Faith Weekly——Welcoming Speech at the Seminar on the Priesthood, Evangelization and Media

Dear leaders, fellow priests, and distinguished guests,
At the closing of the Ordinary Time of the Liturgical Year and the beginning of the Advent, fellow priests from various places in China gather together here at Junxing Hotel for the opening ceremony of the Seminar on the Priesthood, Evangelization and Media. Usually, the end of November and the beginning of December is a time when there is relatively less work to do in parishes. That is why we have chosen this time for this seminar, offering an opportunity for priests to reflect on, study, discuss, and share on the priesthood and evangelization, particularly, evangelization of the printed word. At the same time, it is also a time for us to take a little time away from the busyness of parish work for a brief rest of a few days in a different environment, in preparation for the coming of the Advent season as well as for the celebration of Christmas. However, I was wondering whether you could truly have a good rest these few days, but I know that this seminar provides a good opportunity for us priests to reflect on the priestly spirituality, to ponder on the mission of evangelization, and exchange experiences in evangelization. Therefore, on behalf of the sponsor of the seminar, I would like to welcome Mr. Ma Yujun, Deputy Chief of the Provincial Department of Religious Affairs, leaders of the government, experts and scholars, who have come to attend this opening ceremony despite of your busy schedules! At the same time, I would like also to thank my fellow priests for your concern for, support of and active participation in the local Churches’ mission of evangelization!

This year marks the 150th anniversary of the foundation of two old dioceses in Hebei: the one is the Diocese of Shijiazhuang/Zhengding, located in southwest Hebei, and the other the Diocese of Cangzhou/Xianxian, located in southeast Hebei. This year is also the 15th anniversary of the foundation of Faith Press and the starting of Faith Newspaper. At one weekend in the middle of October, two celebrations and seminars related to them were held in Xianxian and Shijiazhuang respectively. For the convenience of the scholars from the other places, the two seminars had to be held separately but successively. That is why some priests either missed the celebration in Xianxian, or the seminar in Shijiazhuang. In fact, this seminar is a follow-up of the previous one, as well as a response to the suggestion of some friends whether it was possible to conduct an activity for priests during the weekdays. We hope to provide an opportunity of communication, sharing and renewal for those priests who did not have a chance to attend the previous seminar. Of course, this activity is different from a symposium. Neither is it a purely training course. The theme of this seminar focuses on the priesthood and evangelization, including that of the printed word. There are not only talks on special topics, but also discussions. Among the speakers are not only young scholars and priests, but also experienced experts, scholars, and our seniors in the priesthood as well. Their talks cover such topics as the priestly spirituality from the perspective of psychology, the relationship between the priesthood and evangelization, evangelization today, the Church in the eyes of society, interreligious dialogue, evangelization of the printed word, evangelization through liturgy, and evangelization in Asia and among the overseas Chinese. Time in the evening will also be devoted to continuing the talks and discussions of the day

Here I would like to lay emphasis on two points: the priesthood and evangelization, and a harmonious society and evangelization.

As we know, in a few days, on December 3, the Church will celebrate the 500th anniversary of the birth of St. Francis of Xavier, the Patron of Missions. A series of activities will be conducted all over the world in commemoration of this great patron of missions. Across the centuries, countless clergy, religious and laity such as Francis of Xavier, Matteo Ricci, Xu Guangqi, Johan Adams Schall, Li Zhizao, Ferdinand Verbiest, Ma Xiangbo, Vincent Lebbe, Ying Lianzhi have toiled tirelessly for the evangelization of the Chinese nation, having devoted all of their energy to it and even sacrificed their lives. However, today, after a lapse of almost five hundred years since the time of Father Matteo Ricci, how many are there among the Chinese people who have truly understood and known Jesus Christ? And how many of our compatriots appreciate and have accepted the Church founded by Jesus Christ? How many Chinese people have converted to the Christian faith? A conservative estimation is that there are 5 million Catholics in China. The optimistic estimation by the overseas puts the number at 12 million. We have taken a census of the Catholic population in China. The result shows that the Catholic population in China is around 7 million. Dear fellow priests, no matter how many Catholics there are in Mainland China, let us take a moment to think seriously and carefully: After five hundred years of hard work, strenuous efforts and courageous witness, no matter how many efforts we have made, no matter how much energy we have spent, even no matter how many people have paid with their lives, there are only several million Catholics in China, comprising less than 1% of the whole population of 1.3 billion!

