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1) The Spiritual Dimension
1.1)
We promote prayers
not only for the underground Roman Catholic Church in China, but also for "our
separated brothers and sisters"
of the Chinese government-sponsored Patriotic Association so that they too
will be filled with the Holy Spirit and be courageous witnesses of Christ.
1.2)
In our "Prayer Sponsor"
Program, a "prayer
sponsor" promises to pray daily for a designated person, either for
an underground clergyman or for a Patriotic Association bishop's return to
the universal Church. We will send you a wallet sized card indicating the
person for whom you will be praying.
1.3)
With our Perpetual Rosary
for China, friends of the Foundation pledge to pray at least one rosary
each month for China on the same day of their choice. Many have pledged
weekly or even daily rosaries for China.
1.4)
The Cardinal Kung Foundation, together with its benefactors all over the
world, has been sponsoring an annual
Mass for many years to pray for
the end of persecution of the Roman Catholic Church in China. For 2008,
this annual Mass will be held on May 24 as requested by the Holy Father.
Please refer to page 2 of this newsletter for details.
1.5)
We distribute free holy cards
that include: Cardinal Kung's Prayers for China, and for Priests, Cardinal
Kung's Biography, Our Lady of China, Our Lady of Guadalupe, Our Lady of
She-Shan, and Prayer to the Guardian Angels of Aborted Babies and others.
2) The Information
Dissemination Dimension
2.1)
Our Newsletter
is published at least three times each year and is distributed free to
almost 30 countries. The Newsletter informs the public about news and
issues relating to the ongoing persecution of the Roman Catholic Church in
China as well as its traditions and history.
2.2)
Our Press Releases
on persecutions in China are issued only after meticulous verification of
the authenticity of the news. These releases are acknowledged as the
primary source of news worldwide relating to the persecution of the Roman
Catholic Church in China. They are carried by all major news wires such as
Association Press, Reuters, AFP, UPI, etc., and by most, if not all, major
newspapers worldwide. They are also recognized by many United States and
foreign government agencies.
2.3)
The Cardinal Kung Foundation
Website includes Cardinal Kung's
biography, his legacy, press releases, past Newsletters, a list of those
imprisoned in China, and a variety of articles of religious, historical,
and political significance. Journalists as well as students have used this
website for their research.
2.4)
The Foundation has been very active in making Speeches
and Exhibitions to a variety of
religious, educational, and political organizations throughout the world,
such as Harvard Law School; the IHM Home School Conference in Washington,
D.C.; the Marian Congress in Alexandria, South Dakota; The Population
Research Institute in Washington, D.C.; the Wanderer Forum; Amnesty
International in London; the Legion of Christ Seminary in Rome; the Serra
Club in Hershey, Pennsylvania; Texas Lutheran University in Seguin; the
Cardinal Mindszenty Foundation; Catholics United for the Faith in Tucson
and Phoenix, Arizona; the Jubilee Mission Congress in St. Paul, Minnesota;
a number of parishes, schools and other organizations. The Foundation has
also been the focus of numerous newspapers,
radio, and television reports and interviews by
media such as Voice of America, Free Asia Radio, the New York Times,
Catholic Views, Vatican Radio, ABC Radio, and EWTN, and has frequently assisted
the research efforts of reporters
in their writing feature articles on the persecution in China. Also, we
have given public testimonies on religious persecution in China to
the British Parliament in 1996, to the Subcommittee on Human Rights of the
United States Congress in 1994, 1996, 2006, and 2007, the New York City
Council in 1997, the California Senate in 1997, and the U.S.
Congressional-Executive Commission in 2002 and 2004. We have assisted
various legislators in their
efforts to end the persecution in China, and have submitted
timely briefings to the White
House, the State Department, and the Commerce Department in preparation
for official U.S. visits to China.
3. The Education of
Seminarians, and Religious Dimension
3.1)
The Partner in Vocation Program
is dedicated to support the education of seminarians studying in China. We
invite the public to give $600 per year for each seminarian to cover his
tuition, room, and board. Almost 100 seminarians are now under the
sponsorship of the Cardinal Kung Foundation.
3.2)
We are also sending dozens of nuns to universities and trade schools in
China for higher education
to learn a skill which are important to their ministries. They go to
medical, nursing, engineering, computer, language and other trade schools
with full tuition, room and board paid by the Cardinal Kung Foundation.
3.3)
The Living Allowance Project assists
seminarians and nuns of the underground Church who are studying outside of
China. There are approximately 70 such seminarians and nuns living in
France, Rome, Spain, Germany and the Philippines. They already have
scholarships that cover tuition, room, and board, but are still in need of
funds for books, clothes, medical and other personal needs. Depending on
the individual needs, we offer them a subsistence allowance averaging
$1,000 each year, higher for those who have special needs.
