The year 1940 marked the 20th anniversary of the presence of the Columban Fathers in China. Along with the Columban Sisters, who first arrived in China in 1926, they had achieved a great deal.
As it happened, 1940 would be a momentous year for the Columbans in China. In 1940, a Columban hospital opened in Nancheng, China, and the Columban Sisters continued their lifesaving work at their medical dispensary.
The Columbans had founded and run schools, orphanages, convents, parishes, and other good works in China since 1920.
The Sisters of Saint Mary, an order of nuns which Columban founder Bishop Edward J. Galvin helped to found, along with the Loretto Sisters, continued to gain postulants.
The December 1940 issue of The Far East detailed the accomplishments of the Columbans in China.
Political and military events in China had and would in the future affect the Columbans there. Indeed, China, along with most of East Asia, would soon be engulfed in the Second World War.
Nevertheless, after two decades, the Columbans could be proud of what they had accomplished in China, and more was to come.
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The Columbans are a society of missionaries, including priests and lay people, who minister to people of various cultures as a way of witnessing to the universal love of God.