Growth of Catholicism on Taiwan has been as remarkable as the mainland repression was tragic. In 1945, when the island was returned to China by a defeated Japan, the one Apostolic Prefecture, staffed by Dominican Fathers, had about 8,000 adherents. Today's close to a quarter of a million members have their spiritual needs attended to by 700 priests. Also active are some 70 brothers and more than 500 sisters. Some 40,000 catechumens are preparing to become Catholics.
With the 170,000 Catholics of Hongkong and those of Macao added to the total in Taiwan, Chinese members exceed those of Japan.
Taiwan's first big influx from the mainland came in 1949, when Msgr. Joseph Kuo brought a party of priests and nuns who could no longer work under the Communists. In January of 1950, he was appointed the Prefect Apostolic of Taipei and the island was divided into two prefectures. By 1951 a Taichung prefecture had been added under Msgr. William Kupfer, M.M. In 1952 the Apostolic Internuncio to China, who had been vilified and expelled by the Communists, arrived to set up the Internuntiature in Taipei.
Catholic missionaries from the mainland soon heard of the freedom of religion obtaining under the Republic of China, which had moved its seat to Taiwan. They came in large numbers to start anew, and to carry out their missionary activities among the island-born as well as among those mainlanders who had escaped the inferno on the mainland. Converts grew by leaps and bounds. Because of language and familiarity, missionaries first concentrated on the mainlanders. Churchmen from Kwangtung and Fukien found their language training especially useful.
As time went on, missionaries studied Amoy, the dialect of most Taiwanese, and the number of catechumens and converts among the island-born quickly soared. Work among the aborigines also produced gratifying results.
Educational work was picked up where it had been laid aside on the mainland. Priests and sisters with adequate qualifications were invited to teach at the National Taiwan and Provincial Normal Universities. Chinese secular priests, Jesuits and Benedictine Sisters taught history, anthropology, sociology, public health, philosophy, chemistry, languages, drama, English prose and Shakespeare.
Conversions among educators and other intellectuals enhanced the prestige of Catholicism. As time went on, the church was invited to help with secondary education. Several middle schools have been opened and are succeeding. Plans for the re-establishment of Fu Jen University, formerly of Peiping, are being pushed by Archbishop Yu Pin.
The Chinese government has been as friendly to the church as the Communists have been unfriendly. The Republic has its diplomatic representative at the Vatican as the counterpart of the Apostolic Internuncio, Msgr. Giuseppe Caprio, in Taipei. The representative was raised to the rank of ambassador at the coronation of Pope John XXIII. President Chiang Kai-shek attended the Taipei services for Pope Pius XII.
Thomas Cardinal T'ien was sent to head the archdiocese of Taipei, while Kaohsiung was raised to the rank of diocese and given a Chinese bishop. Hsinchu, a part of the Taipei archdiocese, grew so rapidly that it, too, was made a diocese. Subsequently, Tainan became a diocese, also with a Chinese bishop. The Apostolic Prefectures of Taichung and Chiayi were elevated to the rank of dioceses in April of this year. Msgr. William F. Kupfer was named bishop of the Taichung Diocese and Bishop Thomas Niu was appointed Apostolic Administrator of the Diocese of Chiayi. The prefecture of Hualien is staffed by the Paris Foreign Mission Society under Bishop A. J. Verineux.
Special Projects
Special projects have included the Hua Ming Press, Kuang Chi Press, Kuang Chi radio programs, a radio station in Taichung, widespread relief work inspired by Father F. J. O'Neill, M.M., St. Joseph's Hospital in Kaohsiung under the care of Sister Hilda and the two hospitals at Lotung under the Camillian Fathers and Brothers.
Taiwan can be assured that when the church again can flourish on the mainland, it will not be neglected. The roots of Catholicism now run deep and strong. For both islanders and mainlanders, the church has been tried and found not wanting.
The mainland years began in trial and steady growth, then had their temporary end in martyrdom and the tragic stamping out of the deep religious faith and conviction to be found among the Chinese people. The last 50 years of the Catholic Church in continental China found their parallels in the history of the Republic of China for the same period. In succession' came a consolidation of strength after the Boxer incident, the setbacks of the First World War, establishment of uniquely Chinese roots, the life-and-death struggle of the Sino-Japanese War, a brief resurgence of strength, the Communist onslaught and the regrouping on Taiwan.
