TAIPEI (UCAN) -- The Catholic Church in Taiwan is preparing to celebrate the Year of St. Paul, beginning later this year, and next year's 150th anniversary of the establishment of Catholicism on the island.

According to Archbishop John Hung Shan-chuan of Taipei, new president of the Chinese Regional Bishops' Conference (CRBC) in Taiwan, both events will make major demands on the local Church in 2008.

Pope Benedict XVI last year declared a Pauline Year from June 28, 2008, to June 29, 2009, on the occasion of the saint's 2,000th birth anniversary. Historians have placed his birth around A.D. 7-10.

Archbishop Hung was elected president at CRBC's autumn plenary meeting, held Nov. 26-30. He succeeded his predecessor in Taipei, Archbishop Joseph Cheng Tsai-fa, who retired on Nov. 9, 2007.

According to the minutes of the meeting, the bishops suggested that the theology faculty of Fu Jen Catholic University hold an academic symposium involving all three Catholic tertiary institutions in Taiwan to enhance Catholics' knowledge of Saint Paul's evangelization work.

The bishops also planned to invite the Daughters of St. Paul to produce, collect and promote videos and books on their patron saint. They recommended that each diocese, on the occasion of its bishop's ad limina visit to the Vatican in December 2008, organize pilgrimages to the Basilica of St. Paul's Outside the Walls in Rome and places along the route the saint traveled as he proclaimed the Good News.

The 150th anniversary celebrations of the establishment of the Catholic Church in Taiwan will begin immediately after the Pauline Year ends, according to the bishops.

Archbishop Hung told UCA News on Jan. 7 that all seven dioceses in Taiwan will hold celebrations centered on the theme: The Blessed Mother Brings Jesus to Taiwan. Among planned activities, historical Church artifacts and the Marian statue at the Wanchin Immaculate Conception Minor Basilica in southern Taiwan will be taken to all dioceses on the island.

The Church will also publish a book introducing 100 historic Catholic churches across the island as well as nearby secular tourist attractions as a way of motivating people to visit these Church sites during public holidays. Lay volunteer guides will be trained to explain the history and features of these buildings to visitors, Archbishop Hung added.

Bishops at the November meeting asked Bishop Peter Liu Chen-chung of Kaohsiung to head a committee organizing the anniversary celebrations.

Catholicism actually arrived on the island in 1626, when Spanish Dominicans landed in northern Taiwan. However, their missionary efforts were brief and are hard to trace.

In 1859, three Spanish missioners from the Philippines and five Chinese lay catechists sailed across the Strait of Taiwan from Xiamen, in mainland China, and landed in Kaohsiung. The local Catholic Church grew from there, and now has about 300,000 members.

Just one year ahead of the anniversary, the Taiwan Church passed a milestone when Father Martin Su Yao-wen was ordained bishop of Taichung last September, succeeding Bishop Joseph Wang Yu-jung, 76. Now all acting bishops on the island -- six heads of dioceses and two auxiliaries -- are Taiwan-born. Chiayi diocese, however, remains vacant after its last ordinary, then-Bishop Hung, was appointed archbishop of Taipei in November.

In addition to the eight acting bishops, the Taiwan Church now has nine retired bishops. One of them, Cardinal Paul Shan Kuo-hsi, who was diagnosed with lung cancer in 2006, has been touring Taiwan sharing his struggles with the disease, and his reflections on life and death.

Archbishop Hung told UCA News: "Now we (Taiwan-born bishops) are taking on a greater responsibility for the local Church. We have to work harder." The Taiwan Church suffers from a lack of priestly vocations and has relied greatly on foreign missioners, he noted, pointing out that only 10 seminarians are studying in the major seminary.

Other recent Church-related developments include Pope Benedict XVI's appointment of French Jesuit scholar Father Benoit Vermander, director of the Jesuit-run Taipei Ricci Institute, as a consultor to the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue.

In October, the pope made Lee Yuan-tseh, 71, former president of Taiwan's Academia Sinica research institute and a co-winner of the Nobel Prize in chemistry in 1986, a member of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences. Lee is not a Catholic.

END