China Increases its Crackdown on Catholics

Crux ^ | 12/20/15 | John L. Allen Jr. and Ines San Martin

[marshmallow]

As the ranks of Catholics in China have swelled, so, too, have government efforts to corral the trend - through heavy-handed crackdowns and police surveillance, if rarely by actual physical assault.

This attempt at state control extends to the appointment of clergy, as the case of Auxiliary Bishop Thaddeus Ma Daqin of Shanghai illustrates.

Ma, 48, was ordained as a Catholic bishop in July 2012 with the consent of both the Chinese government and the Vatican. That was seen as a concession by Chinese authorities, whose aim for decades has been to promote an autonomous Catholic Church whose loyalty is to the state rather than to Rome.

By all accounts, government overseers expected Ma to be compliant. And to underscore that point, officials insisted that a bishop not recognized by the Vatican take part in Ma's ordination ceremony. Yet when the time came for the state-backed bishop to lay hands on Ma, a standard part of the ritual, Ma got up and embraced him, preventing the bishop from performing the act that would have made him part of the sacrament.

At the end of the ceremony, Ma announced that he wanted to be the bishop of all, including Catholics fiercely loyal to Rome. As a result, Ma said, he would no longer be part of the "Chinese Catholic Patriotic Association," which is the government regulatory body for the Church.

It was the first time in memory that a bishop of the state-sponsored church had made such an audacious statement in public. Many in the crowd erupted into applause, observers say, while others wept.

The bereft knew better. Ma was swiftly placed under a form of house arrest in a Shanghai seminary, which was later closed down by the government. He remained there for three years, essentially cut off from.....

[marron]

Despite being under pressure from the authorities, my understanding is that Christianity is growing in leaps and bounds there. Within a very few years there may be more Christians there than here.

I don’t know if you have seen any estimates.

[yefragetuwrabrumuy]

The Chinese government are still distrustful of Christianity because of the Taiping Revolt. Caused by a charismatic madman who called himself “Jesus’ younger brother”, it may have been the second bloodiest conflict in human history after WWII.

Americans generally know little of it, because it was concurrent with the US Civil War. Also because of no small embarrassment, because the charismatic had learned of Christianity from missionary tracts.

It was said that after some of the battles in that conflict, that over a five square mile area you could not walk on the ground for all the dead humans and horses. Most of the slaughter done with pikes, swords, and some cannon.

Impressive how a single madman could ruin the reputation of over a hundred years of good works, but it did.