The founding history of Yu Jen Catholic Elementary School in 1967

　　In 1967, Bishop William Francis Kupfer combined people and materials from the three groups together, including CICM in Belgium, the Congregation of St. John the Baptist (CJSB), and Society of Theacred Heart of Jesus to found the first Catholic Elementary School in Taichung City-Yu Jen Catholic Elementary School. This year is Yu Jen 40^th anniversary and our school provides the memory of founders’life and works in order to celebrate our anniversary as well as to appreciate and respect their contribution.

About Bishop William Francis Kupfer

　　In August 1950, because the population of Catholics in Taiwan rose acutely, the Vatican divided Taiwan into seven parishes. Bishop Pius XII appointed 42-year-old missionary William Francis Kupfer to be the bishop of Prefecture Apostolic of Taichung. In April 4th, 1951, Bishop William Francis Kupfer arrived in Taiwan and started to learn Taiwanese. Through 35 years in Taichung, Bishop William Francis Kupfer started to manage the Diocese of Taichung in four aspects:

　　In the educational aspect, Bishop William Francis Kupfer invited each church to establish Catholic schools. Therefore, there are Catholic English Supplementary School founded by Sisters of Providence, Taichung Viator High School founded by Don Mills Baptist Church, Stella Matutina Girls’ High School founded by CICM in Shenyang, Holy Savior High School founded by Society of Theacred Heart of Jesus in Tian-Chung, and several kindergartens and day-care centers founded by many Catholic Churches. The main power was CICM in Belgium and the Congregation of St. John the Baptist and Society of Theacred Heart of Jesus cooperated with CICM while they were building Yu Jen Catholic Elementary School.

　　In 1966, Bishop William F. Kupfer hosted the inauguration ceremony of the new school building and at that time, most of superiors were gathering together and had great expectation on our school. Bishop William F. Kupfer who always attended the whole process of our commencement wore a white cassock bordered with a cardinal cloth and made a deep impression on students and teachers.

　Bishop William F. Kupfer hosted the inauguration ceremony of the new building

Bishop William F. Kupfer awarded Bishop Award to a student

About CICM in Belgium

　　Belgian Rev. Theophile Verbist founded CICM in 1862 in which Chinese had priority to be served. In addition, CICM started to serve people in Inner Mongolia in 1867, came to Taiwan in 1954, and started to preach in Taichung in 1959. Fr. Frans Peeters, the Provincial Superior of China, decided to build a church and an elementary school in Taichung. Therefore, he appointed Rev. Jerome Heyndrickx to look for a land and to raise funds. Rev. Jerome Heyndrickx said happily, ‘It was a great time to serve in Taichung.　　

In 2007, Rev. Jerome Heyndrickx came to Taiwan to visit Yu Jen Catholic Elementary School

Rev. Jerome Heyndrickx narrated the history of building Yu Jen

　　In 1966, the superior of Taiwan parish of CICM Rev. Valeer Albers who loves Taiwan very much appointed Rev. Stuck Ivo who was a kind and humorous person to be in charge of construction of the new building of Yu Jen Catholic Elementary School. Rev. Stuck Ivo sent thousands of letters to Catholics in Europe and America in order to raise funds and sent them stamps with the pictures of Taiwan butterfly in order to thank for their donation. The first building completed successfully in 1967 and attracted the attention of Taichung citizens. Rev. Stuck Ivo not only built the new building but planed the distribution of education fund to favor students and teachers in Yu Jen. Rev. Stuck Ivo dedicated his young and strong times to education and preaching and after he retired, he moved back to Belgium to rest. When we visited him, his concerned about our school and always inquired administrative affairs of our school eagerly.　　

