History 471

The Southern Foothold April 15, 2007

One of the issues I covered only briefly in my presentation was the subject of Catholicism in Hong Kong and southern China. I felt like I should talk a little bit about it here because its interesting and while not critical to my topic, I will be delving into it deeper in my paper than in my presentation.

The Diocese of Hong Kong mirrored the Chinese Church up until 1951 when Mao kicked all foreign missionaries out of China. When Pope Pius XII created the national Church in China in 1946, Hong Kong also rose from an apostolic vicariate to a Diocese. Since Hong Kong was outside China, the Church there never broke away. During the 1980′s, the Vatican tried to use the cultural similarities between those from Hong Kong and China to bridge the gap with the CPA. When Bishop Wu of Hong Kong went on a state visit to China, thousands of Chinese Catholics flocked to him seeking blessings. Hong Kong is also really important from the 90′s onward, because even with the annexation of Hong Kong, the Church in Hong Kong hasn’t changed and still recognizes the Pope.

The Vatican muffed a few opportunities to repair relations with the CPA on several occasions. A big one happened in 1981, when the Pope decided that in light of increasing religious freedom in China following the Cultural Revolution, he would appoint Bishop Dominic Deng Yiming of the Guangzhou Diocese as the Archbishop of Guangzhou. Guangzhou is in southern China, near Hong Kong. This was a minor administrative affair that was mainly affecting terminology, but this move shook the foundations of Sino-Vatican relations. The Chinese government immediately perceived it as imperialism all over again. Archbishop Deng was actually forced into exile after this incident.

When Bishop Wu visited he was prohibited from saying mass, and the CPA became furious over a minor church affair. China perceived Hong Kong as a dangerous southern foothold and allowed that fear to govern other CPA policy.