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Chapter Twenty |
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A Worldwide Christianity |
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| I. | Introduction--Missionary activity resumed in full force after the Revolutions in Europe. In the Church there was a concern about the local churches having native clergy and incorporating their own forms of religious expressions drawn from their own cultures. | |||
| A. | The Beginning of the Missionary Revival in the Nineteenth Century | |||
| See Handout #248 | ||||
| 1. | New Political and religious circumstances--in the early 1800's England had full control of the seas and prevented Catholic missionaries from going overseas. Not so for the Protestant missionaries until 1814. Treaties between England and the other Catholic European countries open the seas to everyone. Simply put, England was the protector of Protestant missions and France became the protector of Catholic missions. | |||
| a. | Voyages and explorations--by 1869 the Suez canal was open cutting the voyage from London to Bombay India in half. Explorers began penetrating into the inlands of continents of which only the edges had been known. Scholars, adventurers, missionaries and settlers began moving into these countries in search of a new life and new converts. | |||
| b. | Missions and romanticism--missions at home and abroad conjured up the romantic idea that missionary work provided one with exotic adventure and the prospect of thousands of converts waiting to hear about Christianity. The Catholics and the Protestants strove to outdo each other in the mission field. Missionary activity were always carried out with attempts to "civilize" the savages and bring humanity to new cultures. Missionaries were doctors, nurses, teachers, and sometimes scholars. Europeans thought that the world was moving towards a universal civilization and Christianity with be the religion of this civilization. | |||
| B. | The organization of missions--a great deal of effort went into the support and structure of missionary activity during the 1800's. The Christian conscience was preoccupied with the effort and supported it with funds personnel, buildings and to a lesser degree the Protestant began working through their own doctrines. | |||
| 1. | The roots of missions among the people--missionary orders of priests and nuns spread the word of their activities through publications. They organized the home front churches to gather sponsors who would contribute money and in return be guaranteed the order prayers at mass. Still done to this day | |||
| 2. | The missionary personnel--in the 1800's many of the existing orders of priests and nuns either expanded their missionary activity or added it to their charism. The old standby's of Franciscans, Dominicans and Jesuits made their contributions to the missionary effort, but 53 male and 200 female orders were created during this period of time dedicated to the missions. | |||
| 3. | Missionary methods--the methods employed by missionaries depended on their background and denominations. Catholic missionaries came from France, Ireland and Poland and they adapted themselves well to the foreign missions since most of them came from farming communities. They stressed worship and learning the language of the mission communities they were assigned to in the field. They set up schools which in turn destroyed local cultures. | |||
| See Handout #249 | ||||
| 4. | Papal directives--the pope took a great interest in the mission fields and specific policies concerning missions came from the Vatican. Slavery was condemned by Pope Gregory XVI in 1829 and he encouraged local churches to begin training indigenous men to become clergy and indigenous women to become nuns. There was still an arrogant attitude within the higher church circles that Europeans were an advanced culture and that indigenous peoples could not be trained to become priests. | |||
| C. | Missions and colonization-to say that the missionary worked for the souls of Christians and for the country from where they came would not be an understatement. Missionary activity led to colonization of that country. | |||
| 1. | The missionary revival as a forerunner of European imperialism--from 1815-1820 Europe was not very interested in missionary activity, but the disputes between Protestant and Catholic missionaries forced countries to intervene in this activity. | |||
| 2. | The era of imperialism--after 1870 the quest for new colonies in new territories reached a fever pitch. Conflicts between missionaries and rivaling European powers that came to settle in those countries often led to bitter conflict. Missionaries were closer to the people and had learned their languages and oftentimes the occupying power had not. The missionaries fought against the new "owners of the land by protesting against forced labor of the natives and the industrialization they brought with them. | |||
| II. | Across the Continents | |||
| A. | World-wide European emigration | |||
| 1. | Canada--between the high birth rate of French Canadians and the flux of Irish Catholics, Eastern Canada rapidly became a Catholic nation. Tension between England and French Canada lessened and the Catholics were allowed to establish their own schools and dioceses and allowed to pursue missionary activity with the native Eskimos and Indians. | |||
