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Dear Brothers and Sisters,

The Twentieth World Youth Day has finally concluded. Our Beloved Holy Father, Benedict the Sixteenth, particularly exhorted all the young people during the concluding Mass to imitate the Three Magi of the Orient in discovering the true star which points out the way to us: Jesus Christ. The Holy Father also reminded all the faithful to “not be deterred from taking part in Sunday Mass,” and to “discover the intimate richness of the Church’s liturgy and its true greatness.” Moreover, he pointed out the fact that “religion often becomes almost a consumer product…just sought on a do-it-yourself basis.”

Among the variety of activities in the 2005 World Youth Day, I would like to mention the event associated with the Tridentine Latin Mass. Juventutem — the official Tridentine Latin Mass organ in World Youth Day in Cologne, had arranged for three cardinals and eight other bishops to preside over Vespers, Benediction and the celebration of the Holy Mass. According to an Indonesian Mass attendant who is now

studying in Berlin, she said, “We don’t understand everything, but we know what it means.”

Youth Ministry is always a very significant pastoral issue in our Catholic community. The youth’s joyful as well as their energetic spirit strengthens and stimulates the growth of our Church and the expansion of God’s kingdom. Reflecting on the situation of our group, especially the young participants or altar servers, I came to realize the applicability of Youth Ministry in our Mass community. Let us offer our prayers for all the young people, specifically those in our Mass group. Encouragement and appreciation is much needed as well. I believe the enthusiasm and influential conviction of the young Mass participants would spread to the Church, society, and their family, so that they may help people to discover the true star—Jesus, who points out the way to the others just like the Three Magi of the Orient.

Lastly, with the approval of the prelates of the Diocese of Hong Kong, I would like to announce the latest personnel arrangement of our core group. Mr. Cyril Jerome Law,

Jr. would be in charge of the Tridentine Latin Mass Community. He is enthusiastic about the Traditional Catholic Sacred Liturgy and he has recently graduated with a degree in Philosophy and received training in Gregorian chant in the United States. I would like to express my gratitude to Mr. Law, as well as to the former persons-in-charge, Mr. Augustine Chow, Mr. Paul Leung and Mr. Peter Chan. Many thanks for their generosity and for being so charitable towards our Latin Mass Community. May the Lord grant them abundant graces.

In Christ,

Bro. Carlos Cheung, sdb.
Advisor to the Tridentine Latin Mass Community, Hong Kong

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

Our community was very honoured to have our diocese's "grandpa," His Eminence Joseph Cardinal Zen, S.D.B., to celebrate the 5th Anniversary of the Indult Tridentine Latin Mass in Hong Kong on 22nd April 2006. Our sincere gratitude goes to His Eminence for offering the Solemn Pontifical High Mass. We also thank Fr. Lido Mencarini, P.I.M.E., our regular chaplain, Fr. Duncan Wong, F.S.S.P., who hailed from Sydney, Rev. (Deacon) Albert Ho, S.D.B., as well as the choristers and altar boys, who all together made the ceremonies a feat of heavenly splendour.

The Mass of the day was the seventh day in the Easter Octave, known as Sabbato in Albis, the Saturday in White. The Church's practice was to gather the newly baptized back to the place of their baptism eight days after, then for the first time the neophytes lay aside their white baptismal robes. The communion antiphon that day sings, "You all who were baptized in Christ have vested Christ. Omnes qui in Christo baptizati estis, Christum induistis, alleluia!" We have to preserve the spotless

sanctifying grace received in baptism, so as to let Christ's redemptive work continue in us.

The Paschal Sacrifice of Christ -- the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass is the continuation of the salvific plan. Christ is truly present on the altar in an unbloody manner, so that we who participate in the sufferings of Christ may be saved and forgiven. His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI said in 1998 that many Latin Mass faithful "have been confirmed in the joy of being able to live the liturgy, and confirmed in their love for the Church." As we celebrate the 5th Anniversary of the local Indult Tridentine Mass community, let us examine our awareness of the continuation of the work of salvation in our lives, with the view to increase our love for the Church's sacred liturgy, to foster our Christian identity, and to bear witness in daily life

We are happy to announce that Cardinal Zen has already granted permission for the Tridentine Latin Mass at Cheung Sha Wan Secondary School Chapel to be celebrated as an anticipated Sunday Mass, following the Roman Missal and the Roman Calendar

promulgated in 1962. It would be effective from June, 2006. (C.f. Chancery Notice: http://sundayex.catholic.org.hk/chancery/ci060528.html) This permission shows the Church's loving concern with regards to the needs of her faithful. It also affirms the multifarious expression of the Church's sacred liturgy, thus allowing the faithful in need to encounter Christ in the liturgy while following the Church's teachings.

May we continue be graced to contemplate Christ's countenance in holy liturgy and in daily life, to imitate Christ, to be the Lord's faithful disciples.

Consultant
Br. Carlos Cheung, S.D.B.
Feast of Our Lady Help of Christians, 2006

In Memory of Our Beloved Father - Rev. Lido Mencarini, P.I.M.E.
3rd May 2007

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

May the Risen Christ grant us His Peace!

Our beloved chaplain, Rev. Lido Mencarini, PIME, passed away at the age of 90 on 2 May 2007, at Canossa Hospital. We mourn over the passing yet thank the Lord for the gift of this holy priest, who gave us an example of zeal and patience for souls. Our ounces of tears will never match the tremendous amounts of good deeds and sound teachings we have learnt from him.

Last Saturday, on the eve of the Feast of the Good Shepherd, Mr. Cyril Law, Jr. and I paid Fr. Mencarini our last visit. He bid us never to forget this: “In sua voluntate est nostra pax” (In His Will lies our peace — Words of St. Augustine). Indeed God gave us

the freedom to obey His Holy Will, and this sacred exchange (divinum commercium) renders us closely united with God on the path to the blessed life.

Fr. Mencarini loves the Church, and his lifelong dedication to the Diocese of Hong Kong was infused with a spirit of humility and of obedience. Moreover, his brilliant example of life is respectively reflected in the solemnity with which he offered the Sacrifice of the Mass, and not to mention his superlative skill in Gregorian Chant.

Christ is our resurrectio cum vita, He conquered death with death, thus ushered us into eternal life. God bids a respectable priest like Fr. Mencarini back to his side, and his faithful can do no more than to accept this fact in a mixed spirit of dolour and joy. We in good faithful ask that he prays for us.

Dear Father Mencarini, while cum beatis in Patria, forget us not in our trials! You need not drive all the way bi-weekly from Clearwater Bay to Cheung Sha Wan anymore; nor could pain and old age stricken you, for now you are at the Lamb’s High Feast on high,

at that celestial Liturgy, whereby God is at your side, our prayers under your eyes. Dear Father Mencarini, see you when we get There. Ciao!

Yours affectionately,

The Faithful of the Indult Tridentine Latin Mass, CSW
(Bro. Carlos Cheung, S.D.B.)

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