The National Catholic Seminary in Beijing is the only na- tional seminary sponsored by the BCCCC. It opened its doors in September 1983 offering a six-year curriculum. The first rector was Bishop Tu Shihua; followed by Bishop Zong Huaide, while the current rector is Bishop Liu Yuanren. The location of this seminary has also been moved a couple of times. Its current lo- cation is in Huangcun, Daxing District. Its goal is to be the high- est Catholic educational school and theological study center in China. It will not only train excellent Chinese Clergy, but alsobe a center for theologians to carry out research. So far, eight classes have graduated and over 200 students ordained.
Zhongnan Seminary is a regional seminary in the mid-south- ern part of China. It recruits students from the six provinces of Henan, Hunan, Hubei, Guangdong, Guangxi and Hainan. This seminary was opened in October 1983 in the old major seminary for Hunan and Hubei provinces. Its rector is Bishop Dong Guangqing. Up to 1995, its 12 classes had produced about 300 graduates, of whom over 100 had been ordained.
According to statistics from the Seminary Education com- mittee, up to July 2000, there were 36 major and minor seminar- ies in China among whom 12 were major seminaries including one national seminary, which is Beijing National Catholic Semi- nary. There were five regional seminaries: Sheshan Seminary in Shanghai, Shenyang Seminary, Zhongnan Seminary in Wuhan, Sichuan Seminary in Chengdu and Xian Seminary. The provin- cial (municipal) seminaries were: Beijing Catholic Seminary, Holy Spirit Seminary in Shandong, Jilin Seminary, Inner Mongolia Seminary and Shanxi Seminary. There were altogether1,900 students enrolled, and over 1,500 had been ordained, of which some have already become bishops.
In order to deal with China"s weaknesses, Catholic semi-naries decided to take a new route of "going out and inviting in‘ which means sending students to study abroad and inviting for- eign experts to come to teach. On the one hand, China sent some good young priests and seminarians to foreign countries, as well as Hong Kong to study. By 1998, it had sent more than 100 young priests and seminarians, nuns and lay people to the US, England, France, Germany, Italy, Belgium, the Philippines, Korea and Hong Kong. Those who have returned have already become very influential in the Church and the seminaries. On the other hand, once a while, seminaries invite overseas theologians and profes- sors to teach temporarily. In the last twenty years, those invited theologians and professors have come from areas such as the US, Belgium, Korea, France and Canada, as well as from Hong Kong and Taiwan. Moreover, a group of 15 priests from seven major seminaries were sent to their counterparts in Belgium and France to study management in 1994 and in 1996, another 10 seminary professors were invited to go three seminaries in Ko- rea for exchanges.
In addition, since the beginning of the 1990s, the Catholic Church in China began to hold short training courses on spiritu- ality and pastoral ministry, publish reading materials on patri- otic thought, send seminary rectors abroad for short-term train-ing, hold training programs for the heads of convents and the master of the novitiate for sisters, seminary spiritual directors and lectures on retreat, spiritual direction and liturgy, etc. All these were done for the purpose of increasing the quality of theo- logical education, spiritual formation and Chinese literature.