Chinese immigrants are one of the largest growing populations in Brooklyn and Queens.

The U.S. Catholic China Bureau will hold a conference at St. John’s University, Jamaica, Aug. 11-13 on the “Experience of the Chinese Catholic Church in the 21st Century.”

It will bring together Chinese priests and sisters from China and the New York area to discuss the living faith in China. It will be a chance for people to network and to understand the suffering the Chinese have gone through in order to maintain their faith.

The conference will consist of eight panelists, a Mass and an award banquet to honor Maryknoll Sister Janet Carroll. She was the first executive director of the U.S. Catholic China Bureau.

Keynote speakers include Father Joseph Zhang, biblical scholar from China, on “Contemporary Chinese Catholicism: Present and Future Realities,” and Archbishop Eugene Nugent, Holy See Study Mission Director, Hong Kong 2001- 2010, and now Apostolic Nuncio to Haiti, will speak on “Reconciliation in the Church: Experience of the Church in China.” Presentations will be in English and registration is open to all at www.uscatholicchina.org.

Father Robert Carbonneau, C.P., executive director of the Catholic China Bureau, was a recent guest on NET-TV’s “In the Arena” with Msgr. Kieran Harrington.

“We are talking about the living faith of the Chinese people and all are welcome to come and learn,” said Father Carbonneau. “There are about 12 million Catholics in China and most are registered which means they work within the situation of the government currently.

“This is a faith that has weathered a lot of suffering, going back to the persecution of the 1950s of different missionary societies like Maryknoll and other religious orders.

“The people want to become good citizens and good Catholics in China. There are also many Chinese students in Catholic schools across the Diocese of Brooklyn and being able to learn some of their history and culture would be a great opportunity of cross cultural understanding of friendship and the faith.

“Bishop Francis X. Ford, a native of the Brooklyn Diocese, is up for beatification and he is the perfect example of the legacy of the missionary zeal that’s still being transposed today with the large Chinese Catholic community,” Father Carbonneau said.

“This is certainly a group of people that has suffered a great oppression and has been deprived of faith and yet now we see the seeds of faith growing,” said Msgr. Harrington.

“This conference will help minister to the Chinese immigrants here in our diocese but also to recognize to help promote the faith back in China.”