I notice that in Chinese, almost all biblical terms are completely different. It goes from the name of Peter, Paul, even several Biblical books, as well as what we call God.
I got from the church that they’re named differently because they didn’t want to project God as an authoritarian dictator (which 上帝 sounds like) and wanted to find a word in Chinese that reflects truly who God is. However this creates a problem…
Problem is that it seems for Chinese speakers, Catholic church and protestant churches are almost seen as completely different religions, as in like Hinduism vs Islam. It’s a problem because the Catholic church is a Christian denomination, and still believe in the trinity and all that. That Chinese speaking people seeing it as though they are different religion (which is only surface deep) means Chinese protestants don’t want to become Catholic because they literally think they are turning their backs on God (they are not, they are in fact joining another church that has been around since the time of Jesus).
This is more of a marketing issue, and unfortunately this issue seems to be (I can’t be sure, as I couldn’t possibly talk to every single Chinese speaking Christians) why Chinese speaking Catholics are a minority among Christians here.
I know education can fix this but I think what’s done is done… so my question is, what is the church’s strategy to deal with this? How can they bring Chinese protestants into the Catholic church? Is there a strong ecumenical effort from the church with Chinese speaking Christians?
That the RCIA doesn’t seem set up for people who are already Christian seems like it’s not a priority for them.
I’m only making this post because my father says he doesn’t want to go near the catholic church because he thinks he’s turning his back on God who have done so much for him. But his English isn’t good enough to know that we are literally worshiping the same God, same Jesus, and the same holy spirit.
Speaking as a life-long Catholic I don’t think the Catholic Church has any strategy for converting people. It’s between each individual and the Holy Spirit. If anyone is interested in conversion the mechanism is there but there’s no interest in expanding the ranks for expansion’s sake.
I believe the catholic church still have missionary efforts, but the terminology difference will likely make any ecumenical effort much harder than say protestants from the US or from latin America (they do exist, just not a majority).
Though this is more from more devout catholics, as well as visiting some opus dei chapels… I do find it takes a bit more effort to get into the Catholic church, as the RCIA is quite long, and I do think some ecumenical effort is warranted… considering that a lot of cults masquerade as Christians operate with impunity in Taiwan.
Plus I think the Catholic church is much better at helping Taiwanese reconcile their practice of ancestor worship than protestants can. After all, many Catholic traditions were incorporating local cultures as a way to get them to God. Meaning that a Taiwanese may find it easier to become Catholic without appearing to abandon their ancestors (for example Mexican “day of the dead” almost seems like the Taiwanese tomb sweeping day)
Goes back to the Jesuits first going into China. They tried to make it as easy as possible for Chinese to convert, including classifying ancestor worship as a civic rite, not a religious one. (This ended up with the Pope ordering the Jesuits out of China and handing the mission over to the Franciscans.)
The Jesuits mostly focused on converting the elites, up to the emperor, figuring it would be easier to get the commoners to follow along. The mandarins weren’t easy about following a rebel who had been executed by an emperor, so the Jesuits emphasised God’s teaching (Tian Zhu Jiao) rather than the later Protestant Jesus teaching (Jidu Jiao, because they talked about Jesus so much). That’s why the Catholics pictured Mary more often- nothing more appealing to the Chinese than a mother and a plump healthy baby boy- it’s like it’s ‘good’.
So how come protestants seem more successful in China/Taiwan than Catholic church? I initially assumed that majority of Christians in Taiwan are Catholic since it is the majority all over the world, but I’m told it’s a minority in Taiwan. I understand that missionaries in China often paid with blood and tears, and their very lives, as missionaries were often seen as “bad guys” in the past by Chinese (and Japanese) authorities. But start of Christianity in China seems seldom talked about and while there are books on the subject (I read one that talked about a missionary in Jiansu province sometime around the boxer rebellion), it really seems the best way to make a country Catholic seems to be by conquest/colonization (Philippines, Vietnam), not missionary efforts (Korea is an exception I guess, lots of Christians there).
Speaking of Korea, how many Korean catholics are there?
Yeah. One percent Catholic as compared to two per cent Protestant. I’d guess that Catholics were here first, but got overwhelmed by American Protestant missionaries.
Depends more on the coloniser, I’d guess.
Majority Catholic: Spanish and Portuguese in South America, Spanish in Mexico, French and Portuguese colonies in Africa, Vietnam (18% Catholic), Spanish in Philippines.
North America: US 30% Protestant, 20% Catholic; reversed for Canada
South Africa: Dutch, British: Protestant
Other ex-British colonies in Africa: Protestant
Pacific Islands-
British: Protestant
French: Catholic
Caribbean- French, Spanish: Catholic
British: Protestant
The interesting thing is none of the developed literate religions-Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism, that syncretic religion known as ‘Chinese’- has swept over any of the others (not since Islam overwhelmed Christianity in North Africa and the Near East, anyway).
Seeing how Christianity never came to china until relatively recently, and Catholic church as well as protestant denominations being almost against each other (there were European countries persecuting Catholics back then shortly after the reformation), it really doesn’t help.
Sri Lanka had a long civil war between native Buddhists and Hindu Tamil immigrants, but that’s also pretty marginal and kinda iffy, hence the ? mark.
During the Reformation, Hungary went Protestant for a century, then converted back to Catholicism again. Actually, no one really “converted”, the kings forced them to do it. We all know the similar topsy turvy religious turmoil in England kicked off by some king wanting to bone a different wife. Must have been confusing for your average English and Hungarian peasant.
Correct me if I’m wrong, but I believe that’s what happened in Albania. It’s nominally a Muslim country but most people were “conversos” who only gave lip service to Islam after they were forcibly “converted” by the Ottomans and continued practicing their old, pre-Christian traditions. No wonder it was the world’s only officially atheist country under communism - people had been faking religion for so long it was an easy transition.
Not to mention Catholic countries persecuting Protestants: see, for example, the St. Bartholomew’s Day Massacre.
There was plenty of murders, massacres, tortures, rapes, burnings etc. by both Protestants and Catholics in the name of the Prince of Peace during the Wars of Religion.
Around 8 million deaths in the 30 year war between Catholics and Lutherans…. In the end, the result of the war was almost no difference than before the war…. What a power trip by the churches…
