What Would You Do?

In China today, in a difficult political situation, how creative can Chinese Christians be without compromising their conscience and their faith? The following eight cases, written by an anonymous Chinese author, are fairly typical examples of difficult decisions.

Above: Archbishop Jin of Shanghai celebrates Mass.

Right: Catholics at prayer in China.

A Young Mother
The family of Liao Xiaozhen have been Catholic for several generations. This young mother already has a child but she finds herself pregnant once again. The Chinese law of ‘one child only’ is strict: it obliges women in this situation to abort. But the Church forbids this practice. Xiaozhen considers many solutions: to declare that the baby belongs to another woman, but she would have to find someone sterile who would go along with this; to pay an exorbitant fine; or to move to Hong Kong. Finally, she opts for the last solution, as many other mothers from the Chinese continent have done. That will cost her less than the fine, and the child will benefit by having a Hong Kong identity card; a plus for its future.

A Young Priest
Fr Chen is a young priest to a community of unofficial Catholics. He got a two-year scholarship and permission from his bishop to study Scripture in the Philippines. But he still needs a passport, and before he is granted one, the officials ask him the following questions: why do you want to go abroad? To which country? To do what? By remaining vague, Fr Chen avoids raising their suspicions too much, but that is not all. The person’s profession has to be included on the passport. And if he declares that he is a priest, he knows that he will not be allowed to leave. If he gives a different profession, they will ask him to prove it. The only solution left to him is to bribe the officials. To do that he would need tens of thousands of yuans. The Catholics refuse to lend him this money which encourages corruption. But finally, he finds the amount and he can do the studies in question. He believes that he had good reason to use this method as his motive was to better serve the Church.

A new parish
The bishop asked Fr Huang to set up in a new town. His mission was to form a Christian community. Very quickly several dozen people were baptised but there was nowhere big enough to hold a Sunday assembly. The priest had to say several Masses in the small private apartments of Catholic families. This is illegal, and also, it harms the unity of his new parish by forming small clans. He needs to build a new church but the government, contacted by the Christians well placed in administration, refused planning permission. It’s a dead end and the community continues to develop. On the advice of a Party official, Fr Huang hires two nurses and applies for planning permission to build a health centre to treat the very poor. This time the permission is granted. On top of the ground floor, he constructs another floor: rooms for the sick. And, finally, a third floor in the form of a large meeting room which, quickly, becomes the parish church. The local authorities are not fooled by his stratagem but Fr Huang is well protected by his advisor. And also, many Catholics are influential men. Fr Huang spent three times the amount of money predicted but he is relying on foreign organisations to cover his debts.

The Catechism
The Catechism of the Catholic Church of John Paul II is a precious tool for the training of the seminarians, novices and the laity. This is why, once translated into Chinese, the leaders of several Catholic communities decided to have it printed as quickly as possible. But it contains at no. 2425, an embarrassing sentence: "The Church rejects the totalitarian and atheistic ideologies linked, in modern times, to communism or to socialism". It is unthinkable that an official censor would let such an assertion through; but on the other hand, it would be a pity that for a single paragraph, the whole catechism would be unknown in China! What to do? The Catholics responsible decide to remove the sentence which could risk their project being blocked. The Catechism is therefore published. In the unofficial communities, the Catholics handwrite the missing lines, others add a page to complete the text. But in the official communities, it is more difficult.

The Student
A Catholic student Zhang Meiyi is the only one from her village to do further studies. A good diploma in economics is awarded to this intelligent, hard-working young girl after four years at university. The district boss, highly placed in the Communist Party, offers her an appealing post at provincial level, within her speciality. It is an interesting offer and well paid! But before being hired, she must join the Party. This is very tempting for Zhang Meiyi who knows that such an offer will not turn up soon again. But, to join the Party one must take an oath of atheism which, of course, is incompatible with the Christian faith. The temptation is strong. Zhang Meiyi asks for advice from several people. The most elderly ones are adamant, the fidelity to Christ must be total, no compromise is possible. But a young religious person advises her to accept the offer, "When you are well placed in administration, you will be able to assist the Church! The oath no longer means anything and, in China, everything works through contacts." Finally, Zhang Meiyi accepts the position but when taking the oath of atheism, instead she murmurs the Our Father. Nevertheless, from then on, the members of her community are suspicious of her.

The Vicar General
The Vicar General of an unofficial diocese and his assistant, a priest colleague, try by every means to be heard by the Vatican. But there is no reaction! The messages that they sent remain unanswered. Meanwhile, several serious problems split their diocese. Both of them are known to the local authorities who regard them as "obstinate and intransigent elements". They distrust them.

The two ecclesiasticals, tired of waiting for replies which never arrive, decide to fly to Italy, under false identities, to question for themselves the different cardinals concerned. They succeed in their aim. They are well received in Rome but, on their return to China, they are stopped and imprisoned. The Catholics who let them borrow their passports are embarrassed and the diocese temporarily has no leader.

A New Cathedral
Monsignor Yang, unofficial bishop of a large diocese is already very old. Before his death he would like to, build a cathedral. As an unofficial bishop he can get together a significant amount of money from important foreign organisations. Now his problem is to obtain all the necessary planning permission to commence the work. He intends to approach the local authorities to try to bribe them and they allow themselves to be persuaded. The new cathedral rises from the ground and impresses many people, Christians and non-Christians. But Mgr Yang has got so close to several Party officials that his diocese can no longer claim to be unofficial. Certain foreign donors feel they have been cheated, while the local Catholics are divided between those that accept the evolution towards being more visible and those who want to remain clandestine.

Donations
Western visitors ask a bishop if he will give money towards the victims of the Sichuan earthquake of May 2008. "No, I have never been able to deal directly with the Church. But I gave a large sum of money to the officials." "Why?" asked the visitors. "Because one does not have the right to short-circuit the authorities in charge! But, that is not all, if I didn’t give this sum of money to the designated officials (though I know they are corrupt), all the planning permissions that I would seek in the future would be refused! The development of my diocese would be blocked! I know, it is blackmail, but here, this is what one does: one gives and gives."

It may be easy for us who do not live in such a situation to criticise. For many Catholics in China the only way to survive is to be resourceful. Many have been prophetic and have paid dearly for their courage. Let us ask the Spirit to be with the Church in China as its members face up to similar challenges every day.

Translated and adapted from Missions Étrangeres de Paris: Dossier Chine, "Débrouillardise Et Prophétisme", No.442, Septembre 2009, pp. 22-26. With permission.

[Far East Magazine]