martyr
St. Jaime Hilario Barbal did not let health problems or the threat of death impede his devotion to his faith. Born in 1898 into a pious family near the Pyrenees mountains, Jaime became a seminarian at age 12 but had to return home when hearing problems set in. He later joined the Christian Brothers and became a respected teacher; however, his hearing woes intensified and he had to leave teaching for gardening at the La Salle house in San Jose, Spain.
St. Jaime was imprisoned in 1936 and slain six months in 1937 later amid the Spanish civil war, during which people of faith were targeted. He did not die at the hands of a firing squad (it is thought that some soldiers purposely aimed wide); rather, it was the soldiers’ commander who delivered the fatal shots. St. Jaime was canonized in 1999. (www.catholic.org)