Rev. Stuck Ivo supervised the construction of the new building

Rev. Stuck Ivo with a student in front of the old building

　　Rev. Stuck Ivo asked Rev. Wang Yong Qing who studied in Katholieke Universiteit Leuven in Belgium and had a close relationship with Fathers in Belgium to choose a name for our school. Rev. Wang Yong Qing thought the meaning of Yu has the implied meaning ‘nurture’ and ‘educate’ and the meaning of Jen is merciful or friendly. In addition, Jen ‘mercifulness’ is the main spirit of Church and the names of the schools built by CICM need to include Jen ‘mercifulness.’ Yu Jen ‘educate mercifulness’ was decided to be the name of our school because the meaning of the name is close to the nature of education. When Rev. Wang Yong Qing served as the principal of Viator High School, he paid much attention to life education. In addition, because many students graduated from our school chose to attend Viator High School, Rev. Wang Yong Qing invited Sisters to teach in Viator High School in order to connect the life education of elementary school with that of high school well. 　　

Rev. Wang Yong Qing was hosting the Mass of our graduation ceremony

Father Wim Bollew with Sister Helen Chen Yu Pin

　　Father Wim Bollew founded special education in Yu Jen Catholic Elementary School. When he was the parochial vicar of the Catholic Church on Shuang-Shih Rd. and found that many children with mental problem stayed at home because of neglect, he established the first special class affiliated to elementary school—Yu Jen Catholic Elementary School special class. Because special classes were not well-known, Father Bollew and Sisters were trying to persuade parents to let their children with mental problem to study in our special class. The name of the special class is Class Ai ‘Love,’ and it represents that all teachers and students need to love and help them. Father Bollew proposes continually that students of Class Ai need to work outside of the classroom. In addition, life camp is one of the characteristics of Class Ai which is in order to strengthen students’ self-care ability and to encourage parents to deal with others’ attitude bravely.

About CICM in Tien-Chung

　　In 1966, Belgian Rev. Stuck Ivo from CICM went to Tien-Chung to invite Sister Juventa Pakozdy to appoint a Sister to deal with our school affairs. Sister Juventa Pakozdy agreed without any hesitation and appointed two Sisters to join planning school affairs. This is the origin of cooperation of two Churches in engaging school affairs. In 1967, Sister Juventa Pakozdy appointed Sisters of CICM of Tien-Chung to deal with school affairs.

　　Sister Juventa Pakozdy always visited and encouraged Sisters and teachers by means of her attitude toward education and her arts specialty. She encouraged Sisters to teach students to love each other and to be kind to each other and had an oil painting exhibition to affirm our esthetics education. Because Sister Juventa Pakozdy takes a long-term view of our school, Yu Jen Catholic Elementary School becomes the school where parents with passion in education yearn for. The symbol of CICM which shows in the emblem of our school represents the beautiful story of the cooperation of two Churches.

The founder of Society of Theacred Heart of Jesus: Sister Juventa Pakozdy

Father of CICM: Rev. Stuck Ivo

About The Congregation of St. John the Baptist

　　When Yu Jen Catholic Elementary School was established in 1967, CICM in Belgium formed the board which appointed Father Cho Lap Shan who founded Catholic Ming Yuen Secondary School to be the chairman. During Chairman Cho's term, he had hosted school anniversary and graduation ceremony for ten years and retired from The Congregation of St. John the Baptist in 2002. Chairman Cho is a diligent person. He encouraged brothers to work hard with the spirit of ‘Changing work is resting.’ He always rode scooter to everywhere in Taichung no matter how bad the weather was. He kept teaching Sisters nonstop and attended radio stations. Until he had some problem with his eyes and the president asked him not to ride scooters anymore, he was willing to stop riding. Moreover, he is good at writing and has written many popular books. Each teacher in our school all has the book Spring Breeze 40 years written by him which means teaching for 40 years.

　　It is our pleasure to have Chairman Cho's leading since Yu Jen Catholic Elementary school was established. Moreover, in the beginning of the 21^st century, Chairman Cho also hosted the inauguration ceremony of the new building to use the nature, vital, and sustainable building which can benefit our students.

The first Chairman in Yu Jen—Father Cho Lap Shan

Father Cho awarded Chairman Award in graduation ceremony.