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Bibles for Chinese Catholics.

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4 comments on Bibles for Chinese Catholics.

Via Amy Welborn, a positive story from Beijing:  Chinese officials have given permission for Bibles to be printed and distributed, "one for each Chinese Catholic."  Apparently Pope Benedict is sponsoring a number of the Bibles, which come with some other materials including a booklet entitled "Discovering God in Chinese Characters."

When I first read that I didn’t parse "character" = "chunk of written language," but "personality."  It made more sense to me when I read the comments. Blogger Jen Ambrose (who is really a must-read in the Catholic blogosphere, and who lives in Shenzhen) commented on the thread: 

I wonder if I qualify for the distribution. I’ve heard tell of a Christian Chinese character book from people at my Chinese parish and also my Chinese teacher, but no one seems to have a copy of it. It is really quite fascinating when people can use Chinese characters for catechesis. One notable one is all the places the character for “fu” (blessings) appears inside of other characters. Many Chinese Christians look for it to see what are blessings from God. Another one is the character for boat, which contains a number of characters related to the story of Noah. Hen you yi si (very interesting).

Yes, interesting.  I am fond of linguistic coincidences or other kinds of coolness.

Comments

4 responses to “Bibles for Chinese Catholics.”

  1. Derek Avatar
    Derek

    Call me skeptical… The Chinese gov’t frequently permits symbolic gestures prior to large high-profile events (i.e. Olympics). Also, in the wake of the Tibet problem recently, I’m sure they are eager to demonstrate their “religious tolerance”.
    The Chinese gov’t is highly suspicious of any organization they cannot control. As I’m sure you know, the Catholic Church in China is state-sanctioned. The bishops and cardinals are not simply appointed by Rome but must be approved by Beijing. This is a pattern – they kidnapped the Panchen Lama designated by the Dalai Lama in 1995 (he was 6 yrs old) and the gov’t appointed their own official Pachen Lama. After the DL dies, I’m sure the Chinese gov’t will choose an official “15th Dalai Lama”.
    The situation with falun gong was useful propaganda as well for the gov’t. Now, FG is pretty wacky and there are foreigners involved. So, the gov’t uses it as an example – they must regulate religion to protect the people and society from dangerous cults and foreign interference. FG was able to organize mass protests first in provinces and then later in Beijing, all without the gov’t knowldge. This frightened the gov’t which began an immediate crackdown. The Chinese will tolerate religion as long as you don’t rock the boat or cause the gov’t any trouble.
    I think there is only one Chinese Cardinal – Cardinal Zen of Hong Kong (Shenzhen is very close to Hong Kong – the situation in the Hong Kong / Guangdong area is quite different from the rest of the country). So, let them print Bibles – we’ll see how many ordinary Chinese want to emerge and be placed on the gov’t lists when they receive it. The sad truth is that the vast majority of mainland Chinese simply do not care that much about individual political or religious freedom.
    Regarding the linguistic issue, Chinese characters are pretty cool. There is a traditional form (used in Taiwan and Hong Kong), and a simplified form (developed by Mao and used in the mainland). The traditional form is complicated and the simplified form was designed to allow the masses to become literate. My understanding is that many of the historical meanings in the traditional characters have been stripped away in the simplified form. But some remain: the character for good (pronounced “hao”) is a combination of the two characters for “woman” and “son”, due to the importance of having male children.

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  2. bearing Avatar
    bearing

    Derek, Do they use only the simplified characters in the mainland, or are the traditional characters used for some things and simplified for others?
    I’ve never been quite clear on the status of the Chinese-state-sanctioned church — there always seems to be some debate around the Catholic blogosphere about whether, e.g., it’s valid if you’re traveling in China to attend Mass there to meet your Sunday obligation, or whether it’s better to “boycott” it and to behave as if there was no Catholic church available, i.e., excusing you as a traveler from Sunday obligation. My understanding (as of now) is that despite the governmental interference, the state Church conducts valid Masses and a Catholic traveler in China ought to attend Mass in them. What’s your perspective?
    Oh, and did you check out Jen Ambrose’s blog?

