The Parish of Saint Dominic in Aoya, Kaohsiung celebrated the patronal feast on 7 August 2022. This coincided with the 60th anniversary of the evangelization of the Aoya District and the foundation of the Parish community as well as the official end of the Dominican Jubilee which the Holy See had bestowed the Church as an extraordinary Jubilee pilgrimage site.
The parish marked a year-and-a-half-long celebration of pilgrimages, special liturgies, and new pastoral and apostolic programs in the midst of the constant threat of the COVID pandemic. Aside from welcoming various communities and entities as pilgrims, the parish had been actively promoting a renewal of pastoral life and catechesis.
The celebration was preceded by the traditional solemn triduum leading up to the parish feast on the 7 August with the solemn mass presided by the Bishop of Kaohsiung, Msgr Peter Liu Chengzhong with various friars from our different communities, from the Vice-Province, and from the Diocese. Other Christian communities administered by the Province in southern Taiwan also came with a huge delegation of Christians to share the joy of our parish community.
Three moments were given importance in the celebration: the solemn profession of faith in the presence of the Bishop as a symbol of our commitment to continue to live our belongingness to Christ and to the Church; the blessing of the new chalice as the sign of our communion in the celebration of the Eucharist. The new chalice set arrived recently and is the authentic replica of the holy chalice of Valencia, making our Parish community the only Church to venerate and possess this relic in the country and the second one to date in Asia. Lastly, as a collective response of the parish community, we have committed to fully collaborating and assisting the Diocese to organize the famous “Apostles Bible Course” to re-ignite the parochial ministry towards a new springtime of the new evangelization. The course shall begin in September 2022 and will last for nine full months.
To make remembrance of this great event, a commemorative plaque was raised and was unveiled by the Bishop as a testimony of our gratitude for this singular year of grace and for the gift of faith received through the concerted efforts of the missionaries, the lay catechists and women religious as well as the entire parish community.
Fr Jarvis Sy OP
