A Columban priest taught an English course for priests and Sisters in this new era of increased freedom for the Chinese Church.
By Fr. Peter Julian Kelly

Fr. Peter Julian Kelly (seated in front row) taught these priests and Sisters English at a seminary in Shanghai.

The bishop’s intention was to give young priests and Sisters an opportunity to renew themselves physically and spiritually by leaving their workplaces and studying together as a community. And by having students undertake an intensive language course, the bishop hoped that some priests and Sisters would become sufficiently proficient in English and respond to the increasing bilingual needs of the diocese.

As more and more visitors and tourists travel to China, Shanghai has become a focal point for those interested in the Catholic Church, especially its heroic struggle for survival during the years of intense persecution and its present situation in China’s new era of modernization. There is an increasing need for linguistically competent people who know the story of the Church and are able to share that story with concerned visitors.

A major concern and objective for Columbans in China from 1920 until the Communist revolution in 1949 was to educate a Chinese clergy for the Chinese Church. Although Columbans have undertaken many other missions since that time, this present involvement with the Church in China can be seen as an invitation to resume our original calling and mission to China.

During the 50-plus years following that Marxist-Maoist revolution, the Chinese Church suffered much persecution and harassment under the authoritarian Communist government. In recent times, however, the government has moderated its policies concerning religion and is tolerating greater individual freedoms.

Therefore, another intention of the study program is to prepare the young priests and Sisters for the changes that are happening in Chinese society in this new era of openness and modernization.

Filling The Void
As a result of Communist-inspired patriotic education and modernization, many hallowed traditions and values have been eroded, which has left behind emptiness, especially in the lives of the young and educated. This emptiness is being filled with the arrival—in force—of Western economic institutions and their material values.

The course I developed for the priests and Sisters was designed to familiarize them with the language and concepts of contemporary Western topics, issues and values that are becoming prevalent in China’s major industrial cities. In addition to these social topics, the students also received training in the concepts and language of contemporary theology and spirituality.

Hopefully, this knowledge should help the priests and Sisters better understand the nature and force of the Western issues and material values that question and confront the values of faith and religion.

Although the Chinese Constitution guarantees freedom of religion, the Chinese are not passively waiting to be converted to Jesus Christ. Rather, there is a search taking place to find something meaningful to replace the forgotten and outmoded traditions and values.

With very little outside help—and while always under the control of the Communist Party and government—the Chinese Church has struggled in the past to simply stay alive. In this new era, it is beginning a new struggle—with the limited freedoms it has been granted—to integrate Christianity into the life of the people and the nation.

This new revolutionary process of change and renewal is intimately connected with the lives of one quarter of humanity and that, we are told by papal authority, is very much our Christian and missionary concern.

Columban Father Peter Julian Kelly was ordained in 1963 and has worked in Korea, Pakistan and China.