Vol. 27, No.1 nternatlona• January 2003 etln• From Imitation to Innovation: The Church in Asia omething Happened is the understated title of a 1933 While the numbers game in Asia is as fraught with its own S accountof theitinerationof Mildred Cableand Francesca kind of risks as was navigation by ancient mariners of the Strait and Evangeline French-three missionary women "with atti­ of Messina between the twin perils of Scylla and Charybdis, tude." These peripatetic CIM missionary colporteurs traveled clearly, something is happening in Asia. And in this issue, the across northwestern China, the Gobi Desert, and Turkestan virtu­ IBMR is pleased to highlight that fact. ally nonstop between 1913 and 1933. Their experiences along the way were vividly recounted in books that to this day read well as travelogues. By any quantifiable standard their accomplishments were modest. Nevertheless, "something happened," and in this On Page issue of the IBMR readers will get a sense of how integral a part of Asian life and culture Christianity is becoming. 2 Catholics in China: The Bumpy Road Toward David Barrett and Todd Johnson offer the nineteenth in an Reconciliation unbroken succession of annual statistical tables on global mission Jean-Paul Wiest that made its first appearance in 1985. They estimate the number 6 Counting Christians in China: A Cautionary of Christians in Asia to be some 327 million, of which, according to Report Tony Lambert's cautionary report, well over 20 million Protes­ Tony Lambert tants and another 10-12 million Catholics may be found in China. 11 The Recent Korean Missionary Movement: A Something happened, and-as Jean Paul Wiest's report on the Record of Growth, and More Growth Needed Catholic Church there shows-continues to happen, in China. Steve S. C. Moon Something has been happening in Korea as well. As Steve 17 From Jerusalem to Oxford: Mission as the Moon points out in his masterful survey of what is arguably one Foundation and Goal of Ecumenical Social of the most missionally dynamic movements of the last decade, Thought the number of Korean missionaries has increased from 1,645 in John Flett 1990 to 10,745 in 2002, a majority of whom serve in Asia. Quali­ 20 Noteworthy tatively, likewise, the 136 organizations represented by these 24 Annual Statistical Table on Global Mission: 2003 missionaries are progressing "from imitation to innovation." David B. Barrettand ToddM. Johnson Behind such numbers lie concealed countless men and 26 My Pilgrimage in Mission womenwithout whom there would be nothing to count. Some of Ralph R. Covell these are missionaries-people like James Gilmour, "the mis­ 29 The Legacy of John Schuette, S.V.D. sionarywithouta singleconvert";JohnSchuette,thefirst mission secretary of the Society of the Divine Word; and Ralph Covell, Heribert Bettscheider, S.V.D.; translated by LouisJ. Luzbetak,S.V.D. who shares his pilgrimage in this issue. Even less evident are the ideas that give rise to those orien­ 34 The Legacy of James Gilmour tations, motivations, and initiatives that prescribe and proscribe Kathleen L. Lodwick Christian mission and its varied modus operandi. As John Flett 38 Book Reviews points out, it was mission and its Gospel of hope, after all, that 39 Fifteen Outstanding Books of 2002 for Mission undergirded and impelled Christian response to the wrenching Studies human devastation issuing from the Great War. 48 Book Notes of issionary Research Catholics in China: The Bumpy Road Toward Reconciliation Jean-Paul Wiest he situation of the Catholic Church in China in 2003 is By late 1957, because of the prior expulsion of foreign bish­ T complex and constantly evolving.' The most common ops and the subsequent imprisonment of Chinese prelates who view of the church highlights two extremes: the church that is opposed the regime or rejected theCCPA, 120outof 145 dioceses recognized by the government, and the underground church and prefectures apostolic were without ordinaries. The clergy in thatis in hiding. In fact, increasing numbers of Catholicbelievers several districts considered filling the vacancies a real apostolic belong to a large gray area between these two. The government­ need and, at the urging of their local CCPA branch, began the recognized part of the Catholic Church functions openly in process of choosing a new bishop. After electing a candidate churches registered with the government and is linked to the each, the Dioceses of Wuchang and Wuhan in Hubei Province Zhongguo Tianzhujiao Aiguohui, or Chinese Catholic Patriotic telegraphed the names to the Holy See for the pope's approval. Association (CCPA). It is therefore often referred to as guanfang The Congregation for the Propagation of the Faith turned down (or gongkai) jiaohui, the open church. The other extreme, often their requests, however, because it saw these selections of bish­ referred to as dixia jiaohui, the underground church, refuses any ops by the Chinese as an attempt to put in place "patriotic" control by the CCPA and usually operates in private homes or ordinaries