Christianity in Modern China

Christianity in Modern China Series editor Cindy Yik-yi Chu Department of History Hong Kong Baptist University Kowloon Tong, Hong Kong This series addresses Christianity in China from the time of the late Ming and early Qing dynasties to the present. It includes a number of disciplines—history, political science, theology, religious studies, gen- der studies and sociology. Not only is the series inter-disciplinary, it also encourages inter-religious dialogue. It covers the presence of the Catholic Church, the Protestant Churches and the Orthodox Church in China. While Chinese Protestant Churches have attracted much scholarly and journalistic attention, there is much unknown about the Catholic Church and the Orthodox Church in China. There is an enor- mous demand for monographs on the Chinese Catholic Church and the Orthodox Church. This series captures the breathtaking phenomenon of the rapid expansion of Chinese Christianity on the one hand, and the long awaited need to reveal the reality and the development of Chinese Catholicism and the Orthodox religion on the other. Christianity in China refects on the tremendous importance of Chinese-foreign relations. The series touches on many levels of research— the life of a single Christian in a village, a city parish, the conficts between converts in a province, the policy of the provincial authority and state-to-state relations. It concerns the infuence of different cultures on Chinese soil—the American, the French, the Italian, the Portuguese and so on. Contributors of the series include not only people from the aca- demia but journalists and professional writers as well. The series would stand out as a collective effort of authors from different countries and backgrounds. Under the infuence of globalization, it is entirely necessary to emphasize the intercultural dimension of the monographs of the series. With Christianity being questioned in the Western world, as witnessed in the popularity of Dan Brown’s books since some time ago, the Chinese have surprised the world by their embracement of this foreign religion. More information about this series at http://www.springer.com/series/14895 Amanda C.R. Clark China’s Last Jesuit Charles J. McCarthy and the End of the Mission in Catholic Shanghai Amanda C.R. Clark Whitworth University Spokane, WA USA Christianity in Modern China ISBN 978-981-10-5022-0 ISBN 978-981-10-5023-7 (eBook) DOI 10.1007/978-981-10-5023-7 Library of Congress Control Number: 2017943655 © The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s) 2017 This work is subject to copyright. All rights are solely and exclusively licensed by the Publisher, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifcally the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microflms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed. The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specifc statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use. The publisher, the authors and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and information in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication. Neither the publisher nor the authors or the editors give a warranty, express or implied, with respect to the material contained herein or for any errors or omissions that may have been made. The publisher remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affliations. Cover illustration: © John Rawsterne/patternhead.com Printed on acid-free paper This Palgrave Macmillan imprint is published by Springer Nature The registered company is Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. The registered company address is: 152 Beach Road, #21-01/04 Gateway East, Singapore 189721, Singapore This work is dedicated to E. Walter McCarthy, brother of Charles J. McCarthy; were it not for his copious saved letters and generous encouragement over these past several years, this story might not have been told. FOREWORD CHARLES J. MCCARTHY, SJ, AND AN ERA OF CHANGE In 1971, Father Charles McCarthy published a book that helped change the national constitution of the Philippines in favor of Chinese who had remained unable to attain citizenship there, even if they were born and raised on the islands. Not unlike the early Chinese who set- tled in his native San Francisco, the Philippines had adopted an anti- Chinese mythology that McCarthy knew to be contrived and painful to the Chinese who attempted to live peacefully in what had become their home. In his frst remarks to a book he wrote in support of Chinese citizenship, Father McCarthy renders an incisive opening salvo for his argu- ment in favor of the naturalization of racially Chinese persons in the Philippines. He wrote: “These pages, I hope, will serve towards a better appreciation of contributions which Filipinos and the Chinese minority in their midst can