ARCHDIOCESE OF PHILADELPHIA

Dear Friends in our Lord Jesus Christ,
It is certainly timely that we are praying for China today, as so many thousands of Chinese are suffering the loss of loved ones because of the devastating earthquake. Our hearts are saddened as we daily see pictures of people digging out of rubble and waiting for food and medicine. In his letter on China, Pope Benedict XVI emphasized the desire of the Catholic Church to be of service to the people of China. At a time like this we Catholics must do what we can to assist the people of China. Our prayers are with those suffering in China today.

In our Gospel today we hear how Mary stood at the foot of the cross while her Son died. The story tugs at our hearts as we contemplate a Mother helplessly watching her Son die in violent agony. One of the titles by which we honor Mary is Mother of Sorrows. As we have watched television coverage of the earthquake in China, we see many "mothers of sorrow" in grief over lost loved ones. Mary is in solidarity with all people who suffer, for she herself knows what it is to love a child and suffer on that child’s account.

Apart from the earthquake, the story of the Catholic Church in China throughout the years is one of great glory and also great sorrow. Surely Mary is in solidarity with all suffering Chinese Catholics. As she watched her Son’s broken body on the cross, Jesus named her the Mother of His beloved disciple and the Mother of the Church. The Church is the Body of Christ and Mary is the Mother of Christ. Chinese Catholics knew in the midst of their deepest sufferings that their heavenly mother was with them, as she had been with Jesus in his darkest moments. Just as Mary stood by the suffering body of Jesus on the cross, she always stands by His Body, the Church, suffering from persecution.

The roots of Christianity in China are quite ancient. However, it was in the later years of the 19th century and the first half of the 20th century that Christianity really began to spread throughout China and to flourish. For about a century the mission to China excited thousands of missionaries who went to establish the Church and to serve the people of China. Millions of Chinese embraced the faith and the future looked bright.

China suffered a great deal during the Second World War and its aftermath. One of the consequences of that time of mayhem was the success of the Communist Maoist Revolution which had become firmly entrenched in China by the time Mao declared the creation of the People’s Republic of China on October 1, 1949. Those were dark days throughout the world as people feared the spread of Communism and the loss of freedom. When China became a Communist state many people throughout the world saw it as an ominous sign. The Communists were determined to create an all powerful, all controlling government and the Catholic Church was seen as an enemy of that mad vision of the ideal society.
Immediately Chinese Catholics were in danger. Over the next three decades Chinese Catholics by the hundreds and thousands were sent to labor camps and were tortured, beaten and killed. All contact with the universal Church was cut off. The most diabolical scheme of the Communist government was the creation of a parallel Catholic church to try to lure Chinese Catholics away from membership in a universal Church in exchange for some limited freedom to practice some elements of the Catholic faith. I know that some of you, members of Holy Redeemer Church, suffered under these persecutions in China.

At the time of the 1949 declaration by Chairman Mao of the establishment of the Communist regime in China, there were more than 3 million Catholics in China. Stories of the sufferings of faithful Catholics seeped out of China and were greatly inspiring to the Catholics around the world. Since the earliest days of the Church, Catholics have always venerated our martyrs, and even as we were in distress over the sufferings of our Catholic brothers and sisters in China, we were also proud of their bravery and fidelity.

The situation in China worsened with the cultural revolution in the mid-1960s. By the late 1960s many Catholic analysts from around the world were of the opinion that the Church in China had been destroyed and that there was nothing left from which to build. The predominant judgment was that a new missionary effort would have to start from scratch one day, when the Communist regime was no longer in power.

However, the story of Chinese Catholicism is truly miraculous! When limited contact between China and the outside world was re-established, we discovered that the Catholic Church in China was not destroyed during four decades of persecution. In fact, to the amazement of all, the Catholic Church in China had not diminished but had grown. When the revolution was established in 1949 there were 3 million Catholics; when contact was re-established there were between 12 and 20 million Catholics and the Church was growing in numbers and in faith every year.

The great Father of the Church, Tertullian, is quoted as saying, "The blood of martyrs is the seed of Christians". The 20th-century story of the Catholic Church in China is the proof of this ancient saying. The more the Communists were determined to kill the Church by outright persecution and by fostering internal conflict, the more the Church grew.

Chinese Catholics are a great inspiration to the worldwide Catholic Church. We greatly esteem the way they held on to faith despite some of the fiercest persecution in modern times. When I hear stories of the amazing faith of our Chinese Catholic brothers and sisters, it makes me proud to be a Catholic, proud to hold the same faith which Chinese Catholics have suffered to protect.

Although there are signs of progress in China, we must not be fooled into believing that all is well. Chinese Catholics are still not given full religious freedom. Bishops and ordinary lay people are still imprisoned and harassed. Perhaps the saddest legacy of the Communist interference in the Church is that still the Chinese Catholics themselves sometimes are divided into two camps. All Chinese Catholics wanted to be in union with the universal Church and the Holy Father. However, Catholics made different decisions about how to relate to the government. Some hid in underground churches and others registered with the government. The Catholics did not create this division; the government did, but the Catholics are left with the difficult responsibility to reconcile with one another.

We gather today to pray for China. As I said a few moments ago, many of you suffered in China to preserve the faith that you now embrace freely here in the United States. I ask you to be faithful practicing Catholics here in the United States. It would be a shame if you were able to remain steadfast in your Catholic faith through years of persecution, only to find that your faith weakened in our secular and commercial America. I beg you not to be so attracted to material success that you now grow lukewarm in faith.

Communism is an utterly materialistic philosophy of life. For a Marxist there is no God, no eternal life, no spirit. Many Chinese are now hungry for God. They want to talk about life after death and the meaning of life. In China, there is great interest in religion. As China opens to outside ideas and as the government becomes more open to religious liberty, there is a remarkable opportunity for evangelization. China is the evangelization opportunity of this millennium.

Almost one in five human beings is Chinese. Yet Christianity is still a minority faith there. I believe that the Chinese who now live all over the world will have a role to play in the evangelization of China. At least, the Chinese Catholics from around the world should have a heart for China and for the spread of the Gospel there.

I also must pay tribute to the amazing achievement that Holy Redeemer is. Holy Redeemer was built by Monsignor William Kavanagh when there was only one Chinese Catholic family in Philadelphia. Since then Holy Redeemer has been a whirlwind of service and evangelization in the Chinese community. Holy Redeemer School is an excellent school, a tremendous resource for the Chinese community. Holy Redeemer Church manages to include all segments of the Chinese community and in this regard it is unique. Chinese from the mainland, from Hong Kong, Taiwan, Indonesia, Malaysia and Chinese living in the United States for generations all come together to share this Church. You have worked hard to create a remarkable Chinese ministry. I urge you to work together to continue this outstanding legacy.

In our second reading we find Mary present at Pentecost when the Holy Spirit was given to the disciples. Mary was present when her Son died, but she was also present when the Holy Spirit came and the command of Jesus that the gospel be proclaimed to the ends of the earth began to be fulfilled. Immediately there was an outburst of evangelical activity and the Church was fortified and quickly began to grow. We pray for a new Pentecost in China and we ask Mary, the Mother of Jesus, to pray that our Catholic faith will flourish in China and among the Chinese all over the world. Amen.