Replies

An example of 19th century Protestant bigotry toward Catholicism in China:

Ricci died in 1610. He was the first Catholic missionary who had penetrated into the empire, and had spent only 27 years there in his work; yet when he died, there were more than 300 churches in the different provinces! “What cannot one zealous man do, if his whole soul be directed towards one object! What might Ricci have done, had he dedicated his labors to the blessed Redeemer!”
Ricci was succeeded by Schaal, a German Jesuit, equal if not superior to himself. The prime minister of the new emperor Yungleih, his two principal generals Keu and Chin, the empress dowager, the empress herself, and her son Constantino the heir of the crown, •
were converted to Christianity, and baptized by Koffler, a German Jesuit, in 1650; and the Catholic faith would doubtless have been established as the religion of China, but for the success of the Mantchoo Tartar arms, which placed a new dynasty on the throne. Perhaps in the end we have reason to rejoice in this event, rather than to regret it. Providence seems to have purposely reserved this vast empire for a purer faith, and for this reason prevented it from falling under the yoke of the Man of Sin.
Schaal however, and Verbiest, became favorites with the new government, and the Emperor Shun-che, and Kang-he, who, next to Kublai, was the greatest prince that ever sat upon the Chinese throne, favored the Catholic missions. Yung Ching, his successor, in 1723, was their enemy, and banished all the missionaries, except such as he found subservient to his interests at court, forever from the empire. By this order 300,000 native converts were deprived at once of their spiritual guides; many were cruelly punished; many apostatized; but some steadfastly endured. Perhaps these had really found the Saviour. We would not willingly believe that all the fruit of these missions was chaff. Even in Babylon the Lord has his people, and it might be so here. Successive efforts have been since made by the Catholics to regain the ground lost in China, but with little effect. Regarding them as enemies to the state, as intriguing emissaries of a foreign power, (not indeed without some reason) the succeeding Emperors, Keen-lung, and Kea-king, repeatedly persecuted them. The present reigning monarch, Taou-kwang, who came to the throne in 18i22, has been less hostile, and of late many Catholic missionaries have entered the country; but their principal work is reading mass, and distributing crucifixes and pictures, and the calendars of the Romish church. The number of their converts is said to be 600,000. But they are generally very poor and ignorant, despised and bigoted, a stumbling-block, instead of an honor to the Gospel. They have lately manifested much opposition to Mr. GutzlafFs labors in diffusing the word of God in China. Yet to extend this spurious form of Christianity in China, there are now seminaries for training Catholic missionaries at Macao, Lisbon,”Naples, and Paris, and from 30,000 to 50,000 dollars are expended annually!

The Baptist Missionary Magazine, Volumes 15-16, pages 172-173.

Maryknoll-in China.—Four years ago the writer was associated with two brilliant and enthusiastic young clerics in the academic organization of the Venard Apostolic School at Clark’s Green, Pennsylvania. This was the first offshoot of the firmly-rooted foundation on the banks of the Hudson, whose marvellous growth has no human explanation, whose apostolicity is a source of wonderment to those in other lands who know little of the spirit of faith which is so characteristic of American Catholicism. Today these former associates are busy harvesting in far distant lands and garnering souls for Christ in the mission field set apart by the Holy See for evangelization by the Catholic Foreign Mission Society of America. One of these associates, Father James Edward Walsh, of Cumberland, Md., is pro-Vicar of the Maryknoll Chinese Mission; the other, Father Frederick C. Dietz, is head of the “parish” of Shuitung, in the Province of Kwongtung. In addition, sixteen other missionaries, most of whom were former students of the writer, are at work in Yeungkong, Kochow, Tungchan, Pingham, Tongon, Sanhui, and Watnam, laboring earnestly and fruitfully as apostles. Maryknoll at Ten—a breezy little volume by Father Kress—tells the story of the growth of the pepiniire during its first decennial; that singularly appealing monthly, The Field Afar, records its progress; and the “Knollers” in China regularly keep us informed of their mission activities. Their letters are most valuable contributions to the history and literature of Catholic Foreign Missions. Six “Mission Sisters of the Third Order of St. Dominic”—a Maryknoll foundation—recently arrived in China; for the present they are domiciled in Hongkong, where they will remain a year studying Cantonese and becoming conversant with the habits and customs of the Orient. Next year they will proceed to the mission centers to open schools, nurseries, and hospitals in sections to be designated by the Maryknoll Superior, who is now in China “spying out the land.”

