Christmas | Bishop’s message encourages fellow believers to ‘bring friends to the church’

Stephen Lee

In his first Christmas message to the Catholic community since becoming Bishop of Macau, Stephen Lee encouraged believers to strive to bring more people to the church.

“Encourage all your fellow parishioners to bring friends, especially those who have been away from the church,” Lee said in the message published December 23 on the website of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Macau. The message was titled: “Going back to the Father’s embrace.”

In a message that emphasized the ideals of “mercy” and “reconciliation”, Stephen Lee wrote, “I hope the Diocese of Macau will keep promoting a merciful culture during the upcoming few months” and quoted Pope Francis’ Apostolic letter “Misericordia et Miseria” from late November this year, which focuses on “mercy” and “reconciliation”.

“We are sinners and we bear the burden of contradiction between what we wish to do and what we do in fact. Yet grace always precedes us and takes on the face of the mercy that effects our reconciliation and pardon,” he quoted. He used Pope Francis’ quote to comment on the topic of reconciliation, in which he is said to be particularly interested. Lee said that he plans to publish a book next year with reports on reconciliation. In his preparations for the book, he requested fellow believers to help send him personal stories on the topic.

Another topic addressed in the message was the “availability” of people for the religious sacraments.

“This event [the sacrament], allows us to feel God’s embrace: he comes out welcoming us, restoring our grace, letting us become his children once again, […] through this event [the sacrament], we confess our sins, and then we see, we acknowledge, we feel and embrace God’s great love,” he concluded. RM