After the defeat of the Boxer Rebellion, the Qing government decided to lay out rules to protect the church all over China. The largest reparation in modern Chinese history is the "Geng Zi Repa- ration‘? Part of the money was used to rebuild the destroyed and damaged churches, as well as new ones. The officials implicated in the religious persecution numbered well over 50. In 1911, the Qing Dynasty was overthrown and religious freedom was in- cluded in the new constitution of the Republic of China. The separation of Church and State was clearly stated and all reli- gions were protected by law. The social changes in China made it reasonable for the Catholic Church to recover and to develop further. In the meantime, it also made some changes by barring missionaries from getting directly involved in politics and inter- fering with people"s lawsuits. The Church began to concentrate on providing various social services.
A. Number of Catholics kept increasingFrom 1901 to 1910, church membership increased from720,540 to 1,364,618. According to the 1920 statistics on Chris- tians in China from the China Xu Xing committee, the number of Catholics increased to 1,971,189 and kept growing. By 1940, there were 3,183,000 Catholics and, this number kept steady un- til 1949.
B. Religious Orders in China kept increasingThe main religious orders in China were the Salesians of Don Bosco, the Order of St. Augustine, the Yisudeng Foreign Mission, St. Columban Foreign Mission, the Congregation of the Passion, Congregation of Sacred Hearts Mary and Jesus, Con- gregation of the Sacred Heart, Order of St. Benedict, etc… Be- sides these male groups, there were many female religious or- ders as well, such as the Franciscan Missionaries of Mary, Little Sisters of the Poor, Missionary Sisters of Our Lady of the Angles, etc… During the First World War, many Western countries were distracted by the combat so that the number of missionaries be- came less and the amount of the money to support the missions was reduced. After the war, the American economy developed quickly and Americans became involved with missionary workin China. In 1918, the Maryknoll missionaries came to Jiangmeiin Guangdong Province under the leadership of Thomas Pulleys ? He became the head of this Ap- ostolic Vicariate in 1925. Other American reli- gious orders like the Columban Fathers, Congre-gation of the Mis-sion, Passionist Fathers, Divine Word Fathers, came to China.
C. Catholic Church intensified missionary workIn 1908, the Roman Curia re-emphasized its orders not to allow missionaries in China to get involved with private law-suits and not to get involved in politics and diplomatic matters. Because of this, the so-called Da Guansi Jiao (the Church that is involved with lawsuits) image began to decline. The Church began to concentrate on improving Chinese Catholics‘ morale that also influenced others. The Congregation of the Faith in Rome forbade Catholics from smoking opium, as well as not allowing Catholics to sell their wives or daughters for economic reasons. Whoever did this would not be allowed to receive the sacrament. The missionaries also helped to change the bad old customs, of marrying young or having a Tong Yong Xi (a fixed marriage in which the women is much older)? The missionariesalso helped farmers to improve their skills and the irrigation sys- tem.
The Church began to value the quality of the Catholics rather than merely quantity. For those wanting to join the Church there was a two-year probation period according to the rules of the Jesuits, Divine Word Fathers and Congregation of the Immacu- late Heart of Mary. Some local churches even set aside money to attract catechists. In Beijing Diocese, for instance, every mis- sionary could receive six dollars for each convert. Simply be- cause of this, a folk saying, Chijiao (eat what the church pro- vides), emerged.
D. Social Services developmentAmong all the charitable organizations of the Church, or- phanages were the most important. The number of orphans and abandoned children that they received indeed increased the num- ber of baptisms. The Catholic Church believed that a baptized infant could go to heaven directly. If the infants survived, they would grow up as Catholics. Yuying Tang (house for infants) was usually a part of an orphanage. All the children sent to Yuying Tang, were barely alive. The death rate was extremely high, most of them died rather quickly after baptism.
The orphanage and the Yuying Tang were well developed in the 20th century. In 1920, there were 150 orphanages in China, with 20 in Zhili, 21 in Jiangsu, 14 in Zhejiang, 13 in Guangdongand 10 in Menggu. Overall, they housed some 17,000 orphans.
By 1930, the number increased to 375 orphanageswith 21,858
orphans. In Fujian Province alone, there were 13 orphanages with15,000 children, of whom 500 stayed in regular families. The church taught boys basic skills in business and girls domestic skills. Most of them were baptized and were part of Catholic families when they grew up. In fact, the Catholics coming from orphanages occupied a rather high percentage of church mem-bership. The biggest Catholic church in Shanghai, Xu Jiahui,had a quarter of its congregation who came from orphanages inTushangwang and the Blessed Mother Orphanages.
When they
were still very young, they learned prayers and studied the cat- echism under the strict supervision of the priests and nuns. They also had to attend to religious activities. When they reach the age of marriage, the priests in Tushanwan and the sisters from the house would help arrange a partner. Usually, the boys and girls from orphanages would be matched. After they received the nuptial blessing from the priests in the church, they couldmove into a house provided by the church.