In the period following the Boxer incident, the Catholic Church seemed to be consolidating its position. Growth was slow but sure, and since there was a good deal of political ferment, the church authorities were cautious. To the 41 dioceses and vicariates of 1900, the church had added but four new vicariates by 1911. The religious orders and congregations which were engaged in missionary activities did little more than hold their own. It is true that they were already numerous, for they included the Augustinians, Dominicans, Franciscans, Jesuits, Lazarists, the Society of the Divine Word, several groups of Foreign Missionary Societies, that of Paris, those of Milan, of Rome, the- P.I.M.E. of Italy, the Scheut Fathers, some Benedictines, the Marist Brothers, and one house of Trappists. Two newcomers were added at this time, the Salesians and the Parma Foreign Missionary Society.
Foreign Clergy
While the population of China was estimated as between 450,000,000 and 500,000,000, the church had slowly passed the million mark and reached 1,292,000, which meant that there was only about one Catholic among every 500 Chinese. The clergy was still heavily foreign. In 1912, Chinese priests numbered only 729 while foreign missionaries were just about double that number. Sad to say, there were no Chinese bishops. Until this time the church was burdened, too, with foreign protection, which was no unmixed blessing. In 1906 the French minister in Peking relinquished the protectorate exercised by his country over missionaries other than French nationals, so that each country was expected to care for its own. In practice, however, the French government continued its help for some years. The protectorate had been necessary for buying land for churches and schools and for some security against such bands as the Boxers. On the other hand, it identified the church with the imperial powers which were so hated by the Chinese. Unfortunately as in all human affairs, sometimes the priests and sometimes the Chinese Christians abused the rights afforded them by the protectorate.
First World War
The first years of the Republic were soon followed by the First World War which was not propitious for the growth of the government or of missionary activity. Since most missionaries of previous years had come from France or Europe, and Europe was now torn by war, there were no new recruits and, in fact, some of the missionaries were recalled. The difficulties of various foreign concessions in China both in the economic and political fields were somewhat paralleled by the nationals of opposing factions in the mission field. This does not mean that there was antagonism or conflict between them but the differences presented some obstacles to missionary work.
There was a hopeful development in the formation of an American missionary society during the war years. It sent its first members to China in 1917. Father James Anthony Walsh and Father Price had started the Maryknoll Missionary Society in 1911. In 1917 Father Walsh set sail for the Far East to offer service in the mission field. The Maryknoll fathers were first received in the province of Kwangtung and spread their work through this area deeply and widely; later they also took up mission work in Manchuria. Their work was greatly aided by the assistance of Maryknoll sisters and gradually by a large number of Chinese priests.
Friendly Feeling
In the early days of the Republic of China, there was a more friendly feeling on the part of the government toward the church and Christians in general than at almost any time before. Many of the leaders had been educated in Christian schools; many of them were Christians. A very famous one was Ma Hsiang-pei, who was highly regarded in government circles and at the same time in the educational world, for he was the founder of Chen Tan University (Aurora) and of Fu Tan University, both located in Shanghai. Even more famous was Lou Tseng-tsiang, who for a short time was foreign minister and was one of the representatives of China at the Peace Conference at Versailles in 1919. A friend of his, Mr. Shu King-shen, advised him on his going to Europe, "The strength of Europe is not to be found in her armaments; it is not to be found in her science; it is to be found in her religion." For this reason he searched out the Catholic religion, studied and made it his way of life. He entered the Benedictine Abbey of St. Andre in Belgium. Mr. Lou Pa-hong, business tycoon, philanthropist unmatched and indefatigable Catholic actionist, was a leader of towering strength round whom the Catholic laymen of Shanghai rallied for apostolic and charitable works.
