Chinese Catholic Sisters in the Modernization Era

Abstract

This article aims to explore the contributions of Chinese Catholic sisters in the Deng-Jiang era by examining their way of life and the problems they face within and outside the church structure. In the course of this discussion, we look at the history of Chinese Catholic sisters and the harassment they experienced in Maoist China. In discussing the sisters' way of life, we discover that they face important problems: difficulties with recruitment stemming from the sociopolitical situation in China, and inadequate training, both religiously and professionally, which hamper the sisters' development. We therefore conclude that leadership and institutional norm-building within the sister congregations are matters calling for immediate attention.Social scientists have argued that in the long history of the Roman Catholic Church, religious orders have been the principal voices behind the most radical movements within it. Religious orders have served as revival movements within the church, as well as having been the source of creative adaptations to new societal and religious circumstances. As the channels for experimentation and adaptation, and as the most effective avenues for ongoing revival, religious orders not only account for the long-term vitality of the Catholic Church, but they also help to explain why it is more effective as a monopoly church than the Protestant Church. 1 Between AD 500 and 1200, the monastic mode shaped the future ofreligious life within the church. 2 The emphasis on mendicancy, poverty and itinerant preaching, which arose around AD 1200, was a response to European urban development. 3 The apostolic orders of the mid-16th century china INFORMATION