Upon entering the 20th century, the Chinese people"s national- istic and patriotic sentiments became stronger, the anti-imperi- alist and democratic movement was raised to a new level; many Catholics felt the urgency of joining the rest of the country to fight against the foreigners. In the way, they called for Church independence.
As early as 1917, the well-known patriotic Catholic Yin Lianzhi wrote an Exhortation to Study in which he criticized the missionaries‘ hypocrisy: "Do not missionaries everywhere sing the praises of their respective countries of France, Italy and Ger- many?’ "Their zeal is satisfied only when they have succeeded in making submissive subjects for their own countries out of the Catholics of our China.‘ After the May 4th Movement appeared, many Catholics and young students from Catholic schools joined the anti-imperialist and patriotic movements. The Student com- mittee from Zhen Dan University, and the students from the Sino- French school in Shanghai, Xu Jia Hui Catholic School and frommany other schools staged "three-phase strikes‘ (no work, no school no marketing)? Moreover, students from Catholic schools in Tianjin, Beijing andGuangzhou also partici- pated in the Anti-Impe- rialist War. Patriotic Catholics in Tianjin formed a Catholic Sal- vation Unit and joined with other social classes to form an association. They went out to give lectures on patriotism. They sent flyers and adeclaration to Catholicseverywhere. In the No- vember 6 issue of Yi Shi Bao, they published anarticle in which they called on all Catholics to "rise up, safeguard our country…giving a hand to the nation.‘ On June 12th, Nie Xingwu, a Catholic who wrote an article Wei wai Jiao Qi Gao Jiao Zhong Ren Shu (Letter to the catholics for diplamaticReasons) for Yi Shi Bao in which he pointed out that the West- ern countries had invaded China in the name of religion. "When- ever there is religious persecution, we either lose power or lose land and our country is losing followed by evangelization‘’? Sheng Jiao Magazine, run by the Jesuits, also published an article Gong Jiao You Zhi Re Xin Jiu Guo (Catholics shuld devote yourselves to save the nation), which echoed Tianjin"s patriotic movement, saying: "This article is to encourage Catho- lics to rise up to save our country.‘Soon after the Chinese Catholics began showing their pa- triotism and loyalty towards China, some local church leaders criticized this very action. One month after Sheng Jiao Maga- zine expressed its opinion, some leaders made a Special State- ment saying that Tianjin Catholics had "falsely accused the clergy‘ and were "denying the church’?
The statement also mentioned the Catholics "seizing a pre- text to attack the church leaders,‘ and they "need to be punished’? From November 16th to 23rd, Guang Ruohang, the Bishop of Guangdong was hosting a meeting for bishops in Beijing, who in the name of the Apostolic Delegate, issued a letter To Priests in Zhi Li Province stating that the Church authority refused to have a Chinese Catholic Church. The 20th century was a timewhen Chinese nationalism became rather strong, and therefore, the Church authority"s pressure on patriotic Catholics could only widen the gap between them.