Priest reports on Church's status in China

"I find it fascinating to watch how the Church has come alive in China," Rev. Michael Farano, director of the diocesan Office for the Propagation of the Faith told The Evangelist. "China is a sleeping giant. China needs to ask, 'What are the values that we will use as the world shrinks and we tear down walls that [divide] us politically, economically and culturally?'"

Father Farano, who is also pastor of St. Pius X parish in Loudonville, attended an ecumenical conference last month in Rome on the condition and future of Christianity in China.

As a member of the board of the U.S. Catholic China Board, he was one of 160 participants from Europe and the U.S. at the meeting.

Promise of China

The conference held that "the potential for the development of the Church in China is phenomenal," the priest said, painting a picture of a nation bursting with a "revived interest in the Christian faith and the place of Christianity [in] Chinese culture."

He said that interest is especially keen when it comes to addressing the questions a newly opened China faces, such as the growing division of rich and poor, a shifting social service system, and the nation's privatization of government-operated companies and services.

"When I was in China seven years ago," he noted, "I met a group of doctoral students who asked all the time about practical things: 'What was life like in the parish? How often do people go to Mass?' People are interested in the Gospel and in the message it has to offer."

Repression

The growth of Catholicism in China ground to a halt during the Cultural Revolution in the 1960s, when the communist government closed churches, appropriated convents and seminaries for use as factories, arrested members of the clergy, and prohibited the practice of religion. Many Catholics began to practice their faith behind closed doors.

According to Father Farano, Catholics in China knew very little of the Second Vatican Council of the 1960s and, during the 1980s, were still trying to obtain books on the changes in the Church.

To this day, no non-Chinese person is allowed to minister in a religious capacity in the country, although American and European religious do teach and are connected with local churches.

Coming together

The ecumenical conference established that one of the main misconceptions about Catholicism in China is that Catholic life is still sharply divided between an open government-approved church and an underground church secretly united with the Vatican.

The practical reality is far more complicated, Father Farano said. For many Chinese, it's a difference that no longer matters.

He said that "one young laywoman I met there said, 'We understand the conflict between the West and the government. We don't have that problem. We accept the pope. He is our leader. We're Roman Catholics, just like the rest of the Roman Catholic world. We still live our faith.'"

Father Farano called the recent ordination of Shanghai's new auxiliary bishop, Joseph Xing Wenzhi, a historic moment; he is the first bishop to be recognized by both the Vatican and the Chinese government. The priest considers it a "great breakthrough" in the process of reunification.

Growing faith

Chinese Catholic religious life looks both similar to and different from Catholic life in the United States, said Father Farano. Pews are packed on Sundays, and the numbers of religious sisters and brothers have risen in recent years.

"The development of religious life in the Church is amazing," he explained. Religious "communities that were totally suppressed are coming back to life. They attract young women who are highly educated."

Father Farano said that the Protestant delegates of the recent conference "put a great deal of emphasis" on a growing movement in China towards a model of worship that stresses commonalties among churches instead of differences.

"There are a variety of opinions on whether this is a good thing or a bad thing for China," said Father Farano, "but relations between Catholics and Protestants appear to be very good. There was a very willing spirit of cooperation. I'd love to [visit China again] to see how it develops."

(10/20/05) [[In-content Ad]]