Little has changed in China’s official attitude toward the Vatican since Chairman Mao famously described Christians and other religious groups as, “enemies without guns.” During the most intense years of the Maoist era, the Chairman […]
I am now in Paris to conduct research for my next book, on a French bishop in China, but I always come to Paris as a pilgrim first, and despite the refrain one often hears […]
After a week of international news coverage about the pope’s imminent retirement, China’s news has so far failed to announce it. China’s Catholics, even the priests, are still unaware of what is happening in Rome, […]
Faithful arriving to pray the Stations at Beijing’s North Church, 17 February 2013. Photo by author. Lent has begun, and Catholics in Western countries have likely selected something to “give up,” and the more devout […]
I have lived in China several times since my first stay in 1996, when I lived in Beijing as a Chinese language student. Deng Xiaoping was still alive then, and people thought that China was […]
Sunday, Solemnity of Christ the King, 25 November 2012, Beijing, China. Only recently the auxiliary bishop of Shanghai bravely announced from the pulpit of Saint Ignatius cathedral that he would no longer subject himself to the […]
Sunday morning in China’s capital city is not unlike most other days: Beijing’s more than 20 million inhabitants bustle through congested sidewalks, cars compete almost hopelessly for space on crowded roads, and hazy grey skies […]
The truth is always more complicated than fiction. While it is tempting to portray the Church in China in monochrome, a more accurate depiction provides us with a polychromatic canvas, and this more truthful painting […]
China’s dioceses have reported over 22,000 Catholic baptisms this Easter, and additional statistics remain to be reported. According to the Hebei Study Center of Faith, roughly 75% of these baptisms were adults, though infant baptisms […]
Courage in a Time of Uncertainty Aristotle famously wrote that, “Hope is a waking dream.” Hope, to indeed be hope, must awake; it must be a dream that is made real. China’s dreams for religious […]
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