First missionaries. Seated: Philip Liu, Peter Tung y Melevio Ho. De pie: Manuel Piérola, Benito Suen y Antonio Lasheras

In 1963, the Province of St. Nicholas of Tolentino of the Order of Augustinian Recollects, decided to open a mission in Taiwan, waiting for the political climate in mainland China to change and be able to return to its mission in Kweiteh/Shangqiu, Henan.

The history of the Catholic mission in Taiwan is a chronicle of faith, challenges, and transformation. Since Taiwan became an independent prefecture on July 19, 1913, the Catholic Church has maintained its apostolic presence on the island. However, conversions occurred only in the mid-twentieth century, mainly due to the limited number of missionaries, who in 1948 numbered barely a dozen on the entire island.

The radical change began in 1950 when the church experienced unprecedented growth. The number of priests soared from a dozen in 1948 to more than 700 in the 1960s, and the church grew from one diocese to seven. This remarkable increase was primarily the result of the expulsion of foreign missionaries from the Chinese mainland after the communist occupation, many of whom found refuge in Taiwan, the only Chinese province not to fall under communist rule and where the Nationalist Republican Government of China took shelter. There, they could continue their apostolic ministry to the Chinese people and be prepared for the possible opening of the mainland to evangelization.

These foreign priests and religious were joined by Chinese priests and seminarians from religious orders who had to leave mainland China. Among these Chinese seminarians were four Augustinian Recollects who had to leave the mission after the communist occupation and completed their studies, first at the Rosary Hill Dominican convent in Hong Kong and then in Marcilla, Spain, where they were ordained priests.

The arrival of the Augustinian Recollects in Taiwan

In February 1963, the Bishop of Kao-shiung, Taiwan, Monsignor José Zheng, a Dominican, who had been a fellow student of our religious in the years 1948-1949 in Hong Kong, held a meeting in Manila, Philippines, with the Prior Provincial Moisés Arguijo and proposed to him to open a Mission in his Diocese to evangelize and, at the same time, to prepare the personnel to be able to return to Mainland China in the future, and thus be able to one day return to mission in our Diocese of Kweiteh/Shangqiu. After a series of meetings, the Superiors decided to accept the Bishop’s offer.

The Provincial Prior sent four priests: two Chinese and two Spaniards. That first missionary expedition, led by Fathers Melecio Ho and Felipe Liu, left Spain on June 3, 1963, arriving in Taiwan on June 9. Monsignor José Zheng received them in Kaohsiung on June 13, and shortly after, two Spanish fathers, Manuel Piérola and Antonio Lasheras, joined them.

After being ordained a priest on August 15, 1954, by the hands of Monsignor Francisco Javier Ochoa, Father Melecio Ho began his pastoral ministry at the residence in Zaragoza, where he stayed for a year, from 1954 to 1955. From 1955 to 1958, he studied canon law at the Pontifical University of Salamanca. From 1958 to 1963, he collaborated in the pastoral ministry at the Saint Rita parish in Madrid until he was called to be assigned to Taiwan.

Father Felipe Liu was ordained in Barcelona on May 31, 1952, at the Eucharistic Congress. He spent a year in Monteagudo and then worked for a decade in the philosophy of Fuenterrabía until he was called to the new mission of Taiwan.

The first church assigned to the mission was the parish of Santa Cruz in Taliao, with Father Melecio Ho as the first pastor and Father Felipe Liu as the coadjutor. Fathers Manuel and Antonio moved to Shin-Chu to study Chinese and English for two years (1963-1965). Fathers Melecio and Felipe combined their pastoral activity with studying the Taiwanese Chinese dialect in the neighboring city of Fengshan.

The Taliao headquarters and the Church of St. Nicholas of Tolentine

In July 1964, the provincial vicar of the Philippines visited the religious in Taiwan. At that time, Bishop Zheng entrusted the pastoral work of the municipalities of Taliao and Linyuan to the Augustinian Recollect friars. Father Melecio Ho went to Lin Yuan, and Father Felipe Liu went to Taliao.

At that time, the provincial vicar of the Philippines gave them a check for 4,500 dollars to buy a piece of land in Taliao and build a church and a convent. In October, a 3,000-square-meter piece of land was purchased in the Shangxie neighborhood. The cornerstone was laid on December 27, 1964, and the inauguration occurred on May 15, 1965. The ceremony was attended by Bishop Zheng, the prior provincial Father Candelas Moriones, the provincial vicar of the Philippines, the secretary of the prior provincial, and the four Augustinian Recollect priests assigned there (Melecio Ho, Felipe Liu, Manuel Piérola, Antonio Lasheras). The church, 26 meters long and 13 meters wide, stood next to a 15-meter-high bell tower crowned by a crucifix, which served as a symbol, making its presence visible from afar. The convent had six rooms on the second floor, a meeting room, a library, and a bathroom. There was a kitchen, a parish activities room, and an office on the ground floor.

