Prato Chinese Catholic Church, Italy
We spent the month of August planning our trip back to Rome. We arrived a few days ago and have been very busy with meetings and visiting places.
We were invited by Monsignor Perego of the Italian Bishops Conference to visit the Chinese Catholic community in Prato, a city outside of Florence. He wants us to work with this community to assist them in evangelizing the over 50,000 Chinese living in this city.
This Catholic community started over 15 years ago and keeps growing every year. We visited last year and met Father Francesco Saverio Wang who was in charge of the Chinese community at Parrocchia Dell’Ascensione. This time when we went, Father Wang was on his way to the airport to fly to his new assignment in China. We were so happy to see him again even though it was to say goodbye.
The parish has a new pastor, Father Roberto a Franciscan Friar who, although Italian, speaks Chinese very well. He will be taking care of the masses in Italian. Father Paolo Hou, also a Franciscan, will be taking over the care of the Chinese at the parish. There are three religious Sisters from China who will be assisting the Priests. Also at the meeting was Monsignor Santino Bruneti, the Director of the migration office for the Diocese of Prato. We were grateful to Father Pietro Sun from San Bernardino da Siena Chinese Parish in Rome who accompanied us to Prato.
