Our Lady of the Rosary of Caotun - Church of the living Rosary

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The church of Caotun converts the Holy Rosary in architecture, light and road. Its windows go through the twenty mysteries; the garden allows them to be measured step by step and the image of Our Lady of the Rosary presides over a community born of the mission and rebuilt after a devastating earthquake.

The beginning of the mission

Maryknoll's American missionary John C. McCarthy arrived in Caotun in February 1954 and began catechesis in a rented house. The mission continued in June by Father Walter H. Covey, who also preached in the premises of the different neighborhoods. That Christmas received the baptism forty-five catechumens.

In the face of the growth of the community, two joint premises were rented on Bishan Road in March 1955. By 1962, with the help of Bishop William Francis Kupfer and the faithful, the ground for a permanent church was acquired. The temple was opened on March 2, 1963 with the participation of numerous parishes.

Destruction and reconstruction

The Jiji earthquake of 21 September 1999 caused serious damage to the church. After consulting the bishop and specialists, the community decided to build a temple resistant to the earthquakes. The first stone was held on October 6, 2001, the works began in 2002 and the new church was inaugurated 7 October 2006, Our Lady of the Rosary's party.

The reconstruction retains a memory of the suffering: the old altar and a section of the wall remain as witnesses to the earthquake. The new house does not hide the wound, but integrates it into a history of faith, cooperation and hope.

A building that teaches to pray

The whole was conceived around the twenty mysteries of the Rosary. The windows present every New Testament mystery accompanied by an Old Testament scene that prepares it. In the garden, small porticos with reliefs allow to travel the joyful, luminous, painful and glorious mysteries.

The so-called "House of Mary" replaced the old grotto offer a space of prayer and celebration. The parish history itself explains the decision rigorously: the advocation of the Rosary does not come from an apparition in a cave. The current headline image was brought from Spain by Bishop Joseph Wang.

Contemplating Christ with Mary

St. John Paul II defined the Rosary as a prayer of deeply Christological orientation: by going through its mysteries, the community contemplates the face of Christ with Mary. The accounts and avemarias are not an empty repetition, but the rhythm that helps to remember the Gospel, assimilate it and make it life.

Caotun makes this pedagogy visible. The light that passes through the biblical scenes invites to relate promise and fulfillment; the garden turns meditation into a body itinerary; the memory of the earthquake recalls that painful mysteries lead to the hope of the Resurrection.

Una parroquia activa

The diocesan directory publishes masses in Mandarin and Taiwanese, confession before the celebrations, Eucharistic worship, catechesis, youth group, Legion of Mary and biblical reading. These services confirm that the temple maintains its daily pastoral function in addition to receiving pilgrims.

Verified location

The official address is 578 Zhingzheng Road, Caotun. The cartographic link of the diocese itself sets the entry into 23.9792879, 120.68968. The marker corresponds to Our Lady of the Rosary of Caotun, not to nearby Protestant temples or to the Cathedral of Kaohsiung.

Prayer to Our Lady of the Rosary

Our Lady of the Rosary, accompanies the community of Caotun, who once again raised his house after the earthquake. Teach us to contemplate with your eyes the life of Jesus, to keep His Word and to hold one another in the test. May every meditated mystery transform our heart and make us servants of peace. Amen.

Sources consulted

• Diocese of Taichung: official record, direction and parish life.
• Diocese of Taichung: detailed history, earthquake, reconstruction and artistic program.
• Diocesan bilingual directory: foundation and institutional data.
• GCatholic: independent ecclesial identification.
• St. John Paul II, Rosarium Virginis Mariae: a Christological sense of the Rosary.

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