the ‘double’ anniversary in Ordos

On October 1, coinciding with the most patriotic of anniversaries, the diocese of Hohhot in Inner Mongolia also remembered the 150th anniversary of the first presence of the Scheut missionaries in their city. Because, despite the anti-imperialist rhetoric, there was a Church that loved China and its people even before 1949.

Milan (/Agencies) – In these hours when the People’s Republic of China celebrates the 75th anniversary of its founding, Catholic communities have also been subject to pressure from local authorities to live this anniversary with a “patriotic spirit.” The “official” Catholic sites prominently publish accounts of the events organized by the dioceses to celebrate the “birthday of the Fatherland”, with the inevitable recommendations to Catholics to – as said for example Bishop Shen Bin in Shanghai – “continue the beautiful tradition of patriotism and love for the Church by deeply studying the spirit of the Third Plenary Session of the XX Central Committee of the Communist Party of China.”

Within the very narrow limits of this “fidelity” the challenge of being “good Christians and good citizens” is played out today, the horizon that Pope Francis outlined in his dialogue with the Beijing authorities. Precisely for this reason, however, it is worth noting an interesting decision made by the Catholic diocese of Hohhot, in the autonomous region of Inner Mongolia, which on September 26 celebrated in Ordos in the same event the 75 years of the foundation of the People’s Republic of China and the 150th anniversary of the first church in its territory, San Francisco Javier, in the Chengchuan neighborhood. Indeed, in 1874 the first missionaries of the Congregation of the Immaculate Heart of Mary arrived in this city, the Belgian missionaries of Scheut, who a few years before had begun the evangelization of the ethnic Mongolian populations.

According to the Chinese Catholic site XindeBishop Paolo Meng Qinglu and 25 priests of the diocese presided over a solemn celebration in the presence of men and women religious and more than a thousand faithful. Here too, obviously, the day began with the raising of the flag and the entire ceremony of hymns, patriotic slogans and the perspective of Sinicization indicated to all religious denominations by President Xi Jinping. However, in the homily at the mass the bishop also clearly remembered the love of the Belgian missionaries for the people of Ordos and the contribution they made to the local community.

Xinde He explains that at first the first two Scheut missionaries who arrived in the city taught in tents or rented caves, until in July 1874 they were able to build the first, very poor, church. In the beginning their mission was extremely difficult: only three Mongol families joined in the first two years; but the priests persevered and worked hard to learn the Mongolian language and local culture. When a severe famine came, they bought livestock to donate to the people. Little by little the community grew, even managed to recover after the harsh test of the wave of violence of 1900, and built a new, larger church. The mission was also able to open the first Catholic school and a printing press, which allowed them to print and distribute various books in Mongolian and on Mongolian history. The first local vocations also began to flourish.

Already before 1949 there existed, then, a history of deep love of the Church for China and its people, which no nationalist rhetoric can erase. And it is beautiful that in a Chinese diocese the most patriotic of anniversaries has been remembered. Being “good Christians and good citizens” in the People’s Republic of China probably means that too.