Catholicism in China

Catholicism in China has a long and complicated history. Christianity has existed in China in various forms since at least the Tang Dynasty in the eighth century A.D.

Yuan (1271-1368) Dynasty

Catholic missionary priests from Europe are first recorded to have entered China in the 13th century. The Italian Franciscan priest John of Montecorvino arrived in Beijing (Khanbalik) in 1294. In 1299 he built a church and in 1305 a second opposite the imperial palace. Having made a study of the local language, he translated the New Testament and the Psalms. Estimates of converts range from 6,000 to 30,000 by the year 1300. In 1307 Pope Clement V sent seven Franciscan bishops to consecrate John of Montecorvino as Archbishop of Peking. The three who survived the journey did so in 1308 and succeeded each other as bishops of Zaiton which John had established. In 1312 three more Franciscan bishops arrived from Rome to aid John until his death in 1328. The mission had some success during the rule of the Mongol Yuan Dynasty, but various factors led to an ultimate shrinking of the mission.

Ming (1368-1644) and Qing (1644-1911) Dynasties

During the Catholic Reformation's explosion of Catholic missionary efforts around the world, particularly in Asia, Jesuit and other Roman Catholic missionaries attempted to enter China. They had mixed success at first, but eventually came to have a strong impact, particularly in inter-cultural scientific and artistic exchanges among the upper classes of China and the imperial court.

The permanent mission was established in 1601 by the efforts of Matteo Ricci. His whole approach was quite subtle, interesting the Emperor and the Chinese authorities in aspects of western technology and learning as a point of opening. He also made attempts to reconcile Christianity with the Classic Confucian texts, though he was hostile, along with the other members of his order, to Taoism and Buddhism.

Ricci died in 1610 but the Jesuit mission went on to become an important part of the Imperial civil service, right into the eighteenth century. In 1644 a German Jesuit, Adam Schnall von Bell, was appointed Director of the Board of Astronomy by the new Qing dynasty. Jesuits were also given posts as mechanics, musicians, painters, instrument makers, and in other areas which required a degree of technical expertise.

The Jesuits' pragmatic accommodation with Confucianism was later to lead to conflict with the Dominican friars, who came to Beijing from the Philippines in the middle of the century. Their leader, Dominigo Fernandez Navarrete, in responding to the question 'Was Confucious saved?' said that as Socrates, Plato and Aristotle were all damned "how much the more Confucius, who was not worthy to kiss their feet". In responding, Antonio de Gouveia, a Portuguese Jesuit, said that Confucius was certainly saved, "which is more than can be said for King Philip IV of Spain."[1]

People's Republic of China

Since 1949, following the establishment of the People's Republic of China by the Communist Party of China, the status of Catholicism as an institution in Chinese society has been highly ambiguous. While the Catholic Church is officially banned in the country, the Chinese government demands that all Chinese "Catholics" must be loyal to the State, and that worship must legally be conducted through State-approved churches (belonging to the "Chinese Catholic Patriotic Association"); this way, Catholics are pressured to break communion with the Holy See by requiring them to renounce an essential belief in Catholicism, the primacy of the Roman Pontiff. Catholics loyal to the pope currently worship in clandestinely, out of fear of imprisonment.

Though the Communist Party is a secular organization it also reserves the right to appoint priests. They maintain that Chinese citizens' activities must not face interference or influence by external powers. The government does not differentiate between temporal and spiritual loyalty. Thus, it does not presently recognize that a Catholic can be loyal to the government, while listening to the pope in matters of faith and morals.

According to a survey of Chinese Catholicism in the American Catholic publication, Commonweal, the Chinese Catholic Patriotic Association is an organization with oversight over the Chinese Catholic Church. In the meantime, two-thirds of China's registered Church bishops are now recognized by the Vatican. More significant, during 2005, the Vatican and Beijing agreed upon the appointment of an Auxiliary Bishop of Shanghai.[2] In the past, a major impediment to the re-establishment of relations between the Vatican and Beijing has been the issue of who appoints the bishops.

In a further sign of rapprochement between the Vatican and Beijing, Pope Benedict XVI invited four Chinese bishops, including two government recognized bishops, one underground bishop, and one underground bishop recently emerged into the registered church, to the October 2005 Synod on the Eucharist.[3] Beijing ultimately denied the four bishops the right to attend the meeting.

It is estimated that there are 40 million Catholics following the underground church still loyal to Rome and 20 million people following the Chinese Catholic Patriotic Association.[4] The Chinese government, however ambiguous it may behave in its relationship with the Holy See, still persecutes and imprisons underground Catholics, especially priests. The Catholic Church in China is still considered illegal.[5]

In 2007, Pope Benedict XVI wrote a letter to Chinese Catholics "to offer some guidelines concerning the life of the Church and the task of evangelization in China."

In this letter (section 9), Pope Benedict acknowledges tensions:

As all of you know, one of the most delicate problems in relations between the Holy See and the authorities of your country is the question of Episcopal appointments. On the one hand, it is understandable that governmental authorities are attentive to the choice of those who will carry out the important role of leading and shepherding the local Catholic communities, given the social implications which – in China as in the rest of the world – this function has in the civil sphere as well as the spiritual. On the other hand, the Holy See follows the appointment of Bishops with special care since this touches the very heart of the life of the Church, inasmuch as the appointment of Bishops by the Pope is the guarantee of the unity of the Church and of hierarchical communion.

An "underground" bishop Joseph Wei Jingyi of Qiqihar (northeastern China) released a two-page pastoral letter in July 2007, asking his congregation to study and act on the letter of Pope Benedict XVI and naming the letter a "new milestone in the development of the Chinese Church.[7] In September 2007, a coadjutor bishop for the Guiyang Diocese was jointly appointed by the Vatican and the Chinese official Catholic church. [1]

This article and images are under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Soong Ch'ing Ling".

Read about the Xujiahui Cathedral and Xu Guangqi Tomb open to the public in Shanghai.