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  3. Derek Avatar
    Derek

    Only the simplified form is used in the mainland. Speaking Chinese is much easier than reading (which I cannot do). There is a Western version of Chinese called pinyin, which makes learning the spoken language fairly easy.
    My understanding is that the Masses are valid, but I only occasionally attended the official churches. We had a small (private) chapel for foreigners, at which Mass was celebrated daily. I also went to Mass at an outlying church (built by German missionaries, who were killed by the communists during the 1950s). One Mass I attended really struck me. It was very traditional – the women still wore head coverings and there were many nuns leading songs before Mass. It was late Nov and the heat hadn’t been turned on (this was a cold part of China and it was very cold in the church, even wearing long underwear). Mass was 20 minutes late starting and no one complained, no one left. They waited patiently (can you imagine this in the US – why are they late? why isn’t the heat on?). Mass was late starting b/c so many people were in line for confession. Again, quite a contrast with the US church.
    I did look at Jen’s blog – thanks for pointing me to it. Here is the most interesting part from last month – this probably explains the most of why the Chinese are providing Bibles. The bishop of Shanghai canceled a pilgramage planned by the cardinal of Hong Kong (in general and undoubtedly in the church as well, Shanghai is firmly under the control of Beijing, HK much less so):
    The Diocese of Hong Kong canceled a pilgrimage to mainland China this May, after the bishop of Shanghai said it would be “inconvenient” for them to host the group. In his pastoral letter to Catholics in China last June, Benedict XVI designated May 24, the feast of Our Lady Help of Christians, as the day of prayer for the Catholic Church in China. At a July press conference, Cardinal Joseph Zen, bishop of Hong Kong, expressed his hope that the Hong Kong Diocese
    would organize a pilgrimage to the Marian shrine of Our Lady of Sheshan Help of
    Christians, located 21 miles from Shanghai, as a response to the Pope’s
    appeal. Bishop Aloysius Jin Luxian of Shanghai showed his support of the
    initiative in his Christmas pastoral letter, urging his flock to show their
    hospitality to all pilgrims, regardless of whether they were from mainland China or elsewhere. In late March, however, Bishop Jin wrote to the Diocese of Hong
    Kong to say that it would be “inconvenient” to host the diocese May 24,
    according to Kung Kao Po, Hong Kong’s diocesan weekly newspaper. The news was
    posted on its Web site today.
    A smiliar story in the South China Post (note that in canceling the event, the Chinese graciously offered another date…) Apparently a Catholic Pilgramgae of 1000 people could threaten the Olympic flame. Ah, the inscrutable Chinese:
    A pilgrimage of Hong Kong Catholics to the Marian shrine of Our Lady of Sheshan Help of Christians, 34km from Shanghai, has been cancelled after mainland authorities vetoed the trip on the scheduled date. The pilgrimage had been planned for May 24, in response to a letter from Pope Benedict to Chinese Catholics in June marking that day as one of prayer for the Catholic Church in
    China. The day was originally the feast of Our Lady Help of Christians. Reverend Dominic Chan Chi-ming, vicar general of the Hong Kong Catholic Diocese, said he was given only vague reasons for the cancellation, although he said it may be because the trip involved about 1,000 pilgrims. He said officials had offered to approve the trip for other dates “but that would be meaningless; we want it to take place on this date in particular”. The Olympic torch is scheduled to pass through Shanghai on May 20 and 21.

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  4. ambrose Avatar
    ambrose

    Two years ago a friend sent me something from Jimmy Akin’s blog concerning attending Mass in the PRC. I can’t seem to find the email or the entry on his blog, but his basic points for Catholics were:
    1) Don’t try to seek out an underground Chinese church. As a foreigner you could put them in jeopardy
    2) Masses in China are in general valid, even if the bishop has not been openly approved by the Pope. Therefore, there are no obstacles to receiving communion in an “Open” Chinese church.
    My first corollary to #2 is that for longer-term stays and residency, one should research if the local bishop is approved by the Pope if you anticipate needing more sacraments than just communion (like confirmation). Of course, the problem with this is that the Chinese government did redraw the dioceses’ boundaries, so this is something that might not be entirely clear.
    My second corollary to #2 is that in some parts of China, particularly in the north, the “open” church still has a strained relationship with the local authorities. Here in Shenzhen we are quite fortunate; any Religious Affairs people that I have met are members of the Catholic Church. This is not necessarily the case in some of the northern provinces in the interior of the country. The government people assigned to the parishes might not even be Christian. I don’t know if I would be as welcome or comfortable as quickly in a Catholic Church in the north as i was here in the south.
    Most Chinese Catholics I’ve met in China–even outside of Church in grocery stores (I always wear a crucifix necklace and so I’m easy to spot)–are excited to meet Catholics from other parts of the world. They have always greeted me like a long-lost cousin.
    That all being said, it would still be up to the individual and their own parish priest if they believe that while travelling in China they cannot attend the local Masses. However, at risk of committing the sin of detraction, I suspect that the Mass not being in English is NOT a valid reason to miss Mass. I wish I had a dollar for every time I have heard that line.
    And what Derek says about the lines for confession making Mass late……I have experienced that almost every week of Lent and Easter season. I think this week’s 9:00 Mass didn’t start until 9:20!

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