All of the recent Popes, starting with John
Paul II, have been calling for a "New Evangelism". Yet, after working for decades as a missionary
priest promoting "first proclamation" or "direct"
evangelism among the Chinese, it has been my impression, now confirmed by
recent research, that in today's Church, there is little sense of urgency in
carrying out Jesus' Great Commission: "Go out to the world and proclaim
the Gospel . . . Baptizing them in the
name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit." This lack urgency is, I believe, grounded in
a mistaken interpretation of Vatican II: combining a true teaching (we cannot
put limits on the mysterious ways in which the Holy Trinity might save
individual person's through the grace of implicit Faith in Jesus), with the
false conclusion (there is, therefore no urgency in leading contemporary men
and women to an explicit Faith in Jesus). It is a false conclusion, for if the Eternal
Son of God commands the Church to proclaim the Gospel to all men and women, it
was because He foresaw that the eternal salvation of countless souls would
depend upon explicit faith in Him, leading to the reception of Baptism and the
other Sacraments and, relying on God's grace, living out His moral and
spiritual teachings. Such explicit Faith
also leads to a transforming relationship to Jesus in the present life. Below I share the story of one of our Chinese
converts.
Ah Jiao practiced the local folk
religion. Because of financial difficulties,
she searched for a new life and came to our catechumen course. Because she was a bus driver, it was
difficult for her to take Sunday off, yet she made every effort to attend each
class, searched and explored the Catholic Faith, learned to pray and gradually
entrusted her life to the Lord. Two and
half months before her Baptism, she was seriously injured in a car accident but
made a quick recovery, attributing it to her Faith in God. As a follower of Jesus, she choose to forgive
the culprit who injured her. On her Baptism day, she felt she had become a new
person and now sees her family and surroundings with a new heart. She is now also thanking God for changes in
her family. Her daughter, who had
dropped out of school, overcame depression and returned to school. Her son, who was a vagrant, told her he would
find a job and try to lead a meaningful life. Ah Jiao is truly a witness that the power of
Jesus' saving grace begins even in this life and promises to reach its
fulfillment in the next.
If you believe Jesus is the Son of God, you
should, then, according to your state in life, participate in evangelism ad gentes, or first proclamation of the
Gospel to non-believers like Ah Jiao.
The whole contemporary world, including the
de-Christianized West, desperately needs Jesus and His salvation. But in this letter I would ask you to
consider the needs of the Chinese people as one focus for your participation in
Jesus' Great Missionary Commission. I
will offer a few reasons why the Chinese people are at this time in history a
good place to focus your own spiritual and financial resources. First, of the approximately 1.4 billion
Chinese in the world, only about one percent are Catholic; so the harvest is
indeed vast. Second, at present most
Chinese people do not have a strong religious belief to be overcome or given up
(as Moslems or Hindus would) -- according to surveys in the Republic of China
(Taiwan), 50% of Chinese claim no religious affiliation, 40% follow, without
deep conviction, traditional folk religion.
Third, the traditional culture of China, founded on Confucian and Taoist
ethics, is highly compatible with the Catholic Faith. Finally, we can freely proclaim the Gospel
among the Chinese in Taiwan, Hong Kong and Singapore, and more and more freely
in China.
First proclamation evangelism involves, of
course, many groups and many methods. We
focus on the formation and later employing of local (Chinese) lay people to
work as full time "first proclamation" evangelists. Why do we take this approach? First, historical research shows that the
contribution of local, lay Chinese missionaries or catechists has been a
critical factor whenever evangelism has been successful among the Chinese. Second, once the Church begins to grow,
priests quickly become busy with pastoral, liturgical and administrative
duties, so it is necessary that someone devotes full time energies to
attracting catechumens, running catechumen courses, giving pastoral and
spiritual care to catechumens and helping the newly Baptized integrate into
parish life. Third, we prepare our lay
evangelists, or lay missionaries, through a three year full time degree program
that includes spiritual formation, theology and the theory and practice of evangelism. Fourth, we pay our lay missionaries an
adequate, lower middle class salary (thanks to donations of our benefactors) so
that they can concentrate full time effort on evangelism and through long term
service, accumulate valuable experience and expertise for themselves and others
in the local Church. Finally, our lay
evangelists have been fruitful; we give them a goal of twenty Baptisms per year
and most of them make it each year.
Our usual way of partnering with benefactors
is through "adoption" of a lay Chinese missionary. There are two forms of this adoption. For
those with the financial means, a single individual or family or company may
adopt one lay missionary. A second way
of adoption is through "mission circles": a mission circle is formed
by a group of ten to forty benefactors.
To adopt a Chinese lay missionary means to pray for him or her; to get
to know him or her through letters and reading our newsletters; and provide
financial support for a missionary's salary, insurance, office rent,
transportation, etc. The financial support comes to about 20,000US$ per year
per lay missionary.
If, after prayer, you believe Our Lord would
like you to cooperate with Him in bringing explicit Faith to the Chinese
people, please consider making that cooperation concrete by supporting the CLM
Foundation. Objectively, though care for the sick and poor are extremely
important, nothing is more important than salvation through faith in Jesus
Christ: sickness and health, poverty and wealth are temporary conditions; but
heaven and hell are eternal.
God bless!
Yours in Christ,
Rev. Louis Aldrich, S.J.
Executive Director of Chinese Lay
Missionaries
