Guide book
Well, what do you know? I was at the Hong Kong Catholic Centre recently, and I now have the 2008 Guide to Catholic Church in China that I blogged about recently.
This guide is edited by a French priest, Fr. Charbonnier and published in Singapore. It is in Chinese and English.
Each province and municipality has its own chapter. Each chapter begins with a map, showing the location of churches and shrines throughout the province or municipality. There is a mix of history for some locations and current information like Mass times and phone number.
There's a lot to commend this book, especially since it is the first time I've seen such an exhaustive directory of Chinese Catholic Churches. There have been previous editions but I've never seen them. However, in practical use, one would still need much guidance to find their way around. Not every parish has its Mass schedules listed, or its address. In fact, for my parish, the Nantou Church, using just the address even in Chinese might not get you there since the church is tucked in basically an alley. However, most of the parishes do have a phone number listed.
The maps, too, are a bit confusing to me. For instance, the Guangdong province map does not show any parishes for Shenzhen. And the Beijing map shows a church property at Changping, the probable location where we will live when we move to Beijing and where Randy is already living, but I can't tell from the addresses in the guide if there really is anything in Changping.
Obviously, "unofficial" churches and those that cater exclusively to foreigners, like the group that meets in the gated community in Shekou, are not listed in this guide. For people that may be concerned about whether a particular diocese has a bishop in Communion with the Pope, in the back of the book it is mentioned which Bishops were not given Papal approval for their Episcopal Ordination and which were. The guide also includes information on Hong Kong, Macau, and Taiwan churches.
All in all, I am happy that this type of guide exists, though I know that I will be consulting extensively the priests here and Fr. Han, formerly of Shenzhen and now back in Beijing, to figure out how we need to go about getting to Mass once we move. And, should anyone you know need to find a parish because they are traveling in China, please feel free to email me. I would be more than happy to send you what information I can get from the guide, with the caveat that it would have to be verified once you got here.
This guide is edited by a French priest, Fr. Charbonnier and published in Singapore. It is in Chinese and English.
Each province and municipality has its own chapter. Each chapter begins with a map, showing the location of churches and shrines throughout the province or municipality. There is a mix of history for some locations and current information like Mass times and phone number.
There's a lot to commend this book, especially since it is the first time I've seen such an exhaustive directory of Chinese Catholic Churches. There have been previous editions but I've never seen them. However, in practical use, one would still need much guidance to find their way around. Not every parish has its Mass schedules listed, or its address. In fact, for my parish, the Nantou Church, using just the address even in Chinese might not get you there since the church is tucked in basically an alley. However, most of the parishes do have a phone number listed.
The maps, too, are a bit confusing to me. For instance, the Guangdong province map does not show any parishes for Shenzhen. And the Beijing map shows a church property at Changping, the probable location where we will live when we move to Beijing and where Randy is already living, but I can't tell from the addresses in the guide if there really is anything in Changping.
Obviously, "unofficial" churches and those that cater exclusively to foreigners, like the group that meets in the gated community in Shekou, are not listed in this guide. For people that may be concerned about whether a particular diocese has a bishop in Communion with the Pope, in the back of the book it is mentioned which Bishops were not given Papal approval for their Episcopal Ordination and which were. The guide also includes information on Hong Kong, Macau, and Taiwan churches.
All in all, I am happy that this type of guide exists, though I know that I will be consulting extensively the priests here and Fr. Han, formerly of Shenzhen and now back in Beijing, to figure out how we need to go about getting to Mass once we move. And, should anyone you know need to find a parish because they are traveling in China, please feel free to email me. I would be more than happy to send you what information I can get from the guide, with the caveat that it would have to be verified once you got here.
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