TAIPEI (UCAN) -- Catholic lay leaders in Taiwan hope to strengthen laypeople's faith formation for evangelization through a youth pilgrimage, a Eucharistic assembly and closer ties with parishes.

Brother Wu Chao-ting told UCA News June 18 that the youth pilgrimage, part of the program for Taiwan Youth Day 2004, is a response to Pope John Paul II's call for youth formation. It is aimed at maintaining the spirit of Asian Youth Day 2003 in Bangalore, India, and preparing for the World Youth Day 2005 in Cologne, Germany, he added.

The pilgrimage will be held in two phases in Nantou county, central Taiwan. The first phase, limited to 25 participants aged at least 17, is a spiritual formation hike Aug. 9-13, said Brother Wu, who delivered a youth program report to the June 5 board meeting of the Council for Lay Apostolate (CLA).

It aims to foster a tradition so that youth in Taiwan will have a local activity of their own apart from participating in Asian and World Youth Days.

"The hiking, similar to Catholic youth walks in Europe, will be adventurous. The hikers will carry backpacks and meditate along the mountainous walk for six to seven hours each day," said Brother Wu of the Congregation of St. John.

In the second phase, the hikers will join the rest of the Youth Day participants on Aug. 13 for a three-day program including another pilgrimage, a charity walkathon and a liturgy open to youth of any religious background.

The walkathon hopes to raise funds for the building of a home for mentally challenged adults in Chiayi diocese. The facility was the wish of the late Jesuit Father Francis Burkhardt, who spent most of his lifetime caring for severely challenged children, many of whom now are grown.

Taiwan Youth Day is being organized by the bishops conference's Commission for Laity and sponsored by the CLA, which comprises councils for lay apostolate in all dioceses and islandwide lay groups.

The June 5 CLA meeting at the Taipei archbishop's office heard, in addition to Brother Wu's report, a progress report on the Eucharistic assembly to be held in Taiwan Dec. 5. This will occur during the Eucharistic Year the pope recently announced, which will begin with the International Eucharistic Congress in October in Mexico.

Cheng Chao-yang, chairperson of Kaohsiung diocese's lay apostolate, told UCA News June 18 that Catholics there hope to baptize 1,000 children aged 8 or older to mark the Eucharistic assembly, scheduled at the diocese's Immaculate Conception Minor Basilica in Pingtung county.

Cheng, the assembly's chief organizer, said preparatory events will include an essay competition, a notice-board design contest, adoration of the Blessed Sacrament and a blood donation drive. "The first three are to deepen the Catholics' understanding of the Eucharist, and the last one is to show our commitment to society," Cheng said.

According to Auxiliary Bishop James Liu Tan-kuei of Taipei, the CLA board used to convene quarterly, but the current president visits individual diocesan councils to obtain a better understanding of their situation.

Bishop Liu, the CLA spiritual director, told UCA News the latest meeting was more like a sharing among the 20 chairpersons and vice chairpersons of the diocesan lay apostolate councils and lay groups in Taiwan. The importance of such meetings is not in the gathering per se but the message the lay leaders bring back to their diocese or group, he noted.

Citing a response mechanism for urgent social assistance the CLA has set up, Bishop Liu said the Church can better show its presence in and concern for society if dioceses and parishes respond directly to immediate needs.

"It is futile that all Church reactions to social needs must go through or be arranged by the bishops' conference, because it takes time," he said.

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