Chinese Catholics still on shaky ground. (News in Brief: China).

Rome -- The 16th Congress of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) was held mid-November 2002. Fr. Bernardo Cervellera, a missionary and journalist, worked for many years in Hong Kong and is now with the Pontifical Institute of Foreign Mission (PIFM) in Rome. In a December 5, 2002. interview he mentioned that Chinese Catholics would have reasons to be disappointed in reports from the Congress.

Previous to the Conference, an influential party official, Pan Yue, had called for the party to abandon its Marxist view of religion as 'The opium of the people.' He recommended that religion should be outside tight party control. President Jiang Zemin had also raised hopes by suggesting that not only capitalists, but believers, could become party members. He was quoted as saying that "religions will (continue to) exist under socialism for a long time." The reference to 'capitalists' refers to the fact that the CCP now permits businessmen and professionals to become members.

Thus China, while retaining its socialist forms of government, is now set to tread the paths of the economic civilizations of the Western world. This is one consequence of its acceptance into the World Trade Organization. Religious faith, however, has traditionally been one of the dynamic cultural forces in the country. People are aware of the ephemeral nature of the capitalist culture and are asking questions about religion. Fr. Cervellera notes that many of these are "precisely those professionals, entrepreneurs, that the party is trying to absorb into its own power structure." These people, as well as Church authorities, suffered disappointment that no affirmation of religious liberty came out of the 16th Congress.

PIFM sources state that over 60% of the Chinese people have some kind of devotion or faith. Persecution of Christians, particularly Catholics belonging to the underground Church, is still a constant theme. Fr. Cervellera observed that lines between the underground and official (or patriotic) Catholic communities are now more blurred, with the latter being subject to more stringent observation by the authorities. There is a concern on the part of the regime about collaboration between the two communities. Despite these worries, he said, there was a real boom of conversions to Catholicism. Despite Communist domination, the number of Chinese Catholics today has quadrupled to 12 million in 50 years (Zenit, Dec. 6/02).