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Show The Faith of the Catholic Chinese. The system for the Catholic missionaries mission-aries is, from the first moment of their arrival, to advance as far as possible into the interior, to disguise themselves them-selves as Chinese, and to work with Indefatigable ardor In the different stations occupied by the brethren for many years, if not for centuries. So wrote an English consul stationed sta-tioned at Shanghai thirty years ago. and the same holds good today. Their devotion is remarkable and their success suc-cess astonishing. They strive to make converts by means of education, which is naturally slow, but the results are satisfying. Where there is a Catholic mission one Is certain to find groups of Catholic families in which the faith has been preserved for generations. It is from Catholic missionaries that the best and most reliable information may be had as to what is going on In remote parts of the empire. It is perhaps not generally known that the faith of the Christian Chinese is as sturdy as the proverbitl faith of peoples that have held to it during trying try-ing persecutions. No one who reads the annals of the troublous times of the Boxers must but be struck with the splendid heroism of the clergy and laity who gladly went to death rather than renounce their faith. One family stands out prominently. The surviving members are all in religion. re-ligion. The mother and two daughters are nuns and the two sons are priests. The father and an elder brother and a daughter died during the siege of Pekin. Only the children of. what might be called old Catholics are received re-ceived as candidates for the religious communities, otherwise the number of native religious would be larger. |
