An Interview with Bishop Paul Shan, President of the Chinese Catholic Bishops' Conference

Just before the Chinese New Year, amid the depressed atmosphere following South Africa's announcement of its intention to break diplomatic ties with the ROC, Vice-President Lien Chan travelled to the Vatican on a "pilgrimage of peace." For people in Taiwan, this brought the feeling of a victory in the ROC's diplomatic "crusade."

But what did this sudden item of diplomatic news, and the media attention he himself has recently received for arranging a meeting between Buddhist Master Hsing Yun and the Pope, mean to Paul Shan, Bishop of Kaohsiung and President of the Chinese Catholic Bishops' Conference? What hopes does he have for the Roman Catholic community in Taiwan, to which he has quietly devoted himself for over 30 years? Does the Holy See exist for the purposes of religion, or of politics? Or for the ideal of serving all humanity?

Q: Firstly, may we ask your comments on Vice-President Lien Chan's recent visit to the Vatican and audience with the Pope?

A: I think what needs to be made clear first is the difference between the Holy See and other, national governments. The main purpose of the Holy See's existence is to work for the salvation of the Church's followers. This is a spiritual endeavor. In the Holy See's diplomatic relations with countries around the world, its envoys deal with matters concerning Roman Catholic believers within the countries concerned, assist the local Catholic churches in their evangelical mission, and concern themselves with the spiritual and moral life of the individual country. They do not involve themselves in any way in practical political, military, economic or commercial activities. Thus we cannot view Vice-President Lien's visit to the Vatican and his audience with the Pope from the same standpoint as diplomatic relations between two national governments.

Every New Year's day since John Paul II was crowned Pope in 1978, he has sent out a message not only to Roman Catholics but to all the people of the world. The theme of his message this year was "Offer Forgiveness and Receive Peace." He has also named New Year's Day as the World Day of Peace, to mobilize the world's more than one billion Roman Catholics to pray for peace. Hence the message is called the World Day of Peace Message.

Healing through forgiveness

Through its emissaries the Holy See transmits this message to the national leaders of every country. Our president receives the message each year, and usually writes a letter each year answering the Pope's appeal. However, this year was rather special because President Lee Teng-hui asked Vice-President Lien Chan to take his letter to the Vatican and deliver it to the Holy Father in person. Thus Vice-President Lien's visit was a "pilgrimage of peace," and its purpose was to reply to the Pope's message by expressing that we in the Republic of China are willing to do our best to promote world peace. The vice-president also presented a donation of US$1 million for the Catholic Church to use in its humanitarian relief work throughout the world, to give practical assistance to refugees. This is a response to the Pope's call in his message for countries around the world to give up the arms race, and use the money they save to help people who are subjected to the suffering of war. This is truly very helpful for promoting world peace.

From a different perspective, this "pilgrimage of peace" can also be an inspiration for people here in the ROC. The theme of the Pope's message is "Offer Forgiveness and Receive Peace." He praises the progress of the human race this century in the sociocultural, economic, scientific and technological spheres, but laments the decline in morality and solidarity, and in particular the scandal of violence, which strikes so many people's lives, tears apart families and communities, and makes countless people prisoners of fear, uncertainty, hatred and suffering.

Society here in Taiwan is in just such a situation today. If we just look at the last two years, externally there have been threats of unification by military force and diplomatic coercion, while internally there have been problems with people's sense of national identity, ethnic relations, factional power struggles in political parties, and so on. Traditional ethical values have not been adequate for today's complex human relationships. People rush to pursue short-term gains, and this produces many bizarre phenomena. When the Pope talks about "a wounded world which yearns for healing," is that not an exact reflection of the way we are right now?

The best solution, the Holy Father suggests, lies in "asking and granting forgiveness." He says that true forgiveness must be based on truth and justice. It requires sincere listening and understanding, and a completely new attitude of self-examination. After genuinely drawing lessons from painful experiences, we can regain freedom through love and forgiveness. This is exactly the spirit which our society most needs at this time. For instance, to heal the historical scars of the February 28th Incident, now that the historical facts are known and the government has made a public apology and offered compensation, we need to develop the spirit of forgiveness if we are to create greater unity within our society. I think this is actually very similar to the ideas behind President Lee Teng-hui's repeated calls for "spiritual reengineering." It is also an example of what Vice-President Lien termed our "shared values" with the Pope.

Forty-nine schools

Q: What about the Catholic Church in Taiwan? Has Vice-President Lien's visit affected your work here?

A: The Catholic Church does not have very many followers in Taiwan-only around 300,000. So although many people know that our Church exists and that it has done many good works, they don't know very much about the religious beliefs of Roman Catholicism. Vice-President Lien's visit and the media coverage of it suddenly increased people's awareness of the Catholic Church a great deal, and people learned a little more about the Pope, the Holy See and the Catholic Church. However, our work continues just as before.

Although there are not so many Catholics in Taiwan, in fact for a long time our work in the service of society has been very far-reaching. For instance, in education, we have Fu Jen and Providence universities and the Wen Tzao Ursuline Junior College of Modern Languages, along with 27 middle schools, nine vocational schools and 10 elementary schools, making 49 educational establishments in all. To date, no other religious group has run as many schools as the Catholic Church.

In past years when Taiwan's economic resources were more limited, there were many aspects of social and welfare work which the government wasn't able to take care of, and the Catholic Church took on a great deal of this work. For instance, before medical care was widely available, our Church took medical resources into very many remote mountain areas and rural communities. Now that the health care system is well developed, we have changed our orientation and discovered that there are many mentally challenged children, old people and distressed women who need care and assistance, so we have opened many old people's homes, shelters and so on for these groups.

