Catholicism in China, 1900-Present

The Development of the Chinese Church

C. Chu, C. Chu

• Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
• Year: 2014
• ISBN:
  9781137353658
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: Asian History
• Index: History

This volume is the product of scholars of various backgrounds, specialties and agendas bringing forth their most treasured findings regarding the Chinese Catholic Church. The chapters in this book covering the church from 1900 to the present trace the development of the Church in China from many historical and disciplinary vantage points.

P A R T 1

Catholic Missions in Local China

C H A P T E R T H R E E

American Jesuits and the China Mission: The Woodstock Letters, 1900–1969

MARK DESTEPHANO

The Society of Jesus, otherwise known as the “Jesuits,” is widely recognized for its long and accomplished history in the Celestial Empire. Boasting the largest number of missionaries in the Roman Catholic Church, practically since the order’s founding in 1540, it was also the first Catholic order to establish itself permanently in China (Macau, 1562). Although interrupted by the Suppression of the Society throughout the world in 1773,¹ it was reconstituted as the “New Society” in 1814 and quickly returned to its former ministries scattered throughout the world. By 1841, French Jesuits had returned to China, followed by the Irish in 1926, and, for the first time, in 1928, by Americans from the California Province.² Collaboration between the Jesuits and the Chinese people was extensive and productive from the beginnings of the mission until the early years of the 1950s, when the Jesuits were temporarily compelled to move their operations out of mainland China to Hong Kong and the Philippines. The fruits of this cooperation have received much scholarly attention.

Jesuits throughout the world had always taken a keen interest in each other’s work and kept themselves informed of their colleagues’ activities through a variety of national and international publications. For almost one hundred years, reports of the Society’s concern for and collaboration with the Chinese people occupied a prominent place in the pages of the American Jesuits’ principal publication, the Woodstock Letters.³ Published from 1872 to 1969 out of their flagship seminary, Woodstock College in Maryland, the Letters were the most complete source of information regarding the principal activities and personages of the American Jesuits. As the front cover of the first issue clearly states, they were “Printed for private circulation only”—by Jesuits and for Jesuits. A greatly understated subtitle defines the publication’s content: “A RECORD of current events and historical notes connected with the Colleges and Missions of the Society of Jesus.”⁴ By its second year of publication, the Woodstock Letters had modified this description to indicate that the letters would report on the “Colleges and Missions of the Society of Jesus in North and South America.”⁵

Yet, as the contents of Volume II of the Letters suggest, American-Jesuit interests did not lie solely in those continents; China had once again captured the imagination of the “Sons of Ignatius.” This widespread interest is reflected in the various kinds of correspondence, which would continue—in great volume—until the final issue of the journal. The range includes historical studies, stories from the international press, testimony from personal letters, internal Jesuit reports, Vatican correspondence, and transcripts of speeches delivered by key figures. Collectively, they chronicle the goals of the order, the hopes of individual missionaries, and the vicissitudes of their efforts during extremely turbulent years of China’s history. The Woodstock Letters therefore, offer a remarkably comprehensive view of the international Jesuit project in China during the period 1872–1969.

The Woodstock Letters provide us with a record of the Jesuits’ attempts to be cross-cultural ambassadors of the Roman Catholic Church. Bringing spiritual and material aid to China, they labored intensively with the Chinese people to educate Chinese of all social classes, Catholic and non-Catholic alike, with the aim of building a stable Chinese society of hope and progress, as well as a strong Chinese Catholic Church.

The Woodstock Letters, 1872–1900: Relaying Good News about European–Jesuit Contacts with China

The Woodstock Letters between the years 1872 and 1900 offer a wonderfully complete picture of the work of the French Jesuits at their two principal sites of missionary activity, the Nanjing [“Nankin”] mission and their observatory and school at Xujiahui (Zikawei),⁶ where the Jesuits would continue to labor until their departure from mainland China in 1951. By the second year of the publication of the Woodstock Letters, 1873, and the first year in which American Jesuits received statistics from China, the mission at Ningguo (Ning-koue-fou) in Anhui boasted some 50,000–80,000 catechumens, a harvest of souls that inspired younger American Jesuits and fired their imaginations.⁷