3.4)
The Holy Mass Stipend Project collects
and transfers Mass offerings to the clergy of the underground Roman
Catholic Church. A $10 Mass stipend can provide four days of living
expenses for an underground priest in China. To the dozens of underground
priests studying in Europe or elsewhere, they rely on these Mass stipends
for living expenses as their own underground bishops have no financial
means to support them. In thanksgiving to the Foundation's donors, the
underground priests offer hundreds of Masses each year for the deceased
and living members of the Cardinal Kung Foundation.
Currently, we are sending approximately 10,000 Mass stipends each year. We
need many more Mass stipends as we have so many underground bishops
requesting help. To put it into perspective, an average parish in the
United States can only accept approximately 900 Masses a year. The
Foundation would appreciate it if any pastor can channel Holy Mass
requests that they cannot handle to the underground Church in China.
4) The
Social and Apostolic Dimension
This aspect of our
mission involves our financial support of an orphanage for disabled
children, dioceses in China, persecuted families in China, and underground
Chinese Catholic refugees seeking asylum in the United States.
4.1)
We have been providing substantial support for many years to an
"illegal" orphanage that
was founded by an underground bishop. This orphanage houses approximately
100 physically and mentally handicapped Catholic orphans, and is in
dilapidated condition. It urgently needs to improve its basic services,
such as toilets, running hot water and repairing the leaky roof. They need
help. This orphanage was founded by necessity to care for the many
abandoned disabled babies left at the doorstep of the bishop's house.
4.2)
The Foundation provides financial
aid to underground bishops for
their apostolic work. This consists of various projects for
evangelization. We are also providing living expenses for several female
religious communities consisting of hundreds of nuns. In order to help
financing this project, the public can now Adopt
A Novice Nun in China. For 55 US
cents a day, or $100 for 6 months, or $200 for one year, you can adopt a
novice who will pray for you everyday for your intentions for the period
of the adoption. In the meantime, you will support a novice for her living
expenses during that period. We will send your name and your intentions to
the novice and will also send the novice name to you. We started this
program in July 2005, and have received approximately 180 adoptions. Due
to a change in their circumstances, some benefactors could no longer
sponsor their novice nuns. We
urgently need new sponsors to continue these sponsorship so that the
convents can continue to support these novices.
4.3)
The Foundation has a program to
assist underground families whose members have suffered persecution due to
their active support and leadership to their underground bishops.
Many heads of these families were arrested or tortured. We are assisting
such families by paying their children's school tuition while the father
is in jail or unemployed.
4.4)
Whenever possible, we provide
assistance to verified underground Roman Catholic refugees seeking asylum
in the United States.
Occasionally, judicial and immigration officers in US as well as overseas,
such as in Canada and Australia, have called on us to verify the state of
the religious persecution in China in order to decide on certain asylum
cases. We have also been asked by attorneys to testify in court for the
persecuted Catholic asylum seekers. We have succeeded so far to help
approximately 15 families to obtain their religious asylum status, thereby
able to start a new life in the United States legally.
5) Another very important
project is to preserve the legacy of His Eminence, the late Ignatius
Cardinal Kung.
5.1)
This work includes the collecting
of the late Cardinal's writings and making them available to the public in
the future.
5.2)
We have established a depository
to collect information supporting the cause and process for the
canonization of Cardinal Kung.
As the depository, the Foundation is responsible for gathering
documentation that will be used as evidence of the personal sanctity of
Cardinal Kung and also for gathering written statements of personal favors
received through the intercession of Cardinal Kung. If your spiritual life
has been touched by Cardinal Kung or if you have prayed and received
favors through his intercession, we would appreciate your writing to us.
5.3)
Cardinal Kung's residence, which included his own private chapel, was in
Stamford, Connecticut. We are attending
to the upkeep of his final earthly residence
for the future cause of the Cardinal's canonization.
In
order to fully fund all the projects described above, the Foundation will
need $500 thousand each year. Our annual revenue is approximately $300
thousand. We have a shortage of $200 thousand. Your continuous support is
urgently needed. Thank you so much for your generosity. May God bless you.
Please
note that we will have online donation operational on our website
effective June 2008 or earlier.
I
wish to thank you for all the prayers for the recovery of my knee
replacement surgery last November. I am now much better with all pains
gone, and learning to walk properly. I believe that the worst is over and
I am recovering. Thank you again.
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last year, I, with the approval of the Board of Directors of this
Foundation, sent a letter to Mr. Harold Grune, inviting him to join our
Board of Directors. Mr. Grune was so happy to be invited that he called me
immediately to accept our offer. Because the next Board meeting was to
take place in approximately two weeks, I "overnighted" to him
the materials for the meeting. I was informed by his family that Harold
was eagerly waiting to join us. In the meantime, all the Board members
were looking forward to welcoming him to the Board.
