Regionsasia-pacificChina, Church and State: Easter in Beijing at Three Cathedrals

China, Church and State: Easter in Beijing at Three Cathedrals

PHOTO ESSAY: A surreal balance exists between accepting state monitoring and confessing one’s faith without fear.

by Victor Gaetan 

Editor’s Note: There are an estimated 10-12 million Catholics in mainland China, spread across 147 ecclesiastical jurisdictions recognized by the Vatican, including 20 archdioceses and 97 dioceses. In recent years there has been a significant increase in the Chinese Communist Party’s monitoring and control of Catholic worship. This campaign of control has been criticized as a violation of religious freedom by a number of  human rights experts, including the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom in its 2024 annual report. During a stopover in Beijing in April, Register contributor Victor Gaetan set out to visit several government-registered Catholic parishes in China’s capital as the faithful celebrated Easter. This is his report.

Beijing, China (INPS Japan) — While planning a research trip to Japan, I learned Americans can visit China for up to 144 hours, six days, without a visa while “transiting” to another country. A few conditions exist — you have to have a ticket for an onward destination, you can’t leave your “port of entry” (one of 20 cities with this policy), and you must report where you will stay — but it meant a welcome chance to witness the Catholic Church in China on my way to Tokyo.

That’s how I ended up celebrating Easter Vigil Mass in three Beijing cathedrals. I’ve read and written about the Church in China for years, but nothing prepared me for the grace of worshiping with Chinese brothers and sisters in Christ.

The churches I visited were packed with people of all ages, mainly young men and women and many children — several thousand in all. They sang and prayed with devotion. This after being filmed by uniformed police and required to pass through metal detectors to enter church grounds. No one resisted, nor did I see anyone walk away to avoid scrutiny. Isn’t this an affirmation of faith? 

A surreal balance exists between accepting state monitoring and confessing one’s faith without fear, which reminded me of Matthew 22: “Then repay to Caesar what belongs to Caesar and to God what belongs to God.” Believers simply seem to take the state’s presence in stride. Their full-throated participation at Mass created a particularly moving experience of worship. 

Although very few non-Chinese people attended the vigils, my participation attracted little attention. When I tried to take a photo of Archbishop Joseph Li Shan at North Church, an usher stopped me. Then, he agreed to take my cell phone and take the picture for me! I was told “foreigners” normally attend liturgies offered in English or other languages. 

Father Ricci arrived in China in 1583, one of the first Jesuit missionaries to the Middle Kingdom. His statue stands at the entrance to South Church grounds, where he lived from 1605 until his death in 1610, while advising the Chinese emperor.(Photo: Courtesy photo)

After Mass, church courtyards were animated with socializing, praying before statues of saints, buying sacramentals at card tables manned by nuns, and lay performances. By then, police had largely decamped. Each church offers several Masses a day. Each time I went, I saw five or six priests and two deacons on the altar.

The following pictures, most taken quickly and discreetly, show a healthy, faithful, Catholic community in China, with eyes steadily focused on the City of God. For the Easter Vigil, I visited three historic Catholic cathedrals, known locally as South Church, North Church, and West Church. Between the three churches, 267 new believers joined the faith that night among the three churches. 

On Easter Day, I returned to South Church, where it was easier to mingle with parishioners. One young usher told me she was an airport engineer. “I come to Church as often as possible because I love Jesus,” she explained. “Catholic priests brought the Bible here a long time ago.” 

She added, “Mainland China has many beautiful churches and pilgrimage sites worth visiting.”

Church repairs mean Stations of the Cross on Good Friday was moved to the church courtyard. People of all ages participated.(Photo: Courtesy photo)
Believers continue praying the stations with a church booklet after the Good Friday procession ended.(Photo: Courtesy photo)
Laypeople take turns testing the feeling of carrying a cross on Good Friday at South Church.(Photo: Courtesy photo)
The pascal candle is lit outside the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception, which was closed during the Cultural Revolution, from 1966 to 1979.(Photo: Courtesy photo)
Lighting the pascal candle outside the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception.(Photo: Courtesy photo)
Cathedral of the Savior, known as North Church, is the seat of Beijing’s archbishop, Joseph Li Shan, appointed in 2007 at age 42, with approval of both the Holy See and Chinese government.(Photo: Courtesy photo)
To attend Mass, police require the faithful to pass through metal detectors, but passage to the church is lit by trumpeting angels.(Photo: Courtesy photo)
Archbishop Li Shan preaches to a standing-room-only audience in the recently renovated cathedral.(Photo: Courtesy photo)
A wing of the Church with no view of the altar is also full of people.(Photo: Courtesy photo)
Police and metal detectors greet the many faithful at Beijing’s Church of Our Lady of Mount Carmel, known as West Church, founded by an Italian Lazarist missionary sent by the Congregation of Propaganda Fide. It was first built in 1723, the first non-Jesuit construction in China.(Photo: Courtesy photo)
Painted eggs (real ones that expire) and permanent souvenir eggs, plus rosaries and tote bags decorated with images of West Church, are on offer in the yard in front of Our Lady of Mount Carmel, a particularly vibrant Catholic community.(Photo: Courtesy photo)
The congregation in West Church is alive.(Photo: Courtesy photo)
The Gospel message is summarized on the jacket of one congregant at West Church for the Easter Vigil Mass.(Photo: Courtesy photo)
An enthusiastic priest blesses the faithful during the Easter Vigil celebration on April 30, 2024.(Photo: Courtesy photo)
Another relevant message on someone’s back at West Church on Easter eve: Our Wills United Like a Fortress.(Photo: Courtesy photo)
Enthusiastic blessing from West Church presider as he reaches the back of the Church at the Easter Vigil Mass.(Photo: Courtesy photo)
After the Easter Vigil Mass, believer pray in silence outside the church before saints.(Photo: Courtesy photo)
Some 35 children are prominently featured in white capes at the Easter Mass. Are they receiving Holy Communion? Or are they altar servers? Local sources had mixed explanations.(Photo: Courtesy photo)
Old stones are painful to kneel on but young and old kneel.(Photo: Courtesy photo)
Archbishop Li Shan is in procession as Easter Mass ends at South Church on April 31, 2024(Photo: Courtesy photo)
Believers collect holy water from urns following Easter Mass on Sunday, March 31, 2024.(Photo: Courtesy photo)

INPS Japan/National Catholic Register

Victor Gaetan
Victor Gaetan

Victor Gaetan Victor Gaetan is a senior correspondent for the National Catholic Register, focusing on international issues. He also writes for Foreign Affairs magazineThe American Spectator and the Washington Examiner. He contributed to Catholic News Service for several years. The Catholic Press Association of North America has given his articles four first place awards, including Individual Excellence, over the last five years. Gaetan received a license (B.A.) in Ottoman and Byzantine Studies from Sorbonne University in Paris, an M.A. from the Fletcher School of International Law and Diplomacy, and a Ph.D. in Ideology in Literature from Tufts University. His book God’s Diplomats: Pope Francis, Vatican Diplomacy, and America’s Armageddon was published by Rowman & Littlefield in July 2021. Visit his website at VictorGaetan.org.

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