Aid to the Church in Need: Youth Leaders from Laos coming to WYD Sydney are signs of Life and Hope!

Youth Leaders from Laos coming to WYD Sydney are signs of Life and Hope!

Posted by Project description on 6/3/2008, 12:20 pm
Message modified by board administrator 8/7/2008, 9:20 pm

Youth Leaders from Laos coming to WYD Sydney are signs of Life and Hope!

Since December last year, the preparations for the Youth delegation from Laos, travelling to World Youth Day in Sydney, have been in full swing. English classes, courses about Australia and orientation sessions about World Youth Day continue to take place. They have even mastered the WYD theme song!

(Young people in Laos practising a traditional dance)

Laos is the only landlocked country of southeast Asia, wedged between the powerful neighbours of Vietnam, Cambodia, Thailand, Burma and the southern Chinese province of Yunnan. 12 young Laotian Catholics from three of the four apostolic vicariates in the country, together with an accompanying Bishop, three priests and three sisters, will make up the group travelling to WYD 2008.

The youth delegation from Laos will also be performing traditional Laotian dances and songs during WYD while staying as guests in the Australian host diocese and during the great event itself.

The relatively young diaspora Church in Laos has had a chequered past. Following the communist takeover of power in 1975, Church life in Laos was almost extinguished. Yet, prior to 1975, especially among the many ethnic minorities in the region of Paksé in southern Laos, there had once been a major Catholic mission in place. These mountain peoples are not Buddhists, like the majority of the population, but belong instead to natural animist religions. Entire villages had converted to Christianity and, with a minimum of outside help, had built their own bamboo chapels.

With the invasion of the Pathet Lao (which had begun in 1944 as an anti-Japanese resistance movement under communist leadership) this development came to an abrupt end. Under the communists, all foreign missionaries were expelled from the country, while native Laotian priests were thrown into prison or into labour camps. Many churches were destroyed. Of the three churches that existed in Luang Prabang prior to 1975, one was destroyed, one became a police station and one is still being used as a residential home.

However the situation has recently started to improve. In 2005, the first church built since 1975 was consecrated in Ban Pong Vang (Xaignabouli). In 2003, the church was allowed to buy land in Luang Prabang to build a residence within the vicariate. Last year, for the first time in over 50 years, a Laotian priest was consecrated in the vicariate of Paksé. Despite these positive developments the Church still has to contend with innumerable problems. The Catholic faithful are widely scattered (their numbers, according to different sources are somewhere between 35,000 and 39,000 Catholics - around 0.5 - 1% of the population). There is a real shortage of priests. For example, the vicariate of Luang Prabang is in the care of a single priest! Sometimes major feasts such as Christmas and Easter can only be celebrated weeks after the actual date in some of the remotest communities.

(Catholic youth form the Diocese of Pakse in Laos)

The Catholic Youth Ministry in Vientiane was only established in 1999, on the eve of the Great Jubilee of Christianity. The process of setting up these youth groups involved continual training throughout the vicariates and proved a challenging and difficult time for the Church. In a recent letter to Aid to the Church in Need (ACN), the Catholic charity for suffering Christians, one of the group leaders wrote. “At times we were fearful, worried, frustrated and challenged by the lack of venues and facilities for youth meetings. Added to this was the lack of human resources needed to conduct proper formation activities. Yet all these problems did not hinder or discourage the team. On the contrary they continue to witness to the joy of the risen Christ in a place where worship is limited to a minimum. Our Youth leaders become signs of LIFE and HOPE.”

Phillip Collignon, the National director of Aid to the Church in Need Australia says “It is of crucial importance for the growth of this small seed of the Catholic Church that there be a well-run youth apostolate and strong Catholic families from which vocations can grow and flourish. We want to support and encourage the dynamism and enthusiasm of these young people and at the same time give them every opportunity to broaden their horizons and experience the unity in diversity in our Catholic faith and in the Universal Church”.

ACN has helped fund the youth delegation from Laos to WYD 2008 with a grant of $24,750.

For further information please contact the Sydney office of ACN on (02) 9679-1929. e-mail: info@aidtochurch.org or write to Aid to the Church in Need PO Box 6245 Blacktown DC NSW 2148. Web: www.aidtochurch.org

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Aid to the Church in Need PO Box 6245 Blacktown DC NSW 2148 ABN: 62 418 911 594
Ph/Fax (02) 9679-1929 e-mail: info@aidtochurch.org web: www.aidtochurch.org