who would simply carry out the Communist govern­ buildings without seeking government approval. ment policy. There are no perfect terms to identify these two clearly There is certainly no doubt that the Chinese government distinct manifestations of the Chinese Catholic Church. I would was, and still is, trying to exercise a large measure of control over recommend avoiding labels such as "patriotic church" to de­ the church. In all fairness, however, one must also acknowledge scribe the government-recognized segment of the church be­ that the requests came from a Chinese clergy who, in the midst of cause it implies either that all its members wholeheartedly sup­ intense pressures, still acknowledged the pope's privilege to port the CCPA or that the underground church is not patriotic appoint bishops. Only when their plea was rejected did they minded, neither of which is true. Likewise, the names "suffering decide to proceed anyway, on the ground that the Holy See had church" and "loyal church" to describe the underground seg­ failed to realize the difficulty of their situation. OnApril 13, 1958, ment of the church are wrong and divisive, as they falsely imply "patriotic" bishop Li Daonan of the neighboring Diocese of Puqi thatthe government-recognized churchhas notsuffered or is not performed the consecration of the two bishops in the Hankou loyal to the pope. cathedral. Thus began the ordinations of bishops sponsored by Chinese Catholics all love their country. Their moral values the CCPA but not recognized by the pope. In church parlance, and habits of hard work make them model citizens. In this sense such bishops are "illegitimate." In canonical terms, however, they are clearly patriotic. The vast majority worship openly or their consecration, although "illicit," remains perfectly valid. would like to, provided they would not be controlled by the Saddened by the news of the consecration of two new CCPA. Many, even in the government-recognized churches, re­ bishops, Pope Pius XII issued the encyclical Ad apostolorum main suspicious of the CCPA and would like to see it disappear. principis, in which he expressed his disapproval of theCCPA and In this article, then, I view the Catholic Church in China as reiterated that the authority for making episcopal appointments one church, not as two (one faithful to Rome vs. one that is not). was his alone. Not unexpectedly, the Chinese government re­ It is certainly a wounded church, but the division did not lead to acted by forbidding church authorities to have any further the formation of a schismaticchurchbecause the difference never contact with the Vatican. A question was even inserted in the amounted to a doctrinal deviation or a total breach of commun­ ritual of episcopal ordinationthatmadenewbishops-electprom­ ion with the worldwide Roman Catholic Church. The Holy See ise to "be detached from all control of the Roman Curia." The has never issued a formal declaration of a Chinese schism norhas intention of the question, as explained by a "patriotic" bishop, it explicitly excommunicated any "patriotic" bishop.' In fact, was not to reject papal authority but to object to the Vatican's there are increasingly hopeful signs that healing between the rejection of Chinese-elected episcopal candidates.' Bishops, different groups is in the making, though the road toward priests, sisters, and laypeople who refused to go along with the reconciliation has recently included some unpleasant bumps. government and the CCPA stance were sent to jail or labor camps. Also in 1958, prayer for the pope was removed from the Government-Recognized Segment public prayers of the church. By 1962 the number of "patriotic" bishops had reached forty-two, while those formerly appointed The roots of the division between the two parts of the Chinese by Rome had fallen to about twenty. Catholic Church can be traced to the emergence of the CCPA in The division between the two groups became fully apparent 1957. Formed on the model of the Sanzhi Aiguo Yundong, or only after the end of the Cultural Revolution (1966-76), during Three-Self Patriotic Movement-a Protestant group organized which all public religious activities ceased and all church prop­ in 1954underthe control of the governmentto force the churches erties were confiscated. By 1978 and 1979 clergy were allowed to to break their economic and political ties with the West and return to their dioceses. The new policy of the government become thoroughly self-governing, self-supporting, and self­ allowed them to function in public, rather than in hiding, and propagating-the CCPA was to serve as a bridge between the many began doing so. With less than thirty bishops still alive, church and the state. some prelates who had been imprisoned for their unswerving loyalty to the pope and had refused any relationship with the Jean-Paul Wiest,a Senior Researcher at the Center forMission Research and CCPA were now more willing to cooperate with the association Study, Maryknoll, New York, is presently on special assignment in China.