Catholicism in Asia: Discoursing the Impacts and Lessons of the Evangelization in China and the Philippines
Catholicism in Asia: Discoursing the Impacts and Lessons of the Evangelization in China and the Philippines

Summary/Abstract: Today, Catholic Evangelization in China is undergoing a most difficult time. For after all the many centuries of Catholic attempts for Evangelization, the number of Catholics remain to be insignificant. Since the expulsion of all missionaries in China after the Communist took over in 1949, the Sino-Vatican relations has been highly contentious and often difficult for both sides. The People’s Republic of China created the “official” Catholic Church which essentially divided the Church into two groups: those who followed the Chinese official Catholic Patriotic Church and those who followed the Vatican who had to go underground to practice their beliefs. When Pope John Paul II offered to recognize the country’s official church in return for acknowledgment by the Chinese government of Papal authority over China’s Catholics in 1994, China refused. We saw in great spectre the journey of the Catholic Culture in its Evangelization in the two countries of East Asia and Southeast Asia, we witnessed evident clash of civilizations that marked the encounter between two dominant cultures. The Evangelization of China has shown that the clash of two dominant cultures can stunt the impact of one culture trying to penetrate into another dominant culture. The Evangelizers encountered enormous cultural wealth and they ended up translating and learning also the rich cultural heritage of China. The encounter brought to the birthing of the new idea of “inculturation” that became the most radical content in the Vatican II. The Catholic Church realized that the Evangelization in Asia, China in particular, strongly urged the inculturation in the liturgy and worship, and this also proved to be the case in countries and cultures permeated by Confucianism such as China, Japan, Korea, Vietnam, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Singapore where Ancestor Worship has long been part of their culture. The lessons and impacts are indeed enormous, and the challenge now falls into the hands of the future Catholic Evangelizers in Asia, as there will be no more scattered and undiscovered islands of undeveloped cultures and tribes to colonize and Evangelize. Evangelizing China is equal to the Church’s two thousand years of evangelization efforts.

• Details
• Contents