A "Holy Year" has been declared in Thailand by the Thai Catholic bishops. This special time in history was designed to renew the Catholic faith and zeal of a New Evangelization. The Holy Year was set to commemorate the 350th anniversary of the first Synod of Ayutthaya in Thailand.
"The Holy Year is an opportune time of grace and compassion for rediscovering the ardor of evangelization, fruitfully accomplished by the missionaries in the past, and reconnecting to revitalize the mission of the Thai Church to the emerging challenges of today," said Monsignor Andrew Vissanu Thanya Anan, executive secretary of the Thai Bishops Conference and former Vatican undersecretary for the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue.
The opening of the first Plenary Council of the Catholic Church in Thailand will be celebrated as well. By virtue of the Special Faculties granted by Pope Francis himself, the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples gave a formal approval for the proposed celebration which was given the theme "The Disciples of Christ Live the New Evangelization". The feast is scheduled to occur for five days, beginning on April 20, 2015.
Various faith formation programs will occur during the Holy Year with a particular focus on catechesis and strengthening small Christian communities in Thailand, a nation with a population that is 95 percent Buddhist and only one percent Catholic.
The beginning of the Holy Year for the nation was welcomed with solemnity and joy by the bishops. A gong was struck three times at Lux Mundi, the national major seminary in the Samphran district, while Archbishop Francis Xavier Kriengsak Kovitavanij of Bangkok presided over the Mass.
In his homily, the Archbishop asked the faithful to pray for the zeal of evangelization that the first set of Christians had thousands of years ago. He stated there is a need for the "Holy Spirit, that will boost the fervor of proclaiming Christ like the early apostolic community...Let us pray for a new Pentecost for renewing our New Evangelization."