China's Catholicism with a twist twisting free?

National Catholic Reporter, July 2, 1993 by Leslie Henderson

BEIJING -- Clad in the simple, somber blues and grays of the stereotypical Chinese peasant, a scrubbed but tousled old gatekeeper greets two visitors at the door of Xishiku Catholic Church in near-north-west Beijing.

About 3,000 people are about to receive communion. The gatekeeper said proudly that twice that number had attended Easter services the Sunday before.

"These people really believe," observes a non-Catholic Beijinger watching the communicants file devoutly down the aisles. "In the West, this is so common, so easy, but these people have gone through a lot just to be here together," he said.

Some Chinese Catholics endured lengthy imprisonments, even torture and death, according to some reports, to practice their faith in this technically atheistic society. But many observers say a new, more open era has finally begun for all Christians in China, ushering in a freedom not known since before the Communist Party takeover in 1949.

Official reports put membership in the government-sanctioned "patriotic" Catholic church at 4 million, with at least 50,000 baptisms annually, many of them adults, according to Bishop Zhong Huaide, head of the bishops' conference in the approved church.

Zhong, 68, said members of the official church not only "like Catholics around the world, pray daily for the pope," they also recognize the pope as the head of the church, indicating a loosening of religious constraints in the ongoing struggle between the Vatican and the Communist Party.

Meanwhile, the underground church, tenacious Catholics who have been clandestinely practicing their faith for decades, is still growing fast and has an estimated membership of 10 million, more than twice that of the official church, but still a drop in China's 1.2 billion population bucket.

Ossified attitudes?

While refusing to recognize the official Chinese church, the Vatican gives diplomatic recognition to the government of Taiwan, instead of the People's Republic of China. These are both sore points for many mainland Chinese.

"Your pope is a bad guy," Zhong said, paraphrasing certain mainland scholars. "Most countries in the world recognize the PRC, but the pope won't. (He) has an ossified mind."

Although Zhong confirms the existence of the underground movement, he emphasized the need for Catholics in China to become involved in the official church if they care about the future development of the church in this country.

"Chinese Catholics have to go along with the rules of the Chinese government," Zhong said during an interview at his church on the south side of Beijing, a huge crucifix dangling from his neck. "If they disregard the reality ... and go along with the Vatican, this in turn will hurt the Catholic church."

Official recognition aside, China's mandatory family planning policies, instituted several years ago to combat a raging overpopulation problem, create a mammoth hurdle between Roman Catholic doctrine and the Chinese state.

Liu Bianian, vice president of the "patriotic" church, was irritated with the Vatican's position. Since Chinese people are practicing family planning "not in their own selfish interests, but because they are citizens," he argued, "it is not for the Catholic church to say this is a sin."

The China caveat

This logic -- that China is so intrinsically different that any international system must adapt to the country's unique circumstances -- is familiar, and not only in church affairs. A common phrase here describes the new economic policies as "socialism with Chinese characteristics," a caveat frequently applied to almost any enterprise.

[CHART OMITTED]

Lou Chinan, a state church official, used it to describe the church's architectural goals in its current rebuilding program. A traditional Chinese look is being combined with the Western architecture of existing buildings to "build up a kind of Catholicism with typical Chinese characteristics," he said.

The rebuilding began in 1985, when many of China's churches were reopening and needed repair from the Cultural Revolution's decade of destruction. It has severely strained the church's financial resources, which have been almost entirely local and another sore point with the government, in a socialist society where personal wealth must go to the state for redistribution.

With recent economic reforms, however, money is flowing more freely, much of it from overseas, and both the official church and the underground church are starting to take advantage of it.

Yet, finances remain a source of friction, at least for some underground churches in the more repressed provincial areas. A 1989 report said scores of villagers in Hebei province were injured trying to defend a church they were building against thousands of police. Official ire over the foreign money funding the construction reportedly sparked the police raid.

According to Zhong, the official church is openly seeking donations from Catholics overseas.

Meanwhile, other reports of religious persecution continue to filter out. The Puebla Institute, a right-wing human rights watchdog, recently reported the death of an elderly underground church bishop, Liu Difen, from what the institute believes was torture administered during detention. According to the institute, Liu was the fourth Catholic bishop in recent years to die after maltreatment in detention.