An aboriginal woman, with tribal tatooing on her cheeks, receives Holy Communion from Msgr. Eugene Fahy at the chapel in Kuangsi, Hsinchu (File photo)
Just as the Republic of China began to disentangle itself from foreign interference, so did the Catholic Church begin to divorce itself from close ties with European governments. While the protectorate of the French government no doubt gave the missionaries some security during the turbulent pre-revolution and revolutionary days, it also gave the church the name of France. This proved a serious roadblock to genuine conversions. A strong reaction evolved from within the church itself. Father Vincent Lebbe (Chinese name: Lei Mingyuan), a Lazarist, went to work in North China as a missionary but decided that the protection of the French government was a hindrance to his work for he said, "A missionary should not be protected from the Chinese, from the very souls his duty and his desires told him to win for Christ." Because of his strong reaction to methods of the French consul in Tientsin, he was sent to a section south of Shanghai. At this time he wrote a long letter to his bishop on missions in China. This letter was then forwarded to the Holy See and became a basis for future directives from Rome on mission work not only in China, but in other non-European countries.
One of Father Lebbe's principal ideas was that the missionary should find all that is legitimate and true in the indigenous culture and incorporate it into the church in the new country. He, himself, dressed like a Chinese, ate Chinese food, and spoke and wrote Chinese like a Chinese. Secondly, he said the church must be de-Europeanized; it was considered foreign and needed to become Chinese. His ideas seemed to have inspired the encyclical letter of Pope Benedict XV, Maximus Illud, which instructed the missionaries to find and educate suitable Chinese youths for the priesthood and then to use them in positions of equal rank with the non-Chinese clergy.
The same spirit animated the new Pontiff, Pius XI, for in 1922 he established an Apostolic Delegation in China which thus abolished the French protectorate over Catholic Missions. In the years that followed, two Chinese priests were made Vicars Apostolic and the first Plenary Council of the Church in China was held in Shanghai in May, 1924. The Chinese government was heartened by these signs of recognition and in appreciation, it granted the same honors to the representative of the Holy See at the funeral of Dr. Sun Yat-sen as for other diplomatic representatives. Pius XI continued to show his interest by his encyclical Rerum Ecclesia in which he reiterated the necessity for indigenous clergy and then showed by action that he meant it. He created two new prefectures in China, P'uch'i in Hupeh and Lyhsien in Chihli, which were to be governed entirely by the Chinese clergy. Then he called Father Lebbe to Rome and gave his friend, Msgr. Philip Tchao, a bishopric. In 1926 he personally consecrated six Chinese bishops in Rome.
After the First World War, new missionary groups became interested in the China mission field. The Columbans from Ireland came in 1920, the Passionists from the United States in the following year, the Picpus Fathers in 1922 and in the same year the Betharramites. The Benedictines came in three separate groups in 1925, 1926 and 1928. In 1923 there were Salvatorians and in the years that followed the Stigmatins, the Quebec Foreign Missionary Society, the Scarborough Bluff Foreign Mission Society, the Conventuals, the Bethlemites, the Recollects and the Redemptorists.
Many Newcomers
Many of the orders and congregations which already had been working in China called on provinces which had not suffered so much from the war. For example, the American Jesuits, Canadian Jesuits and Spanish Jesuits came to the aid of the French, who had long borne the heat and burden of the day. The Lazarists, Dominicans and Franciscans all called on their American brothers to come to their help, which they did. In the 1930s, the Canons Regular of St. Augustine, the Missionary Society of the Immaculate Heart and the Sulpicians went to China for new tasks.
It was during this period that there was a stirring of the Chinese national consciousness and gradual efforts to consolidate a central government wishing to eliminate outside influence as far as possible. It was quite appropriate that the Catholic Church should also push the movement for the church itself to become indigenous. From the naming of the six Chinese bishops, more and more Chinese were put in charge of vicariates and prefectures, and their staffs of priests were in some cases all Chinese. By the end of World War II, some 27 ecclesiastical districts scattered throughout China were ruled by Chinese.
Chinese Control
Especially significant was the fact that most of these districts had been initiated by the great missionary ord.ers and congregations, such as Lazarists, Franciscans, Jesuits, Paris Foreign Missions and Scheut Fathers. Some might think that 27 districts out of 144 in all China was not a great number but it should be noted that these were centers of both Chinese and Catholic life, for they included such great cities as Peking, Nanking, Mukden, Canton and Shanghai. Of these 27, nine had no foreign missionaries in them and another nine had only five or fewer.