| 2. | The United States--Baptists and Methodists made up the largest segment of Christians in the early 1800's. The first Catholic diocese was established in 1789 in Baltimore. Europeans gradually began moving to America and it was the Irish that first sent the most missionaries to the United States and the first to hold key positions of authority in the church then and now. By the late 1800's the Italians, the Germans and the Polish began flocking to America. Catholics came as poor working class people and lived in small towns or in ghettos in larger cities. Catholics were not well received into American culture. They brought with them the old myths of what Catholicism had done to their forefathers and it was not easily forgotten. A new heresy called "Americanism' arose in the Catholic church in the late 1800's. It was basically a view by American Catholics to rely on natural virtues with a low estimation what religious life was all about. Pope Leo XIII condemned it in an encyclical in 1889. | |||
| 3. | Latin America--in South America Portugal and Spain fought over peoples and lands, conservatives and liberals. The indigenous people were often caught in the middle and the church sided with the conservatives since the liberals often held anti-clerical positions in the government. The Mexican revolution in 1910 resulted in the church being forbidden to head schools, limiting the number of priests in the country and civil war broke again and raged from 1926-1929. Persecution of the Church did not end until 1937. | |||
| 4. Australia--started out as a penal colony became an immigrant country in the early 1800's. Irish Catholics outnumbered any others and Catholicism was firmly entrenched in the country. | ||||
| B. | Oceania--the Protestants arrived in Tahiti in 1797 and in 1817, John Williams sailed from one island to another building churches, houses and schools. While evangelizing in the New Hebrides islands he was eaten by cannibals. In 1827 the Sacred Heart Fathers and the Marist Fathers came to the islands. Father Damian was the champion of the lepers in Molokai and died of the disease in 1889. His canonization process is in the works. | |||
| See Handout #250 | ||||
| C. | Asia | |||
| 1. | India--the caste system in India hampered making the natives clergy. The Jesuits eventually set up a seminary in 1847 and began ordaining clergy. | |||
| 2. | China--in the 1800's the missionaries were under constant persecution. Missionaries came to China and began to carve it up into European factions. The Chinese governments objected and in Peking in 1900 dozens of priests, bishops and thousands of the faithful Chinese Christians were massacred. China wanted nothing to do with Europe and its religion. | |||
| See Handout #251 | ||||
| See Handout #252 | ||||
| 3. | Japan and Korea--Japan and Korea opened their doors to European influence because they were primarily interested in the Western learning of science and techniques of medicine, but not in their Christianity. Though allowed to evangelize in these two countries, they suffered under persecution from time to time. | |||
| 4. | Indo-China--Christian missionary activities continued to make progress in Vietnam and the surrounding countries in spite of persecutions. The French bishop of Vietnam asked Napoleon to protect the missionaries from the native governments and this led to some colonization of the French in 1885. Cambodia and Laos were also controlled by the French. | |||
| See Handout #253 | ||||
| 5. | Orthodox Missions--in Russia the Orthodox church maintained the Byzantine traditions of mass in the vernacular of the region and were very successful. Siberia and Alaska became missionary territory amongst the Eskimos and Indians. The bible and liturgy was translated into the local languages and dialects. | |||
| See Handout #254 | ||||
| D. |
Africa |
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| 1. | The era of the explorers--slave trade in Africa ceased to exist in the early 1800's, in America in the middle 1800's, but the Arabs continued to enslave blacks well into the late 1800's. Africa became the graveyard of missionaries. Many died the first few weeks after they arrived. Either by disease or by local warring tribes of Africans. | |||
| 2. | The personality and work of Cardinal Lavigerie--was a French Cardinal who devoted all of his energies in evangelizing Africa in the late 1800's. He founded the White Fathers and insisted that they adapt themselves to the African way of life; i.e., including their dress, housing, the food they ate and learning the language of the Algerians. He cautioned that whoever becomes a White Father commits himself to martyrdom and many priests died as missionaries of Black Africa. | |||
| a. | The division of Africa--in 1885 the Congress of Berlin divided up Africa that was controlled by European powers; i.e., France, Britain, Belgium, Portugal and Germany. The division was completed in 1902. They replaced slavery with forced labor. They provided the first structures in Africa of a Christian country. | |||
