Priest: Chinese Catholics 'rooted' in their faith, serious about relaying it to their children

CHICAGO (OSV News) -- The exchange of ideas in talks at a Chicago conference on the life of the Catholic Church in China highlighted a strong desire to keep the faith growing despite multilayered difficulties in a communist country that has no official diplomatic ties with the Holy See.

Taiwan-based Jesuit Father Augustine Tsang gave a summary of pastoral ministry in mainland China based on his survey of dozens of mainland Chinese clergy, religious and laity. He teaches at Fu Jen Faculty Theology of St. Robert Bellarmine in Taipei.

While some of the laity have been less than enthusiastic about the faith, "many are still dynamic," Father Tsang said during the Aug. 2-4 conference, which drew clergy and religious from China, including those registered with the Chinese Catholic Patriotic Association. It was hosted by the Berkeley, California-based US-China Catholic Association.

The laity, the priest said, "are rooted in the basics of the faith," and praying rosaries, doing Stations of the Cross and having adoration of the Blessed Sacrament are a regular part of life. And, he said, they take seriously their duty to pass the faith on to their children.

Father Tsang pointed to the paradox of practicing the faith in an "atheistic and political environment" that has remained constant.

"Restriction actually makes believers more enthusiastic to appreciate and practice their faith. It also galvanizes the faithful to take initiative and spread the faith, not to rely heavily on priests and nuns," he said.

Control of religion in China has tightened in the past decade. The government has cracked down on those at unregistered churches and underground church meetings, with fines, imprisonment and destruction of church structures.

In 2018, the Vatican and China entered into an agreement to give Vatican consent of bishop appointments, with mixed results so far. A year later, youth under 18 were barred from church. In 2020, regulations were expanded on governing finances and significant moves of religious organizations. For nearly a decade the government has been pushing ahead with its "sinicization" plan to conform religion to state ideology.

There are 10 million-12 million Catholics in China, but recent studies show growth has been flat or decreased. They could not verify whether Catholics were reluctant to participate.

Even in this environment, there are still opportunities to evangelize, which several speakers said was the most important duty of every Catholic in China.

Father Tsang said that at ordinary events, like weddings and funerals, bands -- both Western and Chinese -- play for free because "the performances are all church songs and music."

At Wangfujing Church in Beijing, an imposing Romanesque-style church and popular tourist site, the faith is attractive even to nonbelievers.

Father Joseph Yu Yang, secretary-general of the state-sanctioned Bishops' Conference of the Catholic Church in China, who serves at Wangfujing, said non-Catholics choose to have their weddings there so they can receive a blessing from a priest. He said the sick, unemployed or those with personal problems also regularly stop by to ask for prayers and blessings.

Father Yang said although they are not Catholic weddings, "we will ask them before they are married in the church, even though it's only a blessing, you have to be educated in the Catholic moral idea about marriage. They have to receive that."

He said the church has 24-hour adoration of the Blessed Sacrament with Benediction weekly and Eucharistic processions. Last year there were 50 baptisms.

Built in 1655, then rebuilt and remodeled several times, Wangfujing, or St. Joseph's, is the second oldest Catholic church in China. It stands at the heart of an upscale shopping district, surrounded by popular restaurants that Father Yang said help attract young adults to Saturday vigil Mass.

The church rides on the wave of a major urbanization trend sweeping the country that has seen rural parishes' young adult and young family populations take flight, both within dioceses and across the country. Like Father Tsang, Bishop Paul Junmin Pei of Liaoning, China, expressed concern over urbanization, which is causing a dramatic shift in the demographic of Catholics historically being mostly from rural areas.

"In the process of urbanization, pastoral care should take into account the diversity of believers in the mutual attraction of people from different regions and lifestyles," said the bishop, who is vice president of the state-sanctioned bishops' conference. "It should allow and encourage immigrant Catholics to have their own small groups in the parish and provide them with care and freedom."

Bishop Pei said support groups would help transplants from the same regions get acclimated to their new parishes. In addition, he said, parish priests should offer the sacraments to them at home if they cannot go to Sunday Mass.

In a setting where freedom of religion is curtailed, Catholics do practice their faith, according historian Anthony Clark of Whitworth University, an expert on Chinese Catholicism.

"Yes, church crosses have been destroyed," he told OSV News. "I've walked through areas with priests wherein everything that they set up for a pilgrim site was bulldozed. So that does happen. I've also been to places in China where the local party is so supportive of the church that they funnel money to the church to build the church and try to encourage them to have a robust spiritual practice. In China, it always depends on where you are."

Clark, a Catholic, added, "You cannot be a party member and be religious, and you cannot be a Catholic and be a party member."

Father Tsang also had this reminder: "The Catholic Church has no worldly or political ambitions. Proofs show that the problems of the church in China cannot be solved by means other than faith. Compromises and concessions cannot attract people to the church but insistence on the truth, can. The church is nothing without Jesus."