Of great significance was the increase of Chinese priests from 1925 to 1948. While the foreign clergy grew from 1,806 to 3,015, the Chinese for the same period rose from 1,220 to 2,676. For the training of native clergy, the Catholic Church had established 14 seminaries at Peiping, Sienhsien, Tatung, Taiyuan, Tsinan, Yenchow, Chengtu, Zikawei, Kaifeng, Suanhua, Hankow, Kiukiang, Ningpo and Hongkong. At these seminaries and others there were 1,066 major seminarians and 3,688 minor seminarians in 1941.
Another field in which the Republic of China and the Catholic Church were making great strides was education. After the rather loose unification of the country in 1926 to 27, the National Ministry of Education and the provincial bureaus of education started to standardize, improve and extend education. The Catholic Church likewise started to push ahead in this field. The Protestants had preceded them.
During this period, three institutions of higher learning grew up in China. The oldest and best known was Aurora University, located in Shanghai, operated and staffed by Jesuits. To this university were attached a world famous observatory, a library of old and new volumes on China and an excellent museum.
Then there was the Fu Jen University in Peking, which was opened by the Benedictines but later was taken over by the Society of the Divine Word. In 1922 the French Jesuits also set up an institute which was finally recognized by the government as Tsin Ku University. This institute had an excellent museum on the findings regarding Peking Man and a collection of the flora and fauna of North China.
General Education
The purpose was one of the indirect apostolate. The primary purpose was not to have Catholic students or to make converts but to instruct a sympathetic elite which would be imbued with sound moral and social principles and free from prejudices against the church. Of the 2,140 students attending these courses, only one-tenth were Catholics. As for the 50 or so secondary schools in 1923, about one-third of the 10,000 boys were Catholics while nearly half of the 7,000 girls were of that faith. The China Yearbook for 1939 gives 179 high schools for boys and girls directed by Catholics in which the proportion of Catholics to non-Catholics was 7,378 to 9,697 for boys and 4,229 to 5,291 for girls. Primary schools of the Catholic Church enrolled more than 200,000 boys and girls and catechetical schools cared for another 200,000.
Two great stumbling blocks for conversions of Chinese and especially of intellectuals were the necessity of paying reverence to Confucius and to one's ancestors. No literatus could hold civil office if he entered the Catholic Church and then refused to pay the proper respect to Confucius; likewise no Chinese liked to be a Catholic if it meant that he could not pay the usual Chinese honor to his ancestors. It seemed to many that since the ancient educational system by which children learned the Confucian classics by heart had been set aside, and that the honor given to the dead was an expression of civil respect as in Western countries, the church should view the question in a new light. The government had expressly stated that the ceremonies performed before the tablets of Confucius had no religious significance. Many educated people held the same view of the honor given to ancestors.
In 1939 the Congregation of Propaganda of Rome, issued a Decree (Dec. 8) which read as follows:
1. Inasmuch as the Chinese government has repeatedly and explicitly proclaimed that all are free to profess the religion that they prefer, and that it is foreign to its intentions to legislate or issue decrees concerning religious matters, and that consequently ceremonies performed or ordered by the public authorities in honor of Confucius do not take place with intent to offer religious worship, but solely for the purpose of promoting and expressing honor due to a great man, and proper regard for tradition, it is licit for Catholics to be present at commemorative functions held before the likeness or tablet of Confucius at Confucian monuments or schools.
2. Hence, it is not to be considered illicit, particularly if the authorities should order it, to place in Catholic schools a likeness of Confucius, or even a tablet inscribed with his name, or to bow before such ...
As for the honor to ancestors, those actions and ceremonies which in common estimation were held to be mere civil respect should be permitted. The local ordinaries could determine which were civil and which still were religious.
The Second War
The Second World War brought material devastation, suffering and death to many church members. The Catholic Church stood forth everywhere as a Good Samaritan that set up hospitals for wounded soldiers, refugee camps for the thousands made homeless, havens for girls and women endangered by brutal soldiery. Catholic priests, laymen, nuns and nurses brought out the true nature of the church in bold relief so that it attracted thousands who formerly were left cold by all missionary efforts. Some wounded soldiers in a temporary hospital set up by the Catholics were asked why they entered the church when it brought them no apparent advantages. They answered: "Formerly we heard you preach that you should love your neighbor as yourself, but here we have seen it put in practice."
