“We cannot command our final perseverance, but must ask it of God.” — St. Thomas Aquinas “St. Peter is the leader of the choir, the mouth of the apostles and the head of that tribe, the […]
Several days ago I received an email from the Wall Street Journal asking my opinion of the reported accord about to take place between Pope Francis and Xi Jinping, the General Secretary of the Communist […]
The American historian and novelist Edward Eggleston once said, “Journalism is organized gossip.” There has been a lot of journalism lately about the Church in China, but it has been extremely difficult to separate the […]
Alexander Chow’s pioneering book, Theosis, Sino-Christian Theology and the Second Chinese Enlightenment, provides a long-awaited scholarly discussion of theosis, or “divinization,” vis-à-vis the theological trends in the history Chinese Christianity. While not without some problematic […]
Another bishop on the minds of Chinese Catholics is James Su Zhimin, known for his piety and deep love for the Church, who was arrested in 1986 as a “counterrevolutionary.” Bishop Su was labelled as […]
Part 4, Resurrection “We should be glad and rejoice. As the Shanghai Catholic youths said: ‘We are greatly honored to have been born and lived at this important time.’” — Cardinal Kung Pin-mei, Sermon for […]
Resistance “Our greatest success is not in never falling, but in rising again every time we fall.” — Confucius China’s Catholic response to its new government was simple: resistance. The historical pattern for Catholics in […]
[Editor’s note: Part 1 of “China’s Modern Martyr’s: From Mao to Now” was published on June 13, 2013.] Part 2, Torments “The body of Christ which is the Church, like the human body, was first […]
Part 1, Accusations “He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him.” John 1:10 I have just returned from another year in China where I […]
China’s most famous—and most powerful—Catholic bishop has died. When I last saw him in 2011, I knew then that age was finally catching up with Shanghai’s remarkable and indefatigable prelate. As we sat together, I […]
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