As the Thai Missionary Society begins the countdown to 10 years of its mission in Taiwan, one of its second-generation missionaries says his arrival in Taiwan was not a coincidence, but providence — prepared from the womb.
The story of Fr. Bosco Phulsap Leelanurak begins with his upbringing as a Thai-Chinese Catholic. God allowed him to be born into a Chinese family in Thailand with a mother who devoutly kept Chinese Catholic traditions.
“From as far back as I can remember, my mother made me recite the Our Father and Hail Mary in Teochew every day,” he recalled.
Every Sunday, she took him to Holy Rosary Church in Bangkok, where Mass was celebrated in Teochew Chinese, but many hymns were in Mandarin — hymns he later discovered were copied from churches in Taoyuan, Taiwan. “When I arrived in Taiwan, I found the hymns I had known since childhood.”
His mother actively nurtured his vocation. Every school holiday in primary school, she sent him to vocation camps — a Salesian camp at Khao Takieb, a Jesuit camp at Seven Fountains, and others. But his passion for computers came first.
“My vocation came very late,” Fr. Bosco admitted. “I had to be fully saturated with programming work first.” His mother then encouraged him to study Chinese in mainland China. There, he encountered both Catholic and Protestant Christians with fervent faith.
“I thought that when I finished and returned to Thailand, I would help more at the parish,” he said.
Shortly after his return, providence intervened at Holy Rosary Church. One Sunday after Mass, a man approached him and asked, “Do you want to become a priest?”
“Who is this person? Can someone who didn’t enter minor seminary become a priest?” Fr. Bosco wondered.
The man was Fr. Adriano Pelosin, an Italian Fidei Donum missionary who had worked in Thailand for 30 years and was looking for late vocations. Because his heart had already been prepared in China to serve, Fr. Bosco began meeting Fr. Adriano monthly for about six months.
In 2012, Fr. Adriano wanted to send him to the seminary, but unsure of himself, Fr. Bosco asked to first experience missionary life. He was sent to Chiang Saen to live with Fr. Prasit for a year.
It was there that the Taiwan connection was born. A Caritas group from Taiwan brought funds and donations to centers in northern Thailand. That same Caritas group became the bridge that linked the Thai Missionary Society with the Diocese of Hsinchu.
“I had a small chance to help translate the first letters that were still communicated in Chinese, before Fr. Adriano and Bishop John Baptist Lee of Hsinchu could communicate directly in English,” Fr. Bosco recalled.
After Chiang Saen, he entered the major seminary and continued his studies as usual, while the Society continued contacts and exploratory visits to Taiwan.
In 2017, the Society officially sent its first group of Thai missionaries to Taiwan: Fr. Cherry, Fr. Boy, and Fr. Korn.
After his ordination in 2022, Fr. Bosco himself was assigned to Taiwan, arriving on October 2, 2023. Under diocesan policy, he first studied the language — with a teacher who turned out to be one of the very Caritas members who had visited Chiang Saen years earlier.
“I believe this is definitely something God has prepared,” he said.
Today, Fr. Bosco serves as assistant parish priest at Holy Trinity Church in Xiangshan, Hsinchu, with Fr. Boy as pastor, ministering to Taiwanese faithful and assisting Thai migrant workers who are in distress or facing injustice.
“With limited personnel, our help is limited,” he said. “Please pray that God will send more workers, so that His work may be accomplished well in the next 10 years to come, as St. Luke says: ‘The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; therefore, ask the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest’ (Lk 10:2).”