Even the common Japanese soldier was surprised by the ubiquity of Catholic missions. Some of them remarked that they had been told that they were coming to China to save it from Communism, but in every village they found a Catholic mission to which the people fled quite trustingly when they saw the enemy coming. Of special note among the works of mercy was that of the Little Brothers of St. John the Baptist, who were organized into a body of stretcher-bearers and led by Father Vincent Lebbe. He provided some 260 who were to work together with the Communist army against the Japanese. When the Communists learned that the Little Brothers were instructing and baptizing the wounded, they buried 11 of them alive and so mistreated Father Lebbe that when he was rescued by a special emissary of Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek, he was already so badly hurt that he died en route to Chungking.
While Chinese Catholics were doing their utmost to defend and support their country, the Communists, the pretended allies of the National government, were playing a double game which everyone inside China knew but which few outside realized. They 'pretended to be fighting the Japanese but actually they were strengthening their positions, forming a government within a government and attacking the Nationalist guerrillas in bloody battles behind the Japanese lines. They did all in their power to hinder the national cause, to create chaos and to gain control of as much territory as they could.
The Catholic Church also was active in Szechwan and other areas still in the hands of the Nationalist government. Education, relief, medical care and many other projects were heroically carried out in wartime Chungking and other areas. After the entry of America into the Second World War, missionaries who were in Japanese-occupied territory were interned in camps where they helped the internees. This left a great number of schools, churches and hospitals short of personnel. The Chinese clergy and the Chinese Jay Catholics came forward to meet the challenge and did excellent work.
With the return of peace, it seemed that both China and the church could pause for breathing space. Trouble came to the nation sooner than to the church, however, for the "leopard spots" of the Communists had not changed and the struggle to the death started immediately. Communism pushed forward to take all the land it could, even by force of arms, and was aided by Soviet Russia.
Bishop Simon Chu (seated, second from left) ordained 25 young men into the priesthood in Shanghai in 1937. Thirteen were Chinese and the other 12 came from six different nationalities. Father O'Hara, the author of this article, is standing, third from the right. Others included Bishop Haouisee (seated, center) and Bishop Brellinger (seated, second from right), now with the Holy Family Church in Taiwan. Many await mainland return. (File photo)
The Catholic Church had its men and women return to their posts immediately, numerous others returned from abroad and new recruits started to pour in. Eyes of missionaries had been opened to the need for Chinese clergy and sisters and so the unification of the church was pushed. There were 138 dioceses, of which 28 were under Chinese bishops and clergy; moreover, these were the most important dioceses in China. The Chinese clergy had grown from a little over 700 in 1911 to 2,073 and they were aided by 3,064 foreign clergy. There were more than 5,000 nuns, of whom more than half were Chinese. Many schools, hospitals and other charitable works were directed and cared for by congregations of Chinese nuns. New primary and secondary schools were being opened on all sides and there were plans for several new institutes of higher learning.
Status Raised
At this point the Holy See decided to raise the Catholic Church in China from the status of a mission country to that of the established church. Bishops who were called Vicars Apostolic would be bishops in their own dioceses. The Catholic population which had risen to 3 to 4 million members was given 20 archepiscopal metropolitan sees and 79 suffragan sees. Some 38 prefectures remained on under the old system until such time as they would be ready to be dioceses. And as crowning act, Pius XII raised Bishop Thomas T'ien to the rank of cardinal, the first one in the Far East. He was also made archbishop of Peiping and Bishop Paul Yu Pin was made Archbishop of Nanking.
The Apostolic Internuncio, Anthony Riberi, started a Catholic Central Bureau for the Church's work in China. Experts in law, education, journalism and catechetical work were commandeered in order to gather information, call national conferences and make plans.
Bid of Communism
Even at this period, the Catholic Church in the Communist infested areas was already suffering. Once again the nation and the Catholic Church were to be affected by the same catastrophe. With the end of the war, the Chinese Communists moved out of their territory in an effort to grab more. In 1946, a ceasefire was agreed upon, but the Communists continued their aggression. They obtained Japanese arms from the Russians, moved south and took Peking. In April, 1949, they crossed the Yangtze and in October moved all through the south. By December all provinces were in their hands and the Nationalist government had moved to Taiwan.
