or many Asia and its small Catholic communities, often barely 1 per cent of the local population, are on the Church’s periphery. But for John Paul II the continent is the foremost challenge facing the Church in the third millennium.
In remembering his 1996 trip to Manila in Rise, Let Us Be On Our Way, a book he published last year, the Pope said: “In Manila I had before me the whole of Asia. So many Christians! And millions of people in the continent who do not Christ yet! I have great faith in the Churches of the Philippines and Korea. Asia is our common goal for the third millennium.”
Inspired by this vision the Pope traveled the breadth of the continent, from the Middle East and South Asia (Pakistan, India, Bangladesh) to South-East Asia (Thailand and the Philippines) and the Far East (South Korea and Japan).
Home to two thirds of the world’s population, half of them young, Asia is the continent of the future. However, it is also home to a host of contradictions, a place where ancient religious traditions meet future-oriented and atheistic societies, a continent where the roaring tigers of world capitalism live (and cooperate) with the leftovers of Communism.
Such a mix victimizes billions of people, marginalizing minorities, poor shantytown dwellers, and scorned outcasts. What is more, local religious traditions are so intertwined with local cultures and politics that Christianity is seen as a foreign religion. In this cauldron the Pope has added Jesus Christ and the dignity of Asians as the core issues for any discussion about development.
For a Pope used to the multitudes, meeting smaller groups of Christians was equally important. He visited countries with a handful of Christians or countries like India in 1999 where threats (by Hindu fundamentalists) kept would-be pilgrims away.
To everyone he said that “Jesus was Asian”. And with great astonishment, people responded: in Pakistan, India, and even Japan (in 1981), where Catholics are only handful, 400,000 in a population that exceeds 100 million. For days Japanese papers ran special editions for the Polish Pope. And in a meeting with singer Agnes Chang he showed he could dance.
Known for their restrained formalism, detachment and silence Asians discovered a man of God who could smile, say what he felt, show he cared for others; a man who could stroke a child and embrace a grown-up. John Paul II has always shown a great respect for all religions. Of all the meetings he has had with religious leaders the one with the Buddhist Patriarch in Bangkok stands out—he met him barefoot and in total silence.
Yet, as profound as this respect may be, he has always asked other religious leaders to work together for peace and demanded “freedom of religion and worship” for Christians. In a continent divided by fundamentalisms and too often governed by bans against conversion (like in India), he said loud and clear, for everyone to hear: “Let no one fear the Church”.
In John Paul II’s (and the Church’s) vision Jesus Christ fulfills humankind’s religious expectations. For this reason, he has always coupled broad-mindedness towards other religions with an urgency to spread the Christian message without fear. Hence, he was the first Pope to canonize Asian martyrs and offer them to the Universal Church as examples to follow: Saints like Korean Andrew Kim and Filipino Lorenzo Ruiz and martyrs likes those of Vietnam and China.
John Paul II’s interest in Asia is so strong that he learnt phrases in Hindi, Filipino and Chinese, and mastered the liturgy in Korean and Japanese in order to bring Christ and the Christian faith to the cultures of Asia. In an Asian environment closely tied to traditions that are oftentimes self-centered, a strategy of localization goes hand in hand with an overall missionary thrust. Thus, John Paul has urged Catholics to make a commitment to evangelize the continent and the world.
The greatest experience in this respect was the vigil he held with young people in Manila in 1995, an event that still stands as the biggest human gathering in human history: five million. To the youth who had come to Luneta Park he said they were the evangelizers of the third millennium. And tens of them heeded his message and chose the priesthood.
To the Church burdened by oversized institutions (schools, universities, hospitals, etc.) he offered the example of Mother Teresa, a diminutive nun he met in his first trip to India in 1986 and a large-than-life woman he beatified in record time in 2003. Thanks to this thrust, the number of vocations in Asia is growing at about 1-2 per cent a year and the number of Catholics, at around 5 per cent a year; trends that are so different from what is happening in Europe and North America.
China is a topic onto itself, a country the Pope wanted so much to visit and towards which he had great esteem and respect, but also a regime from which he always asked total religious freedom.
