Letters

Church in China

John R. Barich

Contents - Jun 2009 - Buy a copy now Editorial: Pentecost Sunday: birthday of the Church - Michael Gilchrist Cardinal Pell's UK interview: Liturgy, Missal translation, World Youth Day - Luke Coppen Vocations: Brisbane's Holy Spirit Seminary: promising signs of growth - Anthony Barich News: The Church Around the World Interview: American Catholics and abortion: the Church at the crossroads - Mariangela Sullivan Laetare Medal: Mary Ann Glendon's letter to Notre Dame's President FOUNDATIONS OF FAITH: The Last Things: death, judgment, Heaven, Purgatory, Hell - Br Barry Coldrey Sharia Law: Lights dim for Christians in Pakistan - Babette Francis Events - July: Australian Catholic Students Association: continuing spiritual impact - Br Barry Coldrey Youth: Forming a new generation of pro-life leaders - Patrick Langrell Letters: Church authority - Paul Fitzgerald Letters: Superior design - John H. Cooney Letters: Church in China - John R. Barich Letters: Persecution in China - J. Loring Letters: Holy Land Pilgrimage - Association of Hebrew Catholics - Andrew Scholl Letters: Ecumenism - Gary Crothers Letters: Prayers after Mass - Ken Bayliss Letters: Pontius Pilate - Grahame Fallon Books: The Catholic Church and Conversion, by G.K. Chesterton - Michael Daniel (reviewer) Books: Catholic Christianity: A Complete Catechism of Catholic Beliefs, by Peter Kreeft - Michael Daniel (reviewer) Books: ISLAND OF THE WORLD, by Michael O'Brien - Luke McCormack (reviewer) Books: AD2000 Books for June Reflection: Pentecost and the power of the Holy Spirit for today - Fr Dennis W Byrnes

I need to take issue with Francis Vrijmoed's views on the Church in China (April AD2000).

He makes little reference to the underground Catholic Church which since 1949 has kept the Catholic faith alive without compromising with the Communist authorities who have killed and imprisoned thousands of Christians. No such treatment was ever meted out to the Catholic Church in Taiwan.

His attack on Cardinal Zen Ze-kuan, who is Archbishop of Hong Kong, is quite unwarranted. The Archdiocese of Hong Kong, in its paper The Sunday Examiner, has warned about the effect of a new ordinance calling for the establishment of School Management Committees which are considered a thinly veiled method for removing the Catholic ethos from its schools. They are fearful that the current exemption until 2012 will be removed.

JOHN R. BARICH
Perth, WA

Reprinted from AD2000 Vol 22 No 5 (June 2009), p. 15