Viewpoint Jubilee Year of hope for Catholicism in
China
By JAMES D. WHITEHEAD
and EVELYN EATON WHITEHEAD
The year 2000 began on an ominous
note for the Catholic church in China.
In the months leading up to this Jubilee Year, expectations of an
imminent accommodation between the Chinese government and the Vatican had
continued to build. John Paul IIs recent statements had signaled the
churchs strong desire to overcome the long-festering history of mutual
distrust. People close to the church in China took heart: An advance between
the Vatican and China at this political level would help heal the divisions
between Chinese Catholics worshiping in registered or open parishes
and those in unregistered or underground communities. While this
internal reconciliation was already well underway in many dioceses in China,
the Jubilee Year would mark an ideal time to move the public reconciliation
forward.
Then on Jan. 6 -- feast of the Epiphany -- the
government-sponsored Patriotic Association hurriedly orchestrated the
consecration of five new bishops for leadership in dioceses of the open church.
To religious observers inside and outside China, this action, which continued a
policy in direct contradiction to canon law, seemed like an intended insult to
the Holy See. The anticipated detente between the Vatican and the Chinese
government was thrown off course. So in the first days of this year, a profound
pessimism overshadowed earlier glimmers of hope.
But as this Jubilee Year progresses, more optimistic signs
continue to accumulate. In a recent return to China, we found strong signs of
hope in three areas: the pastoral life of the open church; religious
publishing; and developments in Chinese universities.
Since the reopening of the churches in the 1980s, the Catholic
diocese of Beijing has grown slowly under the watchful eye of the
governments Religious Affairs Bureau. While more than 70 Catholic
parishes have reopened in Shanghai over the past two decades, only 17 parishes
currently function in Chinas capital city. But the local community of
faith shows many signs of strength.
A young priest, recently returned from Europe after advanced
studies in canon law, now serves as vicar of the diocese. He is creating the
first diocesan pastoral center in China with the assistance of a lay ministry
colleague, a woman who devoted a year to scripture studies in a major Catholic
university in the United States. Working with a skeleton staff and still
lacking the facilities for a library and classroom space, they have designed an
ambitious program of religious education and lay ministry training. Current
offerings include an information class for interested non-believers, a
well-subscribed program of marriage preparation, a youth volunteer service
project, and a married womens group that meets regularly for prayer and
support. The pastoral center also sponsors a three-year sequence of lay
ministry formation, which draws over a hundred participants from Beijing and
surrounding areas in all-day Saturday sessions throughout the year.
Recent developments at Beijings two major seminaries offer
another sign of hope. Over the past three years, a new generation of
well-trained young priests has returned to China from theological studies in
Catholic seminaries and universities in Hong Kong, Europe and the United
States. Imbued with the ecclesial vision and pastoral perspectives of Vatican
II, these men now serve as faculty members and spiritual directors in
seminaries throughout the country. The challenges these men face, as they
undertake the renewal of theological education in China after decades of
persecution and neglect, are considerable. And they take up these tasks with
courage and generosity.
At Beijings diocesan seminary, the theological faculty
includes a liturgical theologian, a moral theologian and a church historian --
all returned within the past three years from graduate studies in the United
States. The seminarys spiritual director returned last year from
theological studies in Hong Kong. In July, 10 seminary graduates were ordained.
Renovations are now being completed in a larger facility, enabling the staff to
welcome 20 new priesthood candidates for the fall semester. As this new
semester begins, the seminarys faculty expands to include a scripture
scholar and a canon lawyer, both returning from U.S. theological studies.
In a southern suburb of Beijing, about 30 miles from the city
center, a new national seminary stands. Currently educating 130 men, this
theological center serves the many dioceses across China that have no local
seminary. The faculty here includes theological specialists in scripture,
church history, liturgy, spirituality and ministry, all trained in Catholic
university and seminary graduate programs abroad. These men will soon be joined
by other colleagues returning with graduate degrees in canon law and systematic
theology.
Like their peers teaching in Chinas diocesan seminaries, the
young faculty at the national seminary have assumed responsibilities for
theological formation and continuing education in the wider church community:
traveling to offer workshops and short training courses in more remote areas,
providing retreats for priests and sisters, and preparing newsletters for
distribution across China by mail and Internet.
