Category: China

The statistics do not distinguish between the government-approved and “underground” Church communities. The report states that figures for the latter may not be entirely accurate due to the difficulties involved in getting information. The FICS spent three months gathering information through e-mails, phone calls, faxes and personal interviews. The report says there are now 628 seminarians studying in 10 major seminaries plus another 630 in 30 minor seminaries. There are a total of 5,451 nuns from 106 congregations, and only 350 Religious men. The survey also lists more than 400 Church-run organizations, including schools, research institutes, publishing houses, medical facilities and homes for the aged and orphans. A Church observer, using the pen name “Dade,” says the survey shows how small the number of Catholics still is compared to China’s 1.3 billion people. He says the Church needs to evangelize more for its overall development. Dade, whose views were posted on the website of Hebei Faith Press, noted that there were more than 3 million Catholics out of a 500-million-strong population in 1949, when the Communists took power. Over a span of 60 years, the number of Catholics has not even doubled, he said. Dade added that Church communities had not made evangelization a priority over the decades, but had instead engaged in disputes, thus missing opportunities for growth. However, statistics compiled by Hong Kong diocese’s Holy Spirit Study Centre (HSSC) in 2008 show a marked difference from FICS’ figures. HSSC puts the number of mainland Catholics at about 12 million last year, more than double the figure given by FICS. Anthony Lam Sui-ki, HSSC’s senior researcher, said his institute began collecting data from mainland dioceses in 1988, and there has always been a marked difference between its figures and the mainland Church’s official figures.