Remaking the Church Catholic in Post-Maoist China

Abstract

After the political reforms that followed the death of Mao Zedong, Chinese Catholics were gradually allowed to reestablish their churches and resume public gatherings. Yet this opened serious challenges. After decades of persecution and isolation, which reshaped the ways Chinese Catholics worshipped and perceived themselves, they needed to redefine Chinese Catholicism. Is performing specific rituals in both Latin and a local dialect, at home and in secret, enough to be Catholic? Who holds the religious authority to effectively administer the sacraments? To what extent is a formal relationship with the Pope necessary to remain Catholic? This article explores how Chinese Catholics have searched for support from outside their family circles and the People’s Republic of China to answer their questions. This paper argues that in a rapidly changing politico-economic context marked by strict administrative control, Chinese Catholics have reestablished contacts with Global Catholicism through networking with missionary societies. More specifically, I look at collaborations which Chinese Catholics have established with the Paris Foreign Missions (MEP) to reassess the missiology of Chinese Catholicism. Discussing the evolving nature of these relationships after 1978, I show that the reconstruction of Catholicism in China has been a multilateral enterprise in which local Catholics have had to navigate political adversity, socio-cultural changes, and the Post-Vatican II reformation of worldwide Catholicism. In so doing, Chinese Catholics gradually moved outside of the intimacy of kinship groups and pre-defined rituals to engage actively with modernizing Chinese society and transforming world Catholicism.