encore un long article sur l'union des contraires, 'lance-bouclier' et 'communiste & capitaliste' spécifique à la civilisation chinoise, et aussi pour les catholiques locaux.

Sunday Mass at Beijing's North Church | Anthony E. Clark, Ph.D. | September 16, 2011 | Ignatius Insight

After Sunday Mass at Beijing's largest and oldest church, Beitang (North Church), well over a thousand faithful filed out of their pews into the Chinese-style courtyard leading to the church's dramatic entrance. Inside, one man, roughly mid-thirties, stretched his arms high above his head, looked upward, and offered prayers of thanksgiving. His right hand held a long, worn, rosary. Behind him several elderly men and women began intoning Catholic hymns that still use the melody and style of Ming dynasty Buddhist chanting.

Several priests gathered in the courtyard to meet with members of the parish – most of the priests are older, but at least one appeared recently ordained. During Mass, the celebrant spoke animatedly about Christ's exhortation: "Whoever wishes to come after me must deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me. For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. What profit would there be for one to gain the whole world and forfeit his life."

This is a difficult topic in modern China, wrenched apart by its two antagonized personalities, one explicitly Marxist, and another implicitly capitalistic. China's class division grows more intense while it purports to espouse Marx's ideology of class elimination. But the Middle Kingdom has always been a place of accepted paradox. The ancient philosopher, Han Feizi, once wrote about a weapons seller who boasted that his spears could pierce through anything, and that his shields could not be pierced – a nearby man then asked the seller if his spears could pierce his own shields. "Spear/shield" (maodun) is thus the Chinese word for paradox, and the notion that all things are essentially "spear/shield" is a common Chinese assumption. China's Catholics, who live in a society that seemingly accepts that Marxism can be materialist (Marx would have blanched), try to live their faith in an impossible situation. To some extent, even they live in a state of paradox – "spear/shield."

As the Church in China grows, so does the level of control and oppression it is forced to endure. While many faithful remained in their pews after Mass to offer thanks to God and his Mother, I met with an old acquaintance, Mr. T, and a new priest, Fr. X, who updated me on recent events in China's Catholic community. We first spoke of how many Chinese Catholics feel as though their history has been "cut at the root," that since the Cultural Revolution (1966-76) the Church in China has had little freedom to investigate or discuss its own history. Few Americans know that the Church in China is centuries older then the Church in America. Many records that were in China during that turbulent decade were either destroyed by Maoist radicals or confiscated by the government, and China's present authorities are uninterested in making Catholic historical documents available for consultation.

China's faithful are hungry for a sense of continuity with their historical past, a past that they are prevented from accessing. Fr. X and Mr. T were unaware, for instance, that only thirty feet from where we stood an elderly priest had been struggled against and buried alive by Red Guards, an event still remembered, but seldom discussed, by some of Beitang's older parishioners. The diocesan archives for Beijing, including the church records of all of the major Catholic parishes, were taken and burned by the Red Guards in 1966 and 1967. It is like being a child with little memory of, and no documentation about, his own family.

Perhaps the most divisive recent event in the Chinese Church is the ordination of Leshan's government-appointed bishop, Lei Shiyin. While the local faithful might sometimes accept, to some degree, the ordination of a non-Vatican supported bishop, the rumors that the new bishop has two children has turned the country's Catholics against him in an unusually intense fashion. The additional fact that Rome excommunicated this new bishop has made matters even more complicated, as Beijing's own bishop, Li Shan, was involved in Bishop Lei's ordination. Many of Beijing's Catholics now feel compelled to avoid attending Masses or events connected with Bishop Li Shan, and some refuse to visit Beijing's cathedral church, Nantang (South Church). Beijing's post-Mao Catholic history is complex – its previous bishop, Fu Tieshan, headed the Patriotic Catholic Association, and was known to be married. Local Catholics had hoped that the capital's next bishop could avoid such controversies.

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