Jul 19, 2006 / 22:00 pm
The Diocese of Hong last week inaugurated the Hong Kong Catholic Diocesan Heritage Centre, a mini-museum focused on the early local Church and its development, reported UCA News. The local Church was established in 1841.
Auxiliary Bishop John Tong Hon officiated at the July 9th, ceremony. The two-room facility is inside the Holy Spirit Seminary College library on Hong Kong Island.
More than 100 artifacts of historical religious significance have been put on display, but the exhibit will only be ready for the public in October. Eventually, the museum would like to grow to include 2,000 artifacts.
Before Bishop Tong blessed the rooms, he told attendees that the exhibit can inspire the current-day faithful to model their lives after the early missionaries, who were prayerful, simple, visionary, good communicators, concerned about the weak and poor, and who worked closely with lay people.
Some of the artifacts include a green Chinese-style pagoda, worn by Pope Paul VI when he celebrated mass in Hong Kong in December 1970. Others, such as a document submitted by Jesuit Father Matteo Ricci (1552-1610) to Ming Emperor Wanli, are of historic value. Many regard Ricci as the founder of modern-day Christianity in China.