BEIJING (Agenzia Fides): The first half of the 20th century represented a crucial historical phase for contemporary China, and also for the apostolic work of the Catholic Church in the Middle Kingdom.
Those decades were marked by the end of the empire, the beginning of the Chinese Republic, the birth of the Chinese Communist Party, the civil war between nationalists and communists, the Japanese occupation, then the victory of the communists, led by Mao Zedong, and the proclamation of the People’s Republic of China in 1949.
In the same period, the Chinese Catholic hierarchy was established, with the setting up and development of dioceses throughout the country.
At present, new studies carried out by Chinese academics are reconstructing in detail the work carried out in those years by 27 missionary congregations and religious institutes, and the contribution made to the proclamation of the gospel in China and to the growth of the local Church.
The reconstruction and analysis fills the book, A study on the missionary history of religious congregations in China, containing the latest research carried out by two professors, Liu Zhiqing and Shang Haili. The was published by the Culture and Religion publishing house.
The new book focuses on the crucial role played by missionaries in the development of ordinary pastoral care in Chinese parishes and dioceses, also addressing their contribution the formation carried out in seminaries and the relations—not always easy—between the different religious congregations.
The volume’s appendix provides a valuable summary table of statistics on the structure and growth of Chinese Catholic dioceses and communities in the years 1919, 1940, 1941, and the early 1950s.
The male congregations taken into account include, among others, Jesuits, Franciscans, Dominicans, the Paris Foreign Missions Society, Lazarists, the Pontifical Institute for Foreign Missions, Scheut missionaries, Verbites and Maryknoll.
In the first half of the 20th century, the apostolic impetus of missionary congregations and institutes was a decisive factor in parish and diocesan work, the administration of the sacraments and the ordinary pastoral practices that sustained the daily journey of faith of Chinese Catholics.
The book confirms the importance of studies carried out with the historical method, on the basis of documentation [including those kept in the archives of religious orders], to understand the history of the Catholic missions in China in all its richness, while removing it from stereotypes and partial readings fuelled by prejudices.
Professor Liu Zhiqing, a co-author, is director of the Institute of History and Social Development and Executive Director of the Institute for the Study of Religion and Culture at Anyang Normal University, Henan. Province, and has been working for more than 30 years in studies and research on Chinese Catholicism, which have given rise to the publication of essays and volumes of high academic value.
The new publication is a complementary study to the History of the evolution of Catholic dioceses in China [see Fides, June 15], published by Professor Liu under the patronage of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences in 2017.