The following letter lately received from Father Dietz, to which he has appended his Chinese “visiting card,” will interest even those who have never given a thought to the noble cause of Foreign Missions:

. . . I have found the Cantonese language very interesting. It has no alphabet but represents each word by a special character, of which there are about 40,000. A knowledge of four or five thousand suffices for all ordinary purposes. As represented by our letters each word is a monosyllable. Several sounds like “sz” and initial “ng” are strange to us and dfficult to acquire at first. The only real double consonants are “ts” and “kw,” which accounts for the fact that the Chinese cannot pronounce many of our English words without interpolating vowels. For stick they say see-tick and Po-luk-lin for Brooklyn. Each word has its proper tone, consisting sometimes of a gliding rise or fall. There are nine different tones with as many variations. A change of tone produces a complete change of meaning. According to the tone used, “foo” will mean either husband, bitter, trousers, to verify, a married woman, or father. You can easily imagine what ludicrous mistakes we sometimes make, but after patient drilling we finally “get the habit.” Chinese has one grand advantage to offset all these difficutics; it has no grammatical inflections whatever. There is no “rosa, rosae” to be laboriously learned as in our college days, and that is certainly much to be grateful for. The thought idiom is simple but from our point of view very funny at times. “What is the fare to Hongkong?” would go like this: “Down Hongkong must give how much water-legs, eh?”

What is China like? I think I can give you a fair idea by mentioning some of the things that give it its local color and then adding what it has not, leaving your imagination to do the rest. The distinctive features of China are: little or no police, constant interprovincial wars, pirates and bandits; pagodas and wayside shrines; ancestral tablets of stone with their burning joss sticks in every home or shop; firecrackers to frighten away devils or lend solemnity to an occasion; musical instruments of great variety but indescribable sounds; interesting junk and sampan dwellers; so-called rice-wine, strong enough to knock out Dempsey in two rounds; and, above all, bamboo. Everything is carried on bamboo poles; bamboo is used for building bridges, docks, scaffolding, and shacks, for poling junks, for an infinite variety of baskets and crates, for conducting water, for sustaining mosquito curtains, for trellises, for mats, for clothes-lines and almost everything. Barring a few modernized cities like Canton, China has no sewerage or piped watersupplies (and hence no shower-baths except of the sprinkling-can variety); no autos, street-cars, or traffic cops; no horses, wagons, or baby-carriages; no milk, butter, ice or ice-cream; no pies, pianos or telephones; and no daily dreadfuls with full-page comics. Many of the larger cities have electric light, telegraph, imported canned goods, and, last, but not least, beer, wine, and liquors in great variety. Victrolas, movies, and Bolshevism are on the way. Of course, I speak only for South China; the north differs in many respects.

It is said that the more one sees of the Chinese the better he likes them. I have found this true in my experience. They have their gross faults, but what more can be expected of pagans? On the other hand they manifest as a class certain natural virtues. They are hard-working and thrifty, fond of water (but not for drinking), good-natured, peace-abiding, extremely patient, and have a fine sense of humor. The children are very attractive in appearance and manner. Chinese Christians cannot do enough for their “Spiritual Father” on his visits and it’s always the same story of “Go away slowly, come back quickly.” They seem happy to frequent the Sacraments whenever occasion offers. To hear a congregation of several hundred “singing” out their prayers is certainly touching and edifying. . . .

The Catholic Historical Review, Volume 1; Volume 7, page 568...