NEW ISSUE
Dancing to an Ever-Changing Melody:
The Communist Party of China and The Catholic Church, 1927-2023
Author: Kim Kwong CHAN
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Using the analogy of a dancing couple, the author employs the methodology from China Studies to examine different leaderships of the Chinese Communist Party in their formulation of religious policies based on the needs of the Party in its revolutionary endeavor, international dynamics as well as contemporary political policies during different stages of the Peoples’ Republic of China, to discuss the various interactions between the Party and the Catholic Church as they dance under different political melodies. Finally, he explores the impacts of Sino-Vatican and Hong Kong –Mainland China relations vis-a-vis the Catholic Church in China/Hong Kong.
The Holy Spirit Study Centre
is an organ of the Diocese of Hong Kong. It was established in 1980 by the late Cardinal John Baptist Wu as an expression of pastoral concern for China and the Church in China. It is a research institute whose primary practical task has been to gather, store and analyze pertinent data about China that will serve to broaden understanding of the Mainland’s rapidly changing situation, and to effect appropriate Christian responses. Facilities at the Centre, which is housed in a wing of the Holy Spirit Seminary in Aberdeen, include offices for its full-time staff and research associates, a library, archives for collected documentation, and meeting rooms. Material is gleaned from over 100 Chinese and English language periodicals and daily newspapers.
This provides both professional researchers and other interested people with a wealth of up-to-date information on what is happening in Mainland China and in the Church in China. The work of the Centre is of particular interest to the Hong Kong Diocese not only because it is the diocese with the largest number of Chinese Catholics in the world, but also because Hong Kong reverted to Chinese sovereignty on 1 July 1997 and has since been governed under the principle of “One Country, Two Systems.”