At the end of 1976, a cloistered convent of Dominican nuns of Spanish foundation from the convent of Olmedo (Valladolid) was established next to the parish, where the Recollect Fathers, knowing both languages, Chinese and Spanish, were chaplains and confessors of the Spanish nuns and helped with the formation of the young Taiwanese nuns.

When a new convent and an activities center were built in 1990, the old convent was dedicated exclusively to the kindergarten school.

The parish also provided services to a home for the elderly, founded by two Catholics. The Catholic Action, the Legion of Mary, and the Cursillos de Cristiandad stood out among its apostolic groups.

The Linyuan House and St. Augustine Church

The St. Augustine Parish was established in the Linyuan district. The first parish priest was Father Melecio Ho, who bought the land for the Order. On April 29, 1966, the new mission house, with a small chapel on the first floor, was inaugurated. In front of the house, space was left to build, when pastoral needs required it, a relatively capable church. Behind the house, a kindergarten was built and was successively expanded. It was an essential pastoral care center for the Filipino immigrant community working in the industrial area of Linyuan.

Father Melecio remained there for six years, then became the parish priest of St. Nicholas in Taliao for 40 years.

The second group of Chinese missionaries

Two years after the first group of missionaries, in 1965, two more Chinese friar priests were sent to reinforce the apostolic work on the island. The chosen ones were Fathers Pedro Tung and Benito Suen.

Father Pedro Tung was ordained with Felipe Liu at the Eucharistic Congress in Barcelona in 1952. After his ordination, he spent two years at the Colegio San Ildefonso in Rome (1952-1954) as a university student, obtaining a licentiate in theology from the Gregorian University. From 1954 to 1960, he was a professor of philosophy at Fuenterrabía. From 1960 to 1961, he was vice-master of novices in Monteagudo. From 1961 to 1965, he lived in San Telmo, Chiclana de la Frontera, Cádiz, as a professor at the Colegio San Agustín. In 1965, he was assigned to Taiwan. During the 1965-1966 academic year, he lived at the Taiwanese school for foreigners in Shin Chu, studying that dialect. From 1966 to 2011, for 45 years, he resided in Kaohsiung, in various ministries, notable for his time as parish priest of Holy Cross in Taliao and head of the kindergarten for 34 years (1971-2005). From 2005 to 2011, he resided in the central house in Taliao, Kaohsiung.

On October 31, 1971, he completed the restoration of the original chapel of the Holy Cross. In 1973, he built a kindergarten and, in 1977, added a floor to that building. In 1981, the new chapel was finished on the second floor of the kindergarten. In 1989, he finished building the parish house.

Father Benito Suen had been ordained with Melecio in Marcilla. After his ordination to the priesthood, he lived for two years in the convent of Monteagudo, Navarra (1954- 1956) as vice-master of novices. From 1956 to 1959, he studied theology at the University of Salamanca, obtaining a degree in theology. From 1959 to 1961, he lived in the convent of Marcilla as vice-master of professed priests. After a year in the parish of Saint Rita in Madrid, he was assigned again to the convent of Monteagudo as vice-master of novices from 1962 to 1964 and one year in the Saint Nicholas of Tolentine school in Fuenterrabía, Guipúzcoa.

In 1965, he was assigned to Kaohsiung, Taiwan, where he spent nine years until 1974, assisting the Bishop of Kaohsiung as prefect of the seminary, professor, confessor, and priest serving needy parishes. From 1974 to 1997, he lived in the United States for 23 years, dedicated to ministerial activity. In 1997, he was assigned again to Kaohsiung, Taiwan, until 2009, when he collaborated with the ministries and was mainly devoted to translating the Order’s materials into Chinese.

The parish of St. Joseph in Qingdao

In 1970, the Order also began to take charge of the church of St. Joseph in the village of Qingdao, Xiaogang municipality, near the international airport of Kaohsiung. Most of its inhabitants were immigrants from the Chinese province of Shandong. The Spanish Dominican Father José Hernández had founded it a few years earlier. The mission had its first Recollect rector, Father Pedro Tung, in March 1970. It had been a flourishing mission, with good evangelization and massive attendance, that stood out among all the other missions. But, by the time Father Pedro arrived, it had become a difficult mission. The previous parish priest, a diocesan Chinese priest, had already failed. There were many thorny problems due to money issues and power intrigues related to the president of the council of the faithful of the parish, as well as continuous conflicts with neighbors who had gradually invaded the parish grounds.

Father Pedro Tung arrived, and four months later, after trying to solve the abuses, he suffered the consequences and had to leave badly injured after a beating given by four members of one of the neighboring families of the parish. Later, Father Manuel Piérola took over as parish priest, who remained quite successful for 33 years.

Father Piérola, after having learned the Chinese language, devoted himself to the ministerial apostolate as a parish priest in the Santa Cruz parish of Taliao (1965-1971) and then for thirty-three years as parish priest and teacher in the San José parish of Ching Tao (1971-1997 and 1998-2005), with a one-year period in which he went to the Saint Augustine parish of Lin-Yuan (1997-1998) and, finally, residing in the central house of Saint Nicholas of Tolentine, being parish priest in the Santa Cruz parish (2005-2011).

