13,000 New Catholics Baptized in China This Easter
From CNA:
Rome, Apr 11, 2008 / 09:07 pm (CNA).- The Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples reports that during the Easter Vigil over 13,000 people were baptized in China.
The Fides news agency reports that in the 80 dioceses of continental China, “13,608 people were baptized in the Easter Vigil 2008. In addition to the Sacrament of Baptism, the catechumens also received the other two sacraments of initiation: Confirmation and the Holy Eucharist.”
“The number of baptized in 2008 is much higher than that of 8,000 baptized on Easter in 2007. As well, many parishes and dioceses in China not only celebrate Baptisms on Easter, but throughout the entire liturgical year, according to the local needs,” Fides revealed.
The report also indicated that “the number 13,608 is the result of a provisory study done by the Chinese Catholic website ‘Faith’” and that “in the Archdiocese of Beijing, there were about 500 baptized on Easter, 100 more than in 2007,” while “among the newly baptized in the Diocese of Shang Hai, where baptisms have had to be celebrated all year long, there were 54 university students.”
Praise God.
To put those numbers in perspective, 60,000 + adults were baptized as Catholics in the US this Easter.
posted by Sherry W @ 10:44 PM
2 Comments
2 Comments:
Why don't you really put the numbers in perspective: China has 1.3 billion people; the US has 300 million.
Because it was late and I was tired and didn't have the energy to spend the 30 seconds to bring up my statistics file.
And because the real context is this:
The most explosive growth in the history of Christianity has occurred in China over the past 30 years and it is beginning to re-shape the cultural landscape of this ancient land.
1900 – 1.6 million Chinese Christians or .04% of the total population
1970 – 1.5 million Chinese Christians or .02% of the total population (post cultural revolution of the 60's)
2000 – 89 million or 7% of the total population.
This would mean that there are 59 times as many Christians in China as there were 30 years ago.
*Independent Christianity* in China is the fastest growing religion in the world with well over *2 million conversions per annum.*
97% of Chinese Christians are Independents which, for David Barrett, includes non-Three Self Catholics in union with Rome (and therefore independent of the state Church).
Barrett's 2050 estimate: 168 million Christians or 11.69% of the Chinese population
David Aikman’s Jesus in Beijing: How Christianity is Transforming China and Changing the Global Balance of Power (2003) makes the case that the staggeringly rapid Christianization of China, which is affecting many educated young adults in urban settings, could change the global balance of power. If David Barrett’s fairly conservative estimates hold true, China will be the 3rd largest Christian nation on earth (after the US and Brazil) by 2050.
So those 13,000 new Catholics are just the tip of a tiny sliver of the whole phenomena. East Asia is the center of Christian growth in our generation.
And that's the real perspective.
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