New book on the history of the Church in Taiwan
In one of
the conference rooms of the National Museum of Taiwan located in Tainan City,
around 100 people gathered for the la unching of history
book called “Formosa, Campo de Dios” (美麗島:主的莊田) on April 6th, 2012. It was written by
a Dominican priest, Fr. Miguel San Roman, OP, (山樂曼神父) who is a brother to two of our members in Spain : Ma. Elena and Gloria (他的兩個妹妹是西班牙TA的團員). He was born in Avila and has been a missionary priest in Taiwan for many
years.
Archbishop Liu (劉振忠總主教) of Kaoshiung praised the work and took the
occasion not only to thank the author but to thank all the Dominican fathers
who first came to Taiwan, and all the other missionaries who have labored in this
“field of God” He also posed a challenge to all present, especially the local
people, to continue the task of evangelization, and thus continue to write the
history of the Church in Taiwan. Fr. San Roman himself mentioned how this book
on the history of the Church is also part of the history of Taiwan .
It took him 8 years to finish the book. The Chinese
title was chosen by him and is an expression of how he saw God “planting the
seed” of faith in this beautiful island. His sources include data from Vatican
archives, the libraries in Rome and the
hand-written chronicles of missionaries from the libraries of the Dominican
centers in Spain ,
that covers the period from 1859 to 1950. They spoke how they evangelized,
reached out to the poor and built the church in Taiwan .
The photos include: the author with the guests, the
author with Maria and Cora, while dedicating a book for the TA members and the
cover of the book.