The Catholic Church in Taiwan by Francis K. H. So Beatrice K. F. Leung & Ellen Mary Mylod

Author:Francis K. H. So, Beatrice K. F. Leung & Ellen Mary Mylod
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Springer Singapore, Singapore

(2)Department of Sociology, Taipei University, New Taipei City, Taiwan

Introduction: Background of the Study

Recently, in fact since 2013, there has been discussion among Vatican officials about the terms “Bridge Church” and “Bridging Endeavor” regarding the Church in Mainland China. The terms were launched in 1984 to describe assistance to the Church there. After 30 years, given the great changes in China, the Vatican has suggested that the terms “Bridge Church” and “Bridging Endeavor” go into history and the interaction between the Catholics on the Mainland with diaspora Catholics in Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macau should be the interactions of “Sister Churches”.1

Before the concept of “Sister Churches” is widely promoted, and the “Bridge Church” with its “Endeavor” goes into history, this chapter aims at studying the origins and the development of the “Bridge Church” and” Bridging Endeavor” beginning from 1984 under the sterling leadership of the Taiwan Bishops’ Conference headed by Archbishop Lokuang* of Taipei.

After the Third Plenary Session of the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party in 1978, China turned a new page by launching a policy of modernization leading to the opening up of society. Loosening its grip on non-conformists including religious personnel and the revival of religious activities in China, it aimed at facilitating the modernization program. Consequently, Chinese Catholics saw the dawn of a revival of Catholicism. The Vatican, the administrative headquarters of the Catholic Church, lost no time in making an overture to Beijing hoping to normalize their disrupted Sino-Vatican diplomatic relations.

In 1981, the release of Bishop Dominic Tang (Deng) Yiming* of Guangzhou to Hong Kong after solitary confinement in prison for 22 years encouraged the Vatican to push the idea of seeking reconciliation with Beijing (Tang 1994). However, the Beijing government openly declared that the two prerequisites of any Sino-Vatican reconciliation would have to be: firstly, the Vatican must sever its diplomatic ties with Taiwan and secondly the Vatican must not interfere in China’s internal affairs including religious affairs (Leung 1992, 376–383).2 In 1981, when the Vatican began to seek dialogue with Beijing about the rapprochement of Sino-Vatican relations, Beijing even requested the severance of Vatican-Taiwan relations before any negotiations could take place (Leung 1992, 231–238).

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.