Before the move south, the Communists had pursued a ruthless policy toward Catholics and all religious peoples. It is known that 58 priests, mostly Chinese, were killed or died from cruelties inflicted on them by the Communists. Besides these, 16 brothers and many members lost their lives. The winter of 1947 to 48 was perhaps the worst, for mob trials were held everywhere in Communist-held territory, churches were burned and Catholics massacred. Particularly cruel was the treatment accorded the Trappists of the great monastery of Yangkiaping, outside of Peking. After a mob trial, two priests and three lay brothers were killed by having their heads crushed between rocks. French, French Canadian and Dutch monks and others were taken from their monastery and led on a bloody death march over the frozen roads. Thirty-one of the original 75 monks were killed.
After the takeover by the Communists, the hot treatment changed to cold. Missionaries and priests, were told to remain where they were, that they would be welcomed for their cooperation and that there was nothing to fear. At the same time the Internuncio, Msgr. Riberi, advised all missionaries to stay at their posts.
There had been some preparation for what was to come. Religious orders and congregations and dioceses had started to move their seminaries and people in training to safer spots in Southeast Asia. Those who remained prepared books and tracts to aid the Catholics in the onslaughts that would be made by propaganda and arguments against religion. Many bishops and priests took up various forms of labor and even more became peasants, farmers, gardeners, doctors, chemists, etc. They had seen rightly, for at first the Communists attacked through the children and education, used propaganda and meetings, persuaded and threatened. Finally, when they saw that this was having little effect, active persecution broke out and grew in fury as resistance balked their efforts.
The story of the Catholic Church's existence under the Communist regime is tragic yet heroic and glorious. The deep faith, heroic suffering and martyr's deaths of foreign missionaries and Chinese priests, sisters and lay people are second to none in the long history of persecutions survived by the church. These years ring with names such as that of Father John Tung, who turned the whole assembly of Catholics in Chungking away from trickery of the Communists by his famous sermon in which he gravely stated, "Today I am required to attack the representative of the Holy Father (the Internuncio, Msgr. Riberi). Tomorrow, I shall perhaps be forced to attack the representative of Jesus Christ, the Holy Father. The following day why should I not be constrained to attack God, Himself?"
Hero of Youth
Father Beda Tsang, S. J., was imprisoned and tortured to make him head the schismatic church. He died in prison and became the hero of Catholic youth. Fathers Aidan McGrath and Joseph Sheng were imprisoned; the former was expelled after much suffering and the latter died in prison. In January, 1953, the editor of the China Mission Bulletin wrote, "Since the Communists have started their campaign of 'liberation,' 2 archbishops and 2 bishops have died in prison, 14 more are in prison, 3 under house arrest and 43 have been expelled. . . At the time of writing there were 300 Chinese priests in prison or under house arrest. Since 1945 we have a total of about 200 priests and religious men and women who have been killed or died in prison for their faith."
Although the schools were taken over by trickery, confiscation or force, university students remained strong and wonderfully heroic for a long time. The Catholic students of the Shanghai Aurora University wrote a New Year's letter to their bishop in their own blood saying, "Perhaps some people regret that they were born into such a trying period of history; not so with us. We thank God that He allowed us to be born at this time that we might show Him our loyalty and love by practicing our faith under such attacks from without." The bishop himself, Joseph Kiung, was worthy of his flock for he has now suffered more than six years in a Communist prison while his fellow bishop of Canton, Dominic Teng, a man who always had poor health, also has been in prison for nearly as long.
Few Foreigners Left
There remain but a handful of foreign missionaries in Communist China. Chinese priests have resisted heroically. The bravest and staunchest have been killed, died in prison or still suffer behind bars; others are confined to their houses and not allowed to work. Some freedom has been allowed the aged and the less capable. Many of the Chinese nuns have been released from their vows and allowed to return to their homes by order of their bishops, since the Communists have made religious community life impossible. The resistance among the Chinese clergy, nuns and lay people is still strong and greatly courageous.
A complete record of Chinese resistance can be compiled only when the mainland church has been restored in an atmosphere of freedom.
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References:
China and the Cross: by Columa Cary-Elwes, P. J. Kennedy and Sons, N. Y., 1956.
A History of the Christian Missions in China: by KS. Latourette, SPCK, London, 1929.
China Mission Bulletin: Editorial Staff, Hongkong, 1951 to 1958.
Red Star Versus the Cross: F. Duray and Douglas Hyde, London, 1954.