A church on a roll
Kelvin Barrett
On a chilly November morning, fellow Columban Fr Pat McMullan and I made our way to the Beijing West Railway Station. We were on our first visit to China. Earlier in the morning we attended Mass at the South Cathedral, famous as the location of the first church built in Beijing by the great Jesuit missionary, Matteo Ricci.
At the railway station we located Sr Clara Liu, our host for the next four days. She is in charge of the Shanxi Formation Centre situated in Taiyuan, the major city in Shanxi Province, an eight-hour train ride from Beijing.
After clearing the suburbs of Beijing, we passed through flat and uninteresting countryside. In contrast, our conversation with Sr Clara was far from uninteresting.
She talked of the traditional Catholic villages where the Catholics can trace their faith back many generations. These Catholics continued the practice of the faith basically unhindered even during troubled times like the Cultural Revolution.
We were able to visit two of these villages on our way to the ancient city of Pingyao. Pingyao is one of the few cities to have survived the Cultural Revolution intact. It is now being restored as a tourist city where people can come and taste China as it was. For me, it was a quiet step into Old China, which is very different from the new modern China.
Sr Clara also pointed out the areas of new energy in the Church. She delighted in the fact that there are many new religious orders starting in China. However, because the new orders have small numbers, they don't have the resources for an adequate formation of their new members. In addition, she said there is a need for lay formation and priest renewal. As a result the Shanxi Bishop's Conference had the vision to start the Formation Centre.
The Centre has been going for two years and the first group graduated in July 2006. Sr Clara spoke with justified pride at this achievement but emphasised that there is still a lot to do before she has the programme she desires.
Upon our arrival in Taiyuan we were met by Fr Wang Dingyuan, Vice-Director of the Formation Centre. We previously met him when he and three Chinese seminarians visited us in Korea six months before.
Fr Wang is a quiet and sincere man. Aside from teaching in the Formation Centre, he has put many man hours into making the facilities and grounds suitable for such a programme. His and Sr Clara's dynamism and enthusiasm for their work is inspirational.
We met similar enthusiasm throughout our days in Taiyuan where we were greeted warmly by several bishops, as well as by the Rector and students of the Seminary on whose grounds the Formation Centreis located.
They all communicated the same enthusiasm as they looked forward to a bright future for the Church in China. The bishops, particularly, spoke of the need for exchange with other churches to enhance the formation of priests, religious and laity of China. They asked us to be involved in such exchanges.
We were moved by their commitment, to respond positively to their request. Such exchange also adds to our commitment, as Columbans, to the Chinese Church which is at the heart of our Columban origins. It's a good opportunity to further establish closer relations between the neighbouring Churches of Korea and China. Over recent years this contact has been growing steadily but it's encouraging to be able to be a part of this growth.
Back in Seoul, Fr Pat and I are looking forward to the coming years when we and other Columbans hope to visit Taiyuan.