In 1974, Father Antonio Lasheras was assigned to the United States after serving three years in Linyuan and six in Taliao. In 1978, a Spanish priest, Father Cipriano Zubiri, was sent from the Philippines to Taiwan. There, he was assigned to Linyuan, where he would remain until his death in 1998.

Visits to Shangqiu

In 1979, one of the dreams with which the ministry was opened was fulfilled. For the first time, one Chinese religious person from Taiwan, Father Pedro Tung, managed to enter the People’s Republic of China to visit his family and the Augustinian Recollects who had remained behind the “bamboo curtain.” From then on, the trips of the Recollects from Taiwan to the continental mission were constant, some years even up to four times. They brought news, books, financial resources, and, most importantly, hope to the Shangqiu mission after more than 25 years of isolation and mutual ignorance. Political propaganda had tried to convince those who had stayed on the mainland that everything was over and that the Order of Augustinian Recollects no longer existed. The entire Province of St. Nicholas acted with determination when it knew there were still embers among the ashes of the disaster.

This regime of visits to Shangqiu from Taiwan was carried out generally until 2002. Paradoxically, with the new century, it also became more accessible to travel to the interior of China from Europe than from Taiwan. The Recollects on the island would help with translation for visitors from Rome or Madrid. Still, a letter from the provincial prior warned them that, from that year, to go to the Shangqiu mission, the Recollects from Taiwan would have to ask for express permission from Madrid. 

The mountain missions

On January 27, 1989, the provincial prior, Marciano Santervás, visited the missions of Sandimen, Wutai, and Majia with Bishop José Zheng and met to discuss the conditions of acceptance. They set the date for the Province to accept these missions: January 1, 1991. In 1990, with a view to assuming these ministries, two Filipino priests, Fathers Sotero Macabubdud and Arsenio Escabusa, were sent to Taiwan.

The parishes of Sandimen, Wutai, and Majia are the so-called “mountain” missions because of their geographical location and because the aboriginal faithful makeup most of the parishioners. Each had about six or seven villages, many of which had their respective chapels. Apart from Mandarin, these indigenous tribes have Malay languages closely related to Philippine Tagalog. For this reason, after studying Mandarin, the new Philippine religious were assigned to these new missions.

Creation of the Philippine Province of Saint Ezekiel Moreno

In 1998, the prior general visited the mission and proposed a matter that would change the presence of the Augustinian Recollects in Taiwan: the division of the Province of Saint Nicholas in two once the Vicariate of the Philippines was ready to begin its steps as a Province.

It is a sensitive issue: only an hour and a half by plane separates Kaohsiung from Manila; in Formosa, Spanish, Filipino, and Chinese Recollects work is divided into two provinces. The Mission of the People’s Republic would remain in the mother province, and the houses in Taiwan were created to prepare personnel to jump to the continent as soon as possible.

The houses in Taiwan were divided between the two provinces according to two criteria: their specific apostolates and the nationality of the religious who served them. The mountain missions (Sandimen, Wutai and Majia) The Parish of St. Augustine in Linyuan remained with the new province of St. Ezequiel Moreno. They were mainly staffed by Filipino personnel; the three mountain missions served the indigenous peoples of Formosa, who, as we have indicated, have ethnic and linguistic ties with the Philippines. The Linyuan mission, in the most industrial district of the Recollects, had an essential community of Filipino immigrants among its faithful.

On the other hand, in the Taliao and Chingtao missions, Chinese or Spanish personnel worked, and their pastoral work was much more focused on the Chinese faithful. On the other hand, the religious of the Shangqiu mission in the People’s Republic of China had unanimously decided to stay in the mother Province, and all the religious of Chinese nationality in Taiwan had also decided to stay.

On September 1, 2000, the second Augustinian Recollect of the Province of St. Nicholas, buried in Taiwan, Felipe Liu, died. After the separation of the provinces, the average age of the religious of St. Nicholas was very high. The province, after 39 years, sent the last incorporation of a Spanish religious, Brother José Manuel Romero, to support the community of friars in its final stage and to be able to be trained in the Chinese language and culture to be able to serve as support for the formation of the Chinese religious of the continent and the communications of the Province with them. After learning Mandarin, José Manuel Romero participated in pastoral activities and Taiwanese ecclesial life and created new educational services as a natural extension of the activity developed for years by the kindergartens.

The Province and the Order leave Taiwan definitively

The coexistence of two provinces in Taiwan ended in 2011 when the entire territory was handed over to the Province of St. Ezekiel Moreno. Two main factors influenced this change: on the one hand, the political and social change in China that led to the economic and border opening, together with the growing political tension with Taiwan, which made it easier to enter the People’s Republic from Europe than from the island of Taiwan; on the other hand, the aging of the religious and the lack of young replacement personnel.

In 2021, there was only one Recollect community in Taiwan. In 2023, the Province of St. Ezekiel withdrew from Taiwan and left the ministries and houses of the Order to the Diocese. Thus, this story of the evangelization of the island formerly called Formosa ended.