Introduction:
In the first half of 2020, quite a number of Catholic churches in mainland China shared an experience similar to most countries around the world, namely, they had to shut down public liturgical services due to the Coronavirus Covid-19.
The threat of the coronavirus is so severe that it has claimed more than 400,000 lives all over the world up to the present time. Hopefully it will pass away slowly in the second half of the year. Unlike in other countries, Catholics in China have to face other kinds of challenges which are quite unique to them.
Among the host of problems, the most urgent one perhaps is the drastic decline in the number of priestly and religious vocations in China. As we know, quite a number of seminaries closed down in the last few years because of a poor admissions rate.