Faced with such a result and situation, how do we feel? What do we think? How do we respond? We should feel ashamed! We should wake up! We should have a sense of urgency! We should seriously reflect and earnestly study, to discover the problems! We should search for methods, and do all we can to catch up! We should actively respond, immediately go into action, and accept the challenges…

As followers of Christ, we priests should first and foremost be good priests, pious priests, and worthy priests, and to preach the Gospel is the most important and sacred mission and fundamental duty of the priest. We are called to spread the Good News for Christ. Therefore, St. Paul thus demands of himself, “Woe to me if I don’t preach the Gospel!”(1 Cor. 9,16)

Of course, we should also have a lively faith and a heart like that of the Heavenly Father, for all of us, the whole human race, are His children. Indeed, from the supernatural perspective, “I sow while Apollos waters, but it is God who makes it grow!”(1 Cor. 3, 6-7), but we cannot ascribe to God the unsatisfactory result of evangelization, by which to comfort ourselves and diminish our responsibility.

There are various reasons for the slow growth of the Catholic Church in China, among which are not only the cultural differences between China and the West, including such issues as different traditions, concepts of values, politics, economies, and geographical environments, but also problems arising from the Church itself. Among others, the inculturation of the Gospel message in the Church in China needs to be further enhanced and developed, such as the inculturation of theology, church architecture, and liturgy. In history, the Church in China did not develop in a balanced way. For example, the Church in China was very successful in rural missions, social services, and charitable work, but, it is undeniable that, though much had been done and done well in higher education, academic research and evangelization of the printed word, the Catholic Church in China still was unable to compare with the Protestant Churches in many aspects. Today after a lapse of several centuries, these problems have become more and more obvious. For instance, due to insufficient attention to higher education and academic research, the mainstream society of China has accepted the Protestant translation of Christian terminology instead of adopting the Catholic translation initiated by Matteo Ricci, which was much earlier. The evangelization experiences of some Protestant communities are worth paying attention to. Although we don’t necessarily have to copy their methods, yet we should possess the spirit of tirelessly striving for and actively participating in the evangelization.

No matter how beautiful we think the Christian faith is, how outstanding and excellent the catholicity and universality of the Church are, and how lofty the yearning for the Heavenly Kingdom we preach is, at least presently, the Christian faith has not yet been accepted by the mainstream society of China, and neither has the Church in China been fully recognized by it. The Church in China has not yet been genuinely inculturated, not yet found its way into the people’s hearts, and merged into the mainstream society of China. This phenomenon is worth our reflecting on, to which we should pay good attention. We should not always shift the responsibility for the present situation to the disharmony in the relationship between the Church and the State. This has indeed seriously affected the evangelization and the development of the local Church, but it comprises but one of the important factors. Actually the Church-State relationship started to affect the development of the Church in China even at the time of the Qing Dynasty, especially the “Rites Controversy” that lasted for three hundred years. But what about Hong Kong, Macao, Taiwan, Singapore, Japan, and South Korea, places where there is no such a thing as the disharmony between the Church and the State, but where the development of the local Church is also not so ideal? Except for South Korea, these countries and regions influenced by Confucianism all have a low percentage of conversions. This phenomenon is very much worth studying and reflecting on by the Chinese clergy and laity at home as well as abroad.

This year, the Central Government still sets the building up of a harmonious society as the keynote of the state and the goal for the whole nation. Recently, Hu Jintao，President of the State， and Jia Qinglin, Chairman of the Political Consultative Conference, advocated at home and abroad building up a harmonious Asia and a harmonious world. The idea of and call for harmony are in line with the spirit of the Church and the spirit of catholicity of the Christian faith. We also advocate building up a “harmonious Church.” Such an idea of harmony has the same goal as that of a harmonious society. The Church needs first of all stability and maturity, instead of rashness and confusion, but above everything else, it needs harmony. To build a harmonious Church, the Church not only needs the support of the local Churches and the clergy and laity, but also the understanding, cooperation and support of all circles of society. On November 14th, Chairman Jia Qinglin pointed out emphatically to the representatives of the five religions in China, “Religion can play a positive role in promoting social harmony.” He hopes that “religious communities will make it an important agenda of their work the promotion of harmony, exploring for methods and ways of serving society and the people in order to promote the harmony between religion and the other aspects of society, and set service and development as an important task of their work, doing all in their power to share the burden of the government.”

This is a hope of the leaders of our government. It is also an invitation to the religious circles, providing them with an opportunity of development. Every local Church should put in a lot of efforts in these areas where development is possible, to keep company with society and the people, and bear witness to the Good News in society by charity, word and deed, while preserving its identity and maintaining the purity of the faith. Only when a local Church merges into society, breathes and suffers with the people, and is recognized and accepted by society, the nation and the people can it rapidly develop in a normal way, and it is only then that the Good News can find its way into countless families. Therefore, the local Church should seize the opportunity to participate in the building up of a harmonious society, to talk about harmony and promote harmony. It should spread the Good News well and concentrate all its energy on building itself up for the glory of God and benefit of humanity in the process of building up a harmonious society together with the entire Chinese people.

Finally, I would like to thank you again for your coming and participation. Wish all of you a pleasant time during the seminar!