Lay Catholics from all over Asia met for the first time in Bangkok last weekend to mark the 50th anniversary of the opening of the Second Vatican Council. The first Asia-wide meeting of the International Forum Catholic Action (IFAC), which brings together lay Catholic organizations involved in spreading faith through engagement with society, was held from March 22-25. Around 30 delegates from Myanmar, India, the Philippines, China, Laos and Thailand presented their own experiences and discussed how to strengthen lay people role's in the Church's mission and in their own countries. The meeting was opened by two keynote speeches. Sandro Calvani, director of the ASEAN Centre of Excellence on UN Millennium Development Goals, at the Asian Institute of Technology, examined the values, choices and areas which call for Christian lay people’s attention, while Monsignor Felix Machado, Archbishop of Vasai, India, reflected on “Evangelization in Asia in the Third Millennium: challenges and proposals for the continent and for the world.” In a message to participants, Msgr Savio Hon Tai-Fai, secretary of the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples, wrote that the Second Vatican Council, in the Decree on the Apostolate of the Laity, singled out as one of “signs of our times,” the “irresistibly increasing sense of the solidarity of all peoples.” “It is a function of the lay apostolate sedulously to promote this awareness and to transform it into sincere and genuine love of brotherhood,” he said. He urged lay Catholics in Asia to encourage young people to “open themselves to a love for God and for others, and to live this same love with purity of heart”. Msgr Roland J Tria Tirona, Bishop of Infanta and chairman of the Office for Family and Laity at the Federation of Asian Bishops Conferences, said the meeting is a sign of recognition of the “emerging force of Asian lay leaders and the capabilities of the Asian laity in the work of new evangelization.” Given the diversity of cultures, economic status and religious beliefs and future orientations, Asia is still open to initiatives that help promote and facilitate dialogue and concrete actions that can create bridges of understanding, participation and cooperation, they said.