Dr. Clark in Guizhou
I've been able to keep up with the occasional posts from Dr. Anthony Clark on the Ignatius Insight blog. Dr. Clark is in China, in Beijing to be precise, as the director of the University of Alabama Chinese Language and Culture Program. If Catholicism in China is interesting to you, his dispatches are (unlike mine), thoughtful and well-researched (and spell-checked!).
Recently he travelled to Guizhou, a very poor province in the Southwest of China. There he encountered a situation of which I've heard before, where the distinction between "underground" and "official" churches in some areas are not as cut-and-dry as we Americans would like to think. He was able to meet with the three bishops that reside there, two that have been through so much as "underground" bishops and one that was recently installed with both government and Vatican approval. Both Adam Minter and I blogged about Bishop Xiao last September, both of us alarmed at the fact that one major news outlet was reporting that there was a "Vatican Row" looming over Bishop Xiao's episcopacy when most every other news outlet, like Asianews.it, was reporting that Bishop Xiao was already approved by the Pope. Dr. Clark's report is a really important read, describing both Cultural Revolution and more recent history through the eyes of these priests and bishops. He also has some great pictures.
Dr. Clark has the courage to ask the questions I would not be comfortable asking. At my parish I have met many people who describe themselves as coming from "old Catholic families," and I would not dream of asking them how they spent the 1970s. I have seen photo albums at one family's house of how they lived from the 1980s once the government began to loosen the restrictions on religious life. Their family albums include pictures of priests who were permitted to come to their home to say Mass until their petition for the return of church property was completed, with the occasional appearance by Bishop Jin of Shanghai. But I've never felt as though I could ask how it was for them or anyone before. Of course, though, Dr. Clark is writing about the Church for a purpose, and the main thrust of my blog has been to show family and friends that this nomadic family is okay, even before we moved to China.
I missed my chance to travel to Guizhou earlier this year. The Shenzhen Catholics sponsored a mission trip to Guiyang in the spring of this year. I was at the point early in this pregnancy where I would have been much more an exhausted, nauseous hindrance than a help, because from the pictures I saw, they were doing a lot of building repair. I was talking to one of our elderly parishioners who also was unable to go. He was originally from that area, and proudly told me about the four martyrs from his village. Dr. Clark's post has a photograph of their grave.
Recently he travelled to Guizhou, a very poor province in the Southwest of China. There he encountered a situation of which I've heard before, where the distinction between "underground" and "official" churches in some areas are not as cut-and-dry as we Americans would like to think. He was able to meet with the three bishops that reside there, two that have been through so much as "underground" bishops and one that was recently installed with both government and Vatican approval. Both Adam Minter and I blogged about Bishop Xiao last September, both of us alarmed at the fact that one major news outlet was reporting that there was a "Vatican Row" looming over Bishop Xiao's episcopacy when most every other news outlet, like Asianews.it, was reporting that Bishop Xiao was already approved by the Pope. Dr. Clark's report is a really important read, describing both Cultural Revolution and more recent history through the eyes of these priests and bishops. He also has some great pictures.
Dr. Clark has the courage to ask the questions I would not be comfortable asking. At my parish I have met many people who describe themselves as coming from "old Catholic families," and I would not dream of asking them how they spent the 1970s. I have seen photo albums at one family's house of how they lived from the 1980s once the government began to loosen the restrictions on religious life. Their family albums include pictures of priests who were permitted to come to their home to say Mass until their petition for the return of church property was completed, with the occasional appearance by Bishop Jin of Shanghai. But I've never felt as though I could ask how it was for them or anyone before. Of course, though, Dr. Clark is writing about the Church for a purpose, and the main thrust of my blog has been to show family and friends that this nomadic family is okay, even before we moved to China.
I missed my chance to travel to Guizhou earlier this year. The Shenzhen Catholics sponsored a mission trip to Guiyang in the spring of this year. I was at the point early in this pregnancy where I would have been much more an exhausted, nauseous hindrance than a help, because from the pictures I saw, they were doing a lot of building repair. I was talking to one of our elderly parishioners who also was unable to go. He was originally from that area, and proudly told me about the four martyrs from his village. Dr. Clark's post has a photograph of their grave.
Comments