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Chinese Catholics: Integrating piety and entrepreneurship

Middle class Catholic migrants in Guangzhou believe China's government will at some point understand their goodwill
Chinese Catholics: Integrating piety and entrepreneurship

A worshipper with rosary beads pictured at an "underground" church in Tianjin, near China’s capital Beijing. In the southern city of Guangzhou, middle class Catholic migrants — beneficiaries of China's economic rise — make a big effort to come together to pray. (Photo by AFP)

Published: September 19, 2016 08:26 AM GMT
Updated: September 19, 2016 08:40 AM GMT

The rapid growth of Chinese Protestantism has been a matter of note for a couple of years, even leading to the bold prediction that in time China will become the country with the most Christians in the world. And since last year, when 1,800 crosses were taken off churches in Zhejiang, the increasing influence of the province’s entrepreneurial Christians has become a significant factor in understanding what is happening among Christians in the country.

By comparison, many view Chinese Catholics as less dynamic and primarily concerned with religious piety. However, the current situation in the southern city of Guangzhou, and elsewhere as well, challenges these assumptions.

A look at the less visible part of the Guangzhou Diocese, which is not an "underground" community, is revealing. It is made up of numerous Catholic migrants from other provinces — Zhejiang, Fujian and Jiangxi among them — who arrived in the southern capital over the past 20 years. These people are extremely entrepreneurial and flexible, having migrated to the region in search of prosperity and for a way to support their families.

But, as they like you to know, they have finally joined the middle class after years of effort. A quick look at their cars and apartments confirms how well they’ve learnt to enjoy the benefits of China’s rapid economic growth. At the same time, they have maintained their Catholic faith along the way.

When I visit their offices or factories, I notice most of the time the presence of a large cross, an image of the Divine Mercy or a statue of Virgin Mary in front of the main door. Also, gathering for the rosary, Mass, or other church activities have all gained a much deeper importance for these people.

The city of Guangzhou is large and spreads extensively but the few existing Catholic churches are in the city’s center. And, since local clergy are more inclined to speak the local Chinese dialect — Cantonese — and local parishioners have not always been welcoming to outsiders, Catholic migrants (especially those related to underground networks) have started to use corporate techniques and mutual support groups to gather by themselves at home, mostly for the rosary.

As the years have passed, those from Zhejiang organized these activities more consistently and the schedule of pious activities became more diverse and rich. Through personal ties, they brought priests to come from their home province to visit and celebrate Mass with them.

Slowly, these entrepreneurial Catholics converted a few rooms in their factories into permanent chapels able to welcome more people. Several who built a chapel in their factory or in private apartments explained that the communities don’t have much to do with the local church because they live well away from the parish churches built in the older center of the city.

Meanwhile, Catholics from Fujian and Jiangxi have joined these activities and helped the network grow. Today, it reaches between one and two thousand people with the majority still aged in their forties. A third of the community are children and young professionals. Sharing meals with these migrant Catholics after Mass is always a nice reminder about the linguistic diversity of China. It is almost like Mandarin is disappearing behind Minan, Fuzhou, Wenzhou, Jiangxi languages!

At some point, these Catholics contacted a missionary congregation based in northern China and two priests settled down in Guangzhou to serve their network more permanently. These priests explained to me how they are not technically responsible for the community but only serve it. Even though they are more directly in charge of preparation for sacraments, the rest of the community life remains under the direct leadership of a pastoral council made up of the entrepreneurial lay Catholics.

For the past several years, these migrant Catholics have opened and maintained more than a dozen chapels in the sprawling suburbs of Guangzhou. Every evening the network holds activities, and each weekend they gather with a thousand people for the celebration of eight Masses. When I took part to their gatherings, I was always surprised by the number of children, and by the efforts of some wealthy male bosses who spend time with the little ones teaching them how to pray and behave.

This network belongs to the grey zone of religious activities in China. It is neither registered, nor ignored. As I was able to confirm, the network actually maintains an informal relationship with the local bishop, and many migrants occasionally attend Mass at the cathedral. And the bishop himself has even come to celebrate the Eucharist at their main chapel.

Similarly, the network has a good relationship with local government authorities. All of them have different kinds of connections with various local officials or state agencies. Even though the local police temporarily shut down their largest chapel last May (without confiscating anything), migrant Catholics explain the event as a misunderstanding.

Indeed, they support their government — no matter what many external observers claim. It is important to remember that these entrepreneurial migrants are the first ones enjoying the recent economic success of China, and they consequently support their government for its leadership and its capacity to stabilize China's booming economy.

Several told me how much "we must love our country and serve our nation." Even though they still face constant suspicion from some official agencies (mostly the police), migrant Catholics want to believe that their government will at some point better understand the good will of its Catholic citizens. This generation of entrepreneurs is proud of its country and trusts its government. For them, tensions between the state and believers will disappear.

What is important to consider is the motivation of these migrant Catholics who make a big effort to gather and pray. Of course, many reasons are tied together, and many explanations could be listed. But at least we must highlight that these Catholics are clearly not passive.

Their ways of gathering and praying provide a place to relax and meet with fellow Catholics. Piety in this case is not a matter of devotion to an abstract God or a repetition of mechanical old habits. It nourishes ties to a concrete body: the church. This network of migrants is composed of all sorts of family members, friends and colleagues, offering assuredly all kinds of mutual support. Praying brings people and resources together, and vice versa.

These Catholics know well that humans cannot live on the Word that comes from the mouth of God alone. They have to feed and clothe themselves. Many mentioned to me how they remember hunger and poverty in their childhood in the 1970s. For them, piety and bread have to come together, and "separating one from the other is the work of the Devil."

While it is true that piety is the keystone of this network of entrepreneurial migrant Catholics, closer observation shows that it is accomplished in a vivid and integrated way.

Michel Chambon is a U.S. based doctoral student who has spent the last two years in China researching for his dissertation on religion in the country.

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