The Jesuits’ fame in China as educators became widespread, so much so that they received numerous offers of land from various local families to come to their towns and construct churches and schools. Following the tradition of their Ignatian brothers Matteo Ricci, Adam Schall, and Ferdinand Verbiest, who had used their scientific expertise to gain the attention and respect of the educated and powerful classes of Chinese society, the French Jesuits conducted meteorological and magnetic observations, and worked with Chinese scientists at the world-renowned Academy of Natural Sciences at Jiangnan (Kiang-nan). In the final years of the nineteenth century, many of the Academy’s Jesuit scientists, both French and Chinese, as well as non-Jesuit Chinese scientists, received numerous awards and citations from governments throughout the world.⁸ This had been no small accomplishment, especially given the strong resistance that foreigners had encountered from numerous Chinese emperors, as well as from the mandarins (ministers). Fresh was the memory of Emperor Qianlong’s rebuff of Lord Macartney, and with that, all of Western culture and civilization.⁹

The Jesuits’ work at their observatory in Xujiahui, which was equally significant, enjoyed visits from numerous foreign dignitaries such as the Russian foreign minister, and the English, American, and Dutch consuls, as well as the governor of Macau, and several admirals.¹⁰ After acquiring a printing press, the observatory began to publish works in Mandarin Chinese, and then did the same in European languages. The fact that the observatory, under the direction of European Jesuits, had chosen to publish its findings in Chinese first, underscores the Jesuits’ recognition that their work was for and with the Chinese people, in their native land. That publication in European languages was secondary clearly demonstrated that the Jesuits shunned the Eurocentrism typical of the day. By these and other methods, the Jesuits were able to form strong bonds of trust and friendship with the Chinese people.

Having also won the trust of the Holy See, and having been at least tacitly vindicated in their position in the bitter Chinese Rites Controversy,¹¹ the Jesuit missionaries of the “New Society” in China boldly chose to immerse themselves as fully as possible in Chinese culture. One of the most detailed reports on the background and works of the Jesuit intellectual apostolate at Xujiahui was published in 1888 by the Deutsche Kolonial Zeitung. As the inclusion of this article from a German publication demonstrates, the Woodstock Letters contain a surprising variety, detail, delicacy, and depth of human emotion, and their ability to bring the world of the China missions to life for American Jesuits living and working on the other side of the world. The publication’s ability to bring together such a wide range of different voices—from Jesuit scholars and spiritual giants, to European press voices, the words of Chinese Jesuits, and the imprecations of those who opposed the missions—was a singular accomplishment for its time.

Beginning with a brief historical overview, the unnamed author informs readers that this Jesuit mission had been extremely successful in the seventeenth century, and that when they returned to China in 1841 the Jesuits immediately chose to inhabit this auspicious site once again. The Deutsche Kolonial Zeitung is quick to note that the Jesuits at Xujiahui adapted themselves to the conventions of the Chinese educational system, including study of the Chinese classics, a practice that continued until the institution of educational reforms by the government of the Chinese Republic.¹²

In this regard, the Jesuits were following the model of inculturation that had first been envisioned by the Jesuit Superior General Everard Mercurian, who wished to free the Society of Jesus’ missionary efforts from the constrictions of the agreements made between the Holy See and the governments of Spain and Portugal during the 1490s.¹³

The new vision was to be implemented by Alessandro Valignano, who was appointed “Visitor” (i.e., representative of the Jesuit Superior General) to the Far East. The first of his reforms, born of the Society’s missionary experience in India, was that the Visitor would hand-pick all candidates for the missions of the Far East, and only those with the proper qualifications would be chosen. Perhaps the most dramatic and lasting change in missionary preparation and outlook was Valignano’s insistence that Jesuit missionaries spend a significant period of time learning the language, history, politics, and customs of the local area in which they were to serve before beginning their work there.¹⁴ Blazing a trail for future missionary efforts, Valignano ordered that Jesuits adopt the dress and customs of their missionary regions, a practice that was to become the hallmark of Jesuit inculturation.¹⁵

As shown by the curriculum adopted by the Jesuits at Xujiahui, they also accepted two other tenets of Valignano’s plan for missionary renewal: evangelization from the “top down” (i.e., of the elite classes before the common folk) and openness to and tolerance of Chinese values.¹⁶ In spite of the pretensions of some Europeans, the Jesuits labored long and hard to empower Chinese of all social classes, and to afford them opportunities to reach their fullest potential. This was especially true of the American Jesuits, who hailed from a church that itself was still considered mission territory in 1900. They also felt the burden of the conception of the Roman Catholic Church as centered in Europe and “radiating out” to its missions. As Jean-Paul Wiest (author of Chapter eleven) explained with respect to the founding of the Catholic Foreign Mission ...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title
• Introduction  The Church in China since 1900
• Part 1  Catholic Missions in Local China
• Part 2  Religion, Politics, and Culture: Cross-Cultural Issues in the Chinese Catholic Church
• Part 3  Catholicism and Politics in the Post-Mao Period
• Conclusion  The Church in China Today and the Road Ahead
• About the Authors
• Index