主編的話

台北南懷仁研究中心 主任 范凱令 神父
 
In 1963 the Pastoral review “Witness Magazine” was founded. It aimed to be a platform to assist, share and deepen in the ministry of the Word and Catechism among Taiwan Catholics. With time it became, too, a reference for Catholics in other Chinese speaking churches. “Panta Rei” (all flows) said Heraclitus, a clear reminder that sometimes the rapid flow of human society also may take away some good things that may have become difficult to keep standing in the current. When 2 years ago (5/2015) Witness Magazine was “put on hold” among the abundant feedback, many considered it was a sad moment. After 2 years Verbiest Institute Taipei is decided to, once again, take up the challenge, this time in a web format, becoming Witness on the Web (WoW); Printing and delivery costs were among the factors contemplated when it was decided to stop Witness Magazine.

WoW aims to be a tool for dialogue within the church. As once I heard fr. Jeroom Heyndricks say, true dialogue is the one open to talk with all those present at the table; what is the merit of dialogue with like-minded spirits? Indeed, one of the peculiarities of Jesus’ ministry was it openness to dialogue with all, even to the point of including some demons that were roaming around. Today’s Catholic pastoral ministry can’t keep out of the dialogue table those who do not think like us… because that will mean renouncing to our basic tenant of Church existence: Go and proclaim the Good News!

Dialogue also implies to be open to let one’s mind be questioned by the others’ premises. Dialogue is not a fight to convince others of what I think is true and right, but a commitment to open our minds and share our thoughts to find together a higher ground.

In this XXI century world Witness on the Web also wants to leave behind borders and aims, in the age of Internet, to be an open stage in Chinese for the Church. We want to bring together voices from China, Hong Kong, Macao, Taiwan Singapore… and the many Chinese speaking communities all over the world. Likewise, it is a stage for all: bishops, priests, religious, lay, individuals, groups…

This first issue of WoW tries to give a look to the situation of pastoral work in the different local churches within Chinese context and to present some of the immediate challenges they may be facing. For this, we asked the different authors to use “The Joy of the Gospel” (numbers 15, 34-36, 64, 66, 67, 69, 70, 72-74, 102-106) as a mirror to see what kind of church is reflected. Indeed their analysis present us some hopes as well as some important challenges that need to be addressed so the Joy of the Gospel can truly take root in the Chinese speaking Churches.


《見證雜誌》是於1963年成立的牧靈刊物。其宗旨是在台灣天主教徒之間成為一個平台，以彼此協助、分享並深化他們在聖言及教理講授裡的牧靈工作。隨著時間的推移，《見證雜誌》也同時成為其他華人教會天主教徒的參考資料。希臘哲學家Heraclitus曾說「萬物是流動的」“Panta Rei”，這清楚提醒我們，有時人類社會的迅速流動也可能帶走一些好東西而難以保持現狀。2年前（2015年5月）當《見證雜誌》暫時停刊之後，許多人認為那是一個令人惋惜的時刻。2年後，台北南懷仁研究中心決定再次承接這個艱鉅的任務，這次利用網絡(網站) 的方式，成立「網站上的見證─見證網誌 Witness on the Web（WoW）」，因為過去印刷和郵遞支出成本也是迫使見證雜誌暫時停刊的考量因素之一。 
 

《見證網誌》的目標是在成為教會內部對話的工具，就像我曾聽韓德力神父說過，真正的對話是一個可以與平台 (檯面) 上所有人開放的談話。能夠用志同道合的精神進行對話有什麼優點呢？事實上，耶穌聖工 (宣講福音) 的一個特點就是開放對所有人的對話，甚至包括一些我們生活周圍的惡人邪念。今天的天主教牧靈福傳是不能將一些與我們意見不同的人排除在對話平台之外，因為這將代表我們放棄了我們的基本群眾，而那正是教會存在的基本意義：「去宣揚好消息吧！」
 

對話也意味著願意開放心胸，接納他人對我們預設的質疑。對話不是爭論、想要說服他人認同我的想法才是真實和正確的，而是承諾「開放思想」，分享我們的想法，共同尋求更高的領域 (境界)。

在這個二十一世紀的世界，《見證網誌》也希望在目前網際網絡的時代中，摒除邊界和教條式的目標，成為教會開放的中文平台。我們期望能夠匯集來自中國、香港、澳門、台灣、新加坡等地、以及世界各地許多華人社區的聲音。同樣，這也是以下所有人的舞台：包括主教、神父、修士、修女、教友、個人、團體……等等。

第一期的《見證網誌》試圖觀察不同地方教會的華人牧靈福傳情況，並呈現他們當前可能面臨的一些挑戰。為此，我們邀請不同的作者使用《福音的喜樂》（編號15,34-36,64,66,67,69,70,72-74,102-106），反映教會的各種寫照，以作為借鏡。 事實上，他們的分析帶給我們一些希望，並提出一些待解決的重大挑戰，因此「福音的喜樂」是可以真正紮根於華人教會的。

台北南懷仁研究中心 主任

范凱令 神父
Francisco Carin Garcia
Verbiest Institute Taipei

 
回上層