The religious of Kaohsiung, located at the southern part of Taiwan, entrusted their houses to a group of younger Augustinian Recollects last September 4, 2011, on the feast of Our Lady of Consolation. Four religious from the Province of Saint Nicholas and who formed the oldest community of the Order ended their 48 years of service to the local church, a service that began in July of 1963.
It was the Dominican Bishop Zheng who asked the Recollects to help attend to the newly constituted diocese of Kaohsiung. He requested specifically for the Chinese Recollects, then recently expelled from China, to form a community in Taiwan. The bishop knew them because he, as a seminarian, lived with the friars for a year and a half in the Dominican seminary in Hong Kong, in the same place where the revolution of Mao surprised them.
Youth
For half a century the Province of St. Nicholas has been sending Spanish and Chinese religious to Taiwan. A total of eight religious spent their life, or part of it, in these lands. But because of lack of personnel to revitalize the oldest community of the Order, and in order to better attend to the aging friars, the Province of St. Nicholas signed a memorandum of agreement with the Province of St. Ezekiel Moreno. All houses and properties that the Province had in Taiwan are now transferred to the Asian Province that has its deep roots in the Philippine Archipelago. Filipino religious from the Province of St. Ezekiel Moreno have been coming to work in Taiwan since the year 1990.
Present during the turnover ceremonies were the following personalities: the two priors provincial, Monsignor Peter Liu, the ordinary of the diocese and Cardinal Paul Shan, the former bishop of Kaohsiung. Some three hundred faithful gathered in the church to bid goodbye to the elderly Recollects and to welcome the new ones. A group even accompanied the elder confreres to the airport.
The OAR in Taiwan
There are at present four Augustinian Recollects who attend to the ministries in Taiwan. They live in one common house located in Taliao. From here they would go to attend to the parish of Saint Nicholas of Tolentine, adjacent to the residence, and the neighboring parish of Holy Cruz, located in the same area.
There is also a house in Linyuan. It is from here that they would attend to the parish of Saint Augustine and the kindergarten school of Saint Rita. In addition the friars take charge of the parish of Saint Joseph that is near the airport. There is a third house in the mountain area in Santimen. It is from this house where they attend to two more parishes, that of the Holy Cruz of Santimen with its five chapels and that of Saint Joseph of Majia, with additional six chapels. All these parishes are composed of Catholics who are the minority. The same Filipino religious also extend services to Filipino overseas workers. There are many in Taiwan and they frequent the centers of ministry of the Recollects.