Chinese Catholicism vs Roman Catholicism

[Exzeebo]

Hello everyone.

I was hoping to possibly get some guidance/clarification on something.

I am a Roman Catholic student living in Shanghai for a while. In a nutshell, I know that the Roman Catholic Church is de facto banned from China, but that there is a Chinese Catholic church.

What are my options to continue my faith life here? Is it ok to attend a Chinese Catholic church? Is it ok to attend Mass, but not receive Communion? etc…

I also have heard of an “underground” RC church in China, but obviously that is an extremely delicate subject.

Any guidance would be extremely appreciated.

Thank you.

 

[FCEGM]

Hello everyone.

I was hoping to possibly get some guidance/clarification on something.

I am a Roman Catholic student living in Shanghai for a while. In a nutshell, I know that the Roman Catholic Church is de facto banned from China, but that there is a Chinese Catholic church.

What are my options to continue my faith life here? Is it ok to attend a Chinese Catholic church? Is it ok to attend Mass, but not receive Communion? etc…

I also have heard of an “underground” RC church in China, but obviously that is an extremely delicate subject.

Any guidance would be extremely appreciated.

Thank you.

Welcome to CAF. There is no specifically “Chinese” Catholic Church, just a division between the Patriotic Catholic Association (“independent” of Rome) whose bishops must be approved by the government (and thus are beholden to the Communist Party) and the underground Catholic Church that maintains autonomy from government control - though the government, of course, has long persecuted members for just such a position. There is an excellent article on the situation of the Church in China in those month’s article of “This Rock” magazine; if you are interested you can order a copy here:

catholic.com/magazines.asp

Living in Shanghai, though, you may have difficulty getting this delivered to you for obvious political reasons. All articles of “This Rock” eventually are posted on the internet, so the March 2009 issue should be available in a few months.

As for your options in attending Mass, if you don’t have the ability to attend a Sunday Mass of the underground Church the “official” PCA would probably be OK, but this would be a good question for the “Ask An Apologist” section.

 

[KarenElissa]

Here is a blog of a Catholic family living in China long term. I’m not sure how all that works, but they go to Mass, so I’m sure they have sorted through the issues. You could probably contact her and ask.

 

[John_Russell_Jr]

My dear friend

A big welcome. Only go underground if you can find it. Pray for help and search. Until then make a holy hour of prayer at home and maybe even say all the prayers of the mass of the day for each sunday / holy day. Good luck and I’ll pray for you.

God bless and peace to you:thumbsup: