In the course of our work with publications in Mainland we came in touch with many pastoral agents, priests and sisters, who are clamoring for more books in Chinese. At the same time they always mention to us the poor situation of Catholics in China: poor financially and in spiritual formation. Thus the project of establishing “Parish Libraries” in China came up as a real possibility. This is how it works:

This is the first Parish Library made possible
 through the generosity of a "Sister Parish" in Spain

1. There is a coordinator for the project inside China and this is Fr. Huang Yu Tao. Fr. Huang is newly ordained and speaks English well and is committed to work on this project.
   
2. Parishes where this projects exists will appoint one person to be in charge and Fr. Huang will be the coordinator with these people.
   
3. A parish that is interested will need the endorsement and approval of the parish priest.
   
4. The first project was established in the Diocese of Xing Tai, Lim Cheng parish where Fr. Huang is the Pastor.
   
5. Three more Parish Libraries will be established before the end of 2006.
   
6. This is how it will work:
   

•               The parish prepares a special place for display of books, takes care of indexing and accountability, and prepares some tables and chairs for people to use.
  
•               Books are chosen from the three main Catholic publishers in China: Guangqi Press in Shanghai, Faith Press in Hebei, and Shang Zhi Press in Beijing. We have already contacted these publishers –two of them with a long relationship with Claretian Publications already– and they happily agreed to help us.
  
•               We select about 250 titles for each parish choosing the titles that are of interest to the people of the place.
  
•               Books that are for reference we will choose 1 or 2 copies each; other titles that could be of more interest to the readers we choose more copies per title. All in all about 1000 books to begin with.
  
•               Added to the books is the Pastoral Bible that we supply in large quantities. And together with the Bible other booklets that have been prepared to understand the Pastoral Bible better.
  
•               People will have access to this Parish Library and can read the books there or can borrow these books according to the rules that will be created in each place.
  
•               If some want to buy some books they can do so. For that a system will be properly created where the books will be offered at the cheapest possible price.
  
•               For the medium and long range plans: after the evaluation of this experience at the beginning of 2007 we shall decide if we can already promote this project in other dioceses.
  
•               The role of the Coordinator (Fr. Huang) will also be to conduct some seminars (by himself or inviting other speakers) about the books that will be on display and how best to use them.
  
•               In every instance the local Bishop should approve and endorse the project and the Coordinator will inform periodically the Bishop about the project.

The generous help of "Sister Parishes" bears fruit already...

This Christian reads our Chinese Pastoral Bible

1. With time other books could also be incorporated to the Parish Library from:

              Hong Kong Catholic publications

              Taiwan Catholic publications

              Claretian Publications own books in Chinese
        as they are being prepared right now.