“No state, no group,” he said in the Apostolic Exhortation Ecclesia in Asia, “has the right to control . . . the religious beliefs of a person”.
More will be said about China in a separate article, but for now let us remember the Pope’s penultimate trip to Asia, in Kazakhstan, a few days after the attack against the Twin Towers in New York.
Braving international fears and concerns of his entourage, John II called Islamic terrorism “a desecration of human dignity in the name of God” and called on all religious leaders to firmly condemn violence as a way to assert human rights.
From Tokyo to Beirut, Novosibirsk to Jakarta, Asia is a mass of contradictions. More than Africa, Asia is undergoing a sea change and Christianity is no stranger to this phenomenon as it stands for modernity, justice and human dignity.
Obstacles litter the path for those who wish to convert. Local religious traditions (especially Hinduism and Buddhism) are so pervasive in local cultures that conversion to Christianity is seen as deserting one’s culture (in Japan, Taiwan, India . . .) or even one’s nation since in some cases (in Buddhist Thailand, Myanmar, Cambodia and Hindu India) the local dominant religion is also the state religion.
Greater obstacles exist in Muslim countries (such as Brunei, Malaysia, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Bangladesh as well as the tropical paradise of the Maldives) where social pressures or legal constraints prevent conversion. Last but not least come the Communist dictatorships (like China, Vietnam and North Korea) where economic opening is coupled with stricter controls and repression of religious freedom.
As difficult as things may be, the thirst of truth, dignity and peace among Asians is growing, especially among the young. It is among the latter that converts come in great number.
In its commitment to bear witness to the truth of Jesus Christ, the Church has had to clash with new consumer fads, which are faster and more powerful that any evangelization plan. The church has also had to cope with economic changes whose repercussions undermine both the natural environment and family ties. She has also had to face different kinds of fundamentalism whose goal is to save Asia through violence.
The presence in Asia of great religious traditions baffles many missionaries (especially those from the West). Taught that dialogue and internal acculturation are the way forward they forget the history of the Church in Asia. Long before today’s generation of missionaries come onto the scene others were here, interacting with local religions and cultures with respect and love. But they were not afraid to say that Jesus Christ was the fulfillment of every religious and cultural expectation. And for this lack of fear Asians in their hundreds of thousands (Chinese and Vietnamese persecutions) if not millions (Mongol persecutions) accepting death to remain faithful to Christ. Does their martyrdom not mean that the Christian faith was worthy of the ultimate sacrifice? It did to them.
In Asia the cult of the martyrs is one way to evangelize. Canonizing Chinese martyrs in 2000 was met by blistering government attacks. (Baseless) accusations of ‘colonialism’, ‘oppression’, ‘violence’ were laid at the door of these missionaries, but also generated curiosity among the non Christians and greater love among Christians. They also strengthened the unity of official and underground Church.
I have met many Chinese who asked themselves that if some of their compatriots were willing to risk work, well-being and even life for their Christian faith was this not a sign that such a faith was worth more than anything else. They answered their own question by becoming catechumens.
According to official figures more than 50,000 adults are
baptized into the Catholic faith every year in China. If we add those who are baptized
by the underground Church the number is even higher.
However, not all is rosy. Asian Churches and missionaries have too often focused on doing rather than being; they have built schools, hospitals, lazar houses, study
centers, universities, etc. to fulfill Christian commitment to love your neighbor. Too often however bureaucratic pressures, elitism, activism, and lack of identity have stifled good intentions.
For this reason, the Pope, borrowing ideas by the Synod of Bishops, offered suggestions as to what to do. In Ecclesia in Asia, he stressed the importance of contemplation. Repeatedly in this Exhortation, he called on bishops and priests to be more than ‘institutional administrators’ or ‘charity workers’ and be instead ‘men of God’ (Nº 43).
He also “strongly encouraged” the establishment of monastic and contemplative communities so that the mission is not reduced to mere social work (Nº 44), especially in relation to other Asia monastic traditions (n.31). Given the challenges (dialogue, acculturation, spirituality) and the hopes that are blossoming there, Asia is truly the continent for mission in the third millennium.
(From AsiaNews online)