Eucharistic adoration is gaining traction in Taiwan through its National Eucharistic Congress, amid geopolitical tensions. Source: National Catholic Register.
How do you explain the Real Presence to someone who has never heard of Jesus, let alone the Blessed Sacrament?
For Mary Wu, one of the founders of the National Eucharistic Congress in Taiwan, where Catholics make up only 1 per cent of the 23 million population, it all begins with the power of a simple invitation.
When an old friend confided in Ms Wu about personal suffering, Ms Wu told her: “I have a friend who knows you, and he knows everything that you have suffered.” Her friend had never heard of Jesus.
Ms Wu invited her to a chapel during Eucharistic adoration and sat silently beside her in front of the Blessed Sacrament.
“I said, ‘I am a Catholic and I do believe Jesus is here. You can tell everything in front of Jesus,’” Ms Wu said.
After 30 minutes, the friend turned to Ms Wu. “She said, ‘He knows everything. And I can feel he knows everything that I have suffered,’” Ms Wu recalled. “And then, she cried.” That friend later enrolled in classes for Christian initiation and is now Catholic.
Eucharistic adoration has been gaining ground in Taiwan over the past 15 years, thanks in large part to Taiwan’s National Eucharistic Congress.
Taiwan’s next National Eucharistic Congress is set to take place on the island of Penghu in the Taiwan Strait in 2027, which United States intelligence assesses is the year Chinese President Xi Jinping has instructed the People’s Liberation Army to be ready to conduct a successful invasion of Taiwan.
The Eucharistic evangelisation effort began in 2010, when Taiwan was invited to send a delegation to the Vatican for preparatory meetings ahead of the 2012 International Eucharistic Congress in Dublin. Ms Wu was part of that delegation.
At the time, a survey showed that fewer than 1 per cent of Catholics in Taiwan regularly attended Eucharistic adoration on their own. Yet the same survey found that 13 per cent of Catholics said they would be willing to attend if their priest invited them.
For Ms Wu, the message was clear: People were open; they just needed to be asked.
Taiwan’s first National Eucharistic Congress was held in 2011 in the Archdiocese of Taipei and drew more than 4000 people. About 14,000 participated in the most recent gathering in October 2024.
FULL STORY
‘She Had Never Heard the Name of Jesus’: Eucharistic Evangelization in Taiwan (By Courtney Mares, National Cathoilc Register)