In the area of religious publishing, the Catholic publishing house
in Shanghai issued a thousand-page encyclopedia of Catholic theology in March
of this year. The book was prepared by an international group of scholars,
under the direction of the Jesuit theology faculty of Fujen University in
Taiwan. In Shanghai, the text was translated into the simplified Chinese
characters used on the mainland.
The story of the books production provides a glimpse into
the range and limits of religious freedom in China these days. The government
requires a review of all theological works before the necessary permission for
publication is granted. The review of the encyclopedia required that eight
entries be deleted. All dealt with politically sensitive topics, such as
communism, atheism and socialism. No changes were required in theologically
substantive articles on topics such as faith, Jesus Christ or salvation. To the
authors and editors in both Taiwan and Shanghai, eight deletions from over 700
entries seemed a manageable compromise. A first printing of 3,000 copies of the
Catholic Encyclopedia will be distributed to bishops and priests, religious
congregations and parishes throughout Mainland China.
Religious publishing houses in China are allowed, after government
review, to print and distribute materials to their own members. But their
publications cannot be sold in ordinary bookstores. Nevertheless, books on
religious themes and theological topics are found everywhere in China, in
state-run bookstores as well as new privately owned shops. And these religious
titles, published by university publishing houses and small private presses,
sell well in China today. Shelved in sections on history and philosophy,
literature and social sciences, even current affairs, these publications
respond to a growing and increasingly sophisticated interest in religion among
many Chinese.
In addition, the past three years have witnessed extraordinary
developments in the academic study of religion. As recently as three years ago,
only one graduate program in religious studies existed in China. Located in the
prestigious philosophy department at Beijing University, this program
functioned as training ground for government personnel serving in the Religious
Affairs Bureau, which is charged with oversight of all religious activities in
the country.
Today, religion is the focus of classroom study and academic
research in over 25 universities and government-sponsored research institutes,
and this number is expanding rapidly. More significant than the numbers, the
mood of this academic interest in religion has changed.
Earlier Marxist/Maoist evaluations of religion as a dangerous
bourgeois illusion have been replaced by a fascination with the positive role
of religion in the life of a culture. Max Webers work on the relationship
between Christianity and capitalism, first translated in China in the 1980s,
gave impetus to this interest. Now academic journals dedicated to the study of
religion in general, and Christianity in particular, are multiplying. A lead
article in the most recent issue of one of these journals considers The
Concept of God in an Age of Rationalism. The article is supportive in its
understanding of religious faith, concluding with reflections on Martin
Bubers I-Thou relationship and a long quotation from Pope
John Paul IIs Crossing the Threshold of Hope.
The Jubilee Year 2000, despite its inauspicious beginning, is
emerging as a good year for Christianity in China. Perhaps another significant
milestone has been passed in the long journey toward a more fruitful dialogue
between the Catholic communities in China and the United States. March of this
year witnessed the death, at age 98, of Chinese Cardinal Ignatius Kung. Kung
was the valiant bishop of Shanghai who in the 1950s defied the new communist
regime and paid for it with 30 years of imprisonment. Released from prison,
Kung traveled to the United States for medical treatment in 1988. He remained
in this country, leading a vigorous offshore attack against Chinese communism
and against those Catholics in China who attempted any relationship with their
countrys current government. The opposition of so formidable a leader
chilled the interest of most American Catholics in assisting the church in
China, even as the Chinese church struggled to embrace the reforms of Vatican
II and to prepare a new generation of Catholics to participate in the moral
reconstruction of their country. The passing of this courageous Cold War
soldier of faith may signal a new season of mutual respect and cooperation
between Catholics in China and the United States.
James and Evelyn Whitehead are Research Fellows in the
EDS-Stewart Chair at the Ricci Institute of Chinese-Western Cultural History,
University of San Francisco. During April in each of the past three years, the
Whiteheads have lectured in universities in China under the sponsorship of the
United Board for Christian Higher Education in Asia.
National Catholic Reporter, September 8,
2000
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