| b. | An alternative presence: Charles de Faucauld--a contemplative set out to evangelize the Sahara through his presence and unique gift of giving to the poor, brotherly love, offering prayers and sacrifice. Gospel stuff. | |||
| See Handout #255 | ||||
| c. | Madagascar-- English Protestant missionaries settled here in 1820. At first welcomed by the king, they brought the bible, writing and created a simple alphabet for the people. Their schools were a huge success, but cause some concern when Christianity threatened the social structure of the country. After the king died the queen wanted her country to return to the old ways of tradition and she threw the Protestants off the island or they were massacred. Books were banned and writing reserved to only those in her royal court. Without missionaries Christianity remained hidden among the people and the Bible was read in secret. By 1861 the Protestant missionaries returned and the old queen converted. Although it was a French possession and Catholic Jesuits came to the island it remained basically a Protestant stronghold. | |||
| See Handout #256 | ||||
| d. | African syncretism and messianism--the old superstitious religions of Africa did not die easily and syncretism was widespread. Segregation of black from white caused the development of the Ethiopian Church. This mixture of the old religious superstitions and Christianity allowed the worship of the dead and curing the sick by incantation as well as polygamy. | |||
| III. |
Missions after the First World War |
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| A. | The results of war--1914-1918 dealt a blow to missions. Many orders of priests lost them to the armed forces. Many were killed in the war. German priests were put under house arrest in those countries fighting against the Germans. The war had awakened the feelings of nationalism and Germans, especially German Catholics became victims of a deep-seated prejudice on both levels; i.e., German and Catholic. | |||
| 1. | The encyclical Maximum illud-- Pope Benedict XV reacted to this nationalism that was dividing the Catholic church pitting orders of priests and nuns against each other fearing that the cause of God was threatened by this division. He railed against the fact that missionary orders had not produced native clergy and nuns. | |||
| B. | The centralization of missions in Rome under Pius XI-he realized the goals of Benedict by proclaiming in his encyclical Rerum Ecclesiae in 1926 that the Church's missionary efforts were above the politics of a region or country and he strengthened Rome's control of propaganda and affirmed the Church's right to be independent of local governments. In 1925 he declared a Holy Year and extolled the virtues of intellectual and scientific work of the missions. In 1926 Mission Sunday was inaugurated. | |||
| See Handout #257 | ||||
| C. | Towards the setting up of local churches-concerned with establishing Benedict's wishes that the local churches have local clergy he began by appointing the few ordained local natives in positions of authority. In India he named the first Bishop. In China he named six Chinese Bishops. In Japan he named the first bishop. In Vietnam he named the first bishop as well as in Africa. He insisted on training the local clergy at the same level as other clergy had been trained in Europe. Romanization of clergy was at its peak. His fear was that Europeans would eventually be thrown out of these countries and the faithful would have no clergy. | |||
| See Handout #258 | ||||
| 1. | Adaptation--Father Vincent Lebbe 1877-1940 was careful to adapt himself to the Chinese personality and culture. He founded several Chinese congregations of brothers and sisters. He wanted the Chinese to know that Europe was not the only way for a country to live nor to enter into the priesthood or religious life | |||
| See Handout #259 | ||||
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Handouts |
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| 248 | The birth of missionary romanticism. Missionary work is glamorized. | |||
| See Full Text | ||||
| 249 | The missionary thought of Pope Gregory XVI. Describes his ideal missionary work. | |||
| See Full Text | ||||
| 250 | A kind of syncretism: the cargo myth in New Guinea. A mixture of telling the Bible story with a native twist. | |||
| See Full Text | ||||
| 251 | Unfair treaties in China and xenophobia. European try to make Chinese European and they revolted. | |||
| See Full Text | ||||
| 252 | Anti-Christian tract of a Chinese secret society around 1875. | |||
| See Full Text | ||||
| 253 | The discovery of Old Japanese Christians at Nagasaki in 1865. | |||
| See Full Text | ||||
| 254 | Orthodox mission in Siberia. Missionary recollections. | |||
| See Full Text | ||||
| 255 | Missionary instructions from Cardinal Lavigerie to the White Fathers of Equatorial Africa (1879). | |||
| See Full Text | ||||
| 256 | The Malagasy martyrs of the nineteenth century. A horrible way to die. | |||
| See Full Text | ||||
| 257 | The need to appoint a local clergy. Indigenous religious needed. | |||
| See Full Text | ||||
| 258 | Christianity and patriotism in China. A moving letter of apology for the Chinese priest. | |||
| See Full Text | ||||
| 259 | The Church one and pluriform. Christ is universal, not just European. | |||
| See Full Text | ||||