make to each other during a time of historical chal- lenge.”1 Among his deepest hopes was that changing the constitution to allow for Chinese naturalization in the Philippines would “give the young [Chinese] a better future”; he sought an “equality before the courts and a fuller freedom of speech in the forum of public opinion than [Chinese] have enjoyed.”2 His continuous and determined lobby- ing on behalf of full Chinese integration in the Philippines in the early 1970s helped result in a change to the laws; Chinese are now allowed citizenship there, and Charles McCarthy became an almost household name among Chinese diaspora on the islands. vii viii FOREWORD Behind McCarthy’s abiding support of the Chinese community in the Philippines is a long and unsettled past as an American missionary in Mainland China during its uneasy transition from the Republic of China under Chiang Kai-shek to the People’s Republic of China, founded in 1949 under the leadership of Chairman Mao Zedong. Having lived in China from 1941 until 1957, he encountered a nation still infused with the vestiges of its past culture, while also witnessing the tumultuous ruptures that largely brushed that past away in favor of revolution and systemic transformation. McCarthy also observed the often inhumane treatment of Chinese by the Japanese under their occupation of China from 1937 to 1945; he was himself confned to the Jesuit mission in Shanghai for 2½ years, from 1943 until 1945. Seeing frsthand how the Chinese had suffered during the Japanese occupation and then from the civil war between the Communists and Nationalists, Father McCarthy was sensitive to the predicament of Chinese both within their native China and abroad. The friendships and experiences he had while serv- ing in Shanghai and Beijing undoubtedly inclined him toward helping his new Chinese friends in the Philippines. One of the manifest virtues of the present book is the scope of its treatment of McCarthy’s important contribution to the history of Jesuit world missions, tracing his life from a modest birth and upbringing in an Irish-American family in San Francisco, to China, and then to his fnal days as a citizen of the Philippines. Based on archival materials from the Jesuit collections in Vanves, France; Taipei, Taiwan; Beijing, China; Santa Clara, California; and most signifcantly from the private collection of the McCarthy family, this study offers both a scholarly and deeply human portrait of Father Charles’ life. To date, the predominance of Father McCarthy’s appearances in books, articles, and online sources has been centered on his experience in China, and this is the frst monograph on his entire life. Other works have certainly mentioned McCarthy’s important role in the history of the fnal years of the Roman Catholic mission in China, and most scholars today acknowledge the signifcance of his experiences to better understanding Sino-Catholic relations during the Maoist era. James T. Meyers’ 1991 book, Enemies Without Guns, makes only brief mention of Father McCarthy when discussing the large number of Catholic arrests in 1950s Shanghai, but Paul P. Mariani, makes quite extensive use of McCarthy materials to weave together the compelling narrative provided in his work, Church Militant, published more recently FOREWORD ix in 2011.3 Both Meyers and Mariani write of Charles McCarthy in only the most admiring terms; in fact, it is nearly impossible to locate a single remark in any source that represents him critically. He was known as an optimist, though not at all a Pollyanna, and McCarthy was appreci- ated as a judicious spiritual father who bolstered his fellow missionaries during the recurrent times of duress that afficted the Jesuit community during both the Japanese occupation and the Maoist era. In 1950, just when the anti-Catholic campaigns were being ramped up in the pages of the state-owned media, Father Ferdinand Lacretelle, SJ, exclaimed that Father McCarthy, “gives confdence to everyone.”4 Only the for- mer bishop of Shanghai, Jin Luxian, SJ, appears to have had criticisms of Charles McCarthy. In his memoirs, Jin complains that at the Xujiahui Jesuit School of Theology, “one American professor named McCarthy insisted on teaching creationism and not evolution, saying that God had directly created the universe, exactly as is described in the Old Testament; that God had created Adam and Eve, our ancestors.”5 Jin protests about McCarthy’s insistence on teaching this traditional creation narrative because by the time he wrote his memoirs Jin had adopted the more modern views of Tielhard de Chardin, SJ. Beyond this terse and rather trifing objection, one is hard pressed to locate other sources that render a critical view of McCarthy’s life and his actions as a Jesuit missionary in China and the Philippines.

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