Bishop Buddy Scrapbook 1946-1948

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CATHOLIC MISSIONS IN CHINA

CATHOLIC MISSIONS I N CHINA

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The difference between the net augmentation ( 115,336) and conversions (106,3 16) may be accounted for by the pre- ponderance of births over deaths and also to some extent by the fact that among those baptized in expectation of death and not officially counted as converts a number normally recover and take their place in the ranks of the Catholic population. MISSIONARY PERSONNEL The ranks of the priests, Religious Brothers and nuns have undergone respective augmentations of five and one- half, eight, and six per cent. Chinese constitute a fair ma- jority of the missionary body: they account for two-fifths of the total of 4,452 priests, over half (55 per cent) of 1,263 Brothers, and nearly two-thirds (63 per cent) of 5,746 Sis- ters. There are thirteen Chinese Bishops and ten Chinese Prefects Apostolic. Of the total of 129 ecclesiastical are~s (including Manchuria), the Chinese shoulder full responsi- bility for twenty-three, or one out o! every six. _As regar~s the splendid number, 3,626, of Chmese Catholic nuns, 1t seems noteworthy that seventy per cent of them belong to exclusively Chinese Congregations and that the remaining thirty per cent already constitute just one-third of the mem- bership in China of the fifty Congregations transplanted from abroad. That the forces of the Catholic missionary personnel, though not inconsideraible, are still far fro1;1 adequate may be readily inferred from the fact that there 1s on the average but one priest to every 106,000 inhabitants. If one ta~es into consideration solely the Chinese clergy, the proportion is even more staggering: one priest for every 263,000 in- habitants. Of the total of 129 Mission areas, twenty-one are confided to the diocesan clergy, commonly called "secu- lar" priests. The remaining 108 are as~igned to some twenty-five Religious Orders or Congre&ahons:_ the !r~- ciscans Minor have twenty-four, the Pans Foreign M1ss1on Society fourteen, the Lazarists or Vincentians thirteen, the Jesuits and the Society of the Divine Word s~ven each , the Scheut Fathers six (including stranded Urga, m Outer Mon- golia), the Dominicans and the Milan Foreig~ ~issions five each, the Maryknoll Society four, the Augustm1ans and the Capuchins three each, the Fathers of St. Columban and the

cal booklet prepared by the Jesuit Bureau Sinologique in· S hanghai from the yearly reports of the Superiors of the· various mission areas. Converts are reckoned as the num- ber of adults baptized in the course of the year after having· given satisfactory evidence of both sincerity ·and sufficient instruction. For the first time in the history of China their annual total surpasses 100,000. The exact figure, 106,316,. represents a ten per cent increase over the preceding year's results, which in their time constituted a record. The latest success is not, however, particularly surprising, for the last six years have indicated a decided upward trend: 1930-1_____ 49,448 1931...Z 58,071 1932-3 69,547 1933-4 .·--····-··········· 82,145 1934-5...•...••·········-·· 96,680 1935-6 ··--··----106,316 Catechumens, or prospective converts, aggregate 526,673,. a figure exceeding that of last year by over 31,000. The sum total of all registered baptisms for the year falls just short of 600,000. The exact number is 599,123, some 33,000 ' more than the year before. It includes, besides the official conversions just mentioned, the baptisms of 44,774 adults when mortally ill, 100,305 children of Catholics, and 347,728. other infants in danger of death from sickness or exposure. The census figure 2,934,175, reveals a net augmentation for the year 115,336, or slightly over four per cent. The aug- mentation of the year before was a little over three and one- half per cent. This numerical increase of Catholics took place at a rate· approximately six times that of the people as a whole. The· proportion of Catholics to the general population (given by the Annuaire as 483,800,000) works out at just six-tenths. of one per cent, in other words, one Catholic for every 165 persons. The actual density of the Catholic population in· each of the Twenty Regions into which China is ecclesiasti- cally divided varies widely. It is lowest in Kwangsi with but one Catholic to every thousand persons, and highest in Mongolia, where one out of every twenty-five persons is a. Catholic. In the Hopeh Region, the average is one in forty.. As regards the individual Vicariates or Mission areas, that of Peiping ranks highest with a proportion of one in fifteen. The Vicariate of Shanghai averages one in 143, and that of Canton one in 260.