The Church has been quietly doing this work all along, and this is really not affected by the government's diplomatic relations with the Holy See.

Master Hsing Yun to meet the Pope

Q: During his audience with the Pope, Vice-President Lien invited him to visit Taiwan. Do you think he will come?

John-Paul II has been a very active Pope in terms of making pastoral visits abroad. Up to last year he had made 74 visits abroad. Every year the Holy Father is invited to visit many countries, but he cannot possibly accept every invitation. For him to visit a country there always has to be a special reason or occasion. As far as Asia is concerned, when he went to South Korea it was because at that time they were celebrating the 200th anniversary of the Catholic Church's establishment in Korea. The Pope also canonized some Korean clergy and laity who had died for their faith. There were 103 of them, and this was a major event for the Church.

Two years ago when the Holy Father went to the Philippines, it was because the Philippines is the only Catholic country in Asia, and that year World Youth Day was being held in Manila. Almost six million Catholics from around the world came for the event, so it was a very special occasion for Catholicism.

There are few Catholics in Taiwan, and there is no special occasion coming up, so although we do very much hope the Holy Father can come here for a pastoral visit, we will have to wait for an opportunity to present itself.

Furthermore, the Pope has some other worries. We know that in mainland China, Catholics have been persecuted under communism for almost half a century. There are over 10 million Catholics in mainland China, and the Holy Father is worried that with the present confrontational situation across the Taiwan Strait, if he came to Taiwan this would give the PRC authorities an excuse to persecute Catholics on the mainland. This is the same worry that is shared by a parent whose child has been kidnapped. To protect the child, the parents do not dare to anger the kidnappers.

However, although there is little chance at the moment that the Pope can come to Taiwan, we are still in close contact with him. On 17 February I am going to Rome for two conferences, and I will have the opportunity of a separate audience with the Pope. On that occasion I will report to the Holy Father on the state of the Church here, and I also hope His Holiness will be able to approve our request for the canonization of a number of Chinese clergy and lay people who died for their faith. This is a very urgent matter for our Church at the moment. On the one hand they can serve as an example, and on the other it helps us document the history and contribution of our evangelical mission in China.

Another important thing is that we want to make the arrangements for the ROC's Buddhist Master Hsing Yun's planned meeting with the Pope. As Catholics we value unity throughout the human race. We should work hard for world peace regardless of nationality, race or religion, and communication and understanding are the first steps towards unity.

Q: At its peak, the number of Catholics in the ROC reached over 400,000, but today has fallen to around 300,000. Also in society we rarely hear the Church or its members expressing opinions about issues such as family values or sexuality. Thus doesn't the Catholic Church in the ROC give most people the impression that it is rather conservative, or even in decline?

Out of step with the times?

A: Over the last several decades there has been a great deal of movement of population in Taiwan, and when some Church members move they lose contact with the Church. Also, because of academic pressure on schoolchildren to test into university, many young people working towards the exams are not able to take part in extracurricular activities. In this way we have indeed lost many followers.

As far as our clergy and religious communities are concerned, the largest number of priests we have had was more than 1100, but now we only have something over 700, which is certainly not enough. However, we now have more nuns than in the past, currently something over 1100. In the past many foreign missionaries used to come to serve in Taiwan, but in recent years fewer have been coming, and we have not been training enough clergy within the ROC. To enter the priesthood, after graduating from senior high school one must study at a seminary for at least seven years. For these reasons, we do have problems in terms of personnel continuity.

What we are doing is to encourage Church members to participate actively in Church affairs. For instance, some administrative work is now done by lay people. The current presidents of Fu Jen and Providence universities (Peter Tun-he Yang and Lee Chia-tung) are both lay members of the Church. We also hope that lay people can take a greater part in the work of our social welfare organizations and hospitals, so that our clergy can concentrate on spiritual counseling.

There is no denying that in a period of social change, many Catholic moral and other values have come very much under pressure. Actually, we do put out many statements clarifying and debating such matters, but most of the media is not too inclined to listen. The mainstream of society today really does believe that the Catholic Church is conservative in its views, and out of step with the times.

Although we are criticized as being conservative and out of step, we cannot say whatever people want to hear just for the sake of popularity. For instance, on the question of abortion we find that it is not only the Catholic Church which opposes it-Chinese traditional views are very similar. We Chinese count a person's age by years started rather than years completed, and this in effect counts in the nine months a child spends in its mother's womb. This shows that the Chinese think of the fetus as a living being from the time of conception. Abortion is the taking of a life, and what's more, that of a completely defenseless infant. Therefore although the state has enacted the Genetic Health Law, we continue to believe that such actions are inhumane in the extreme, and fly in the face of the laws of nature.

As to your other question, we acknowledge that the Church does not publicize its views enough, but our priests and nuns immerse themselves in their work with all their heart and strength and with selfless devotion-it would not be too much to say that they put their whole life into it. We don't have the time or the wish to become famous. We follow the Lord's teaching: "Don't let your left hand know what your right hand is doing," and we also feel that "doing" is more important than "saying." We put the energy we might use speaking into our actual work.

p.98

The Most Reverend Paul Shan, President of the Chinese Catholic Bishops' Conference, has recently become a focus of media attention in the wake of a flurry of diplomatic contacts between Taiwan and the Holy See. But in fact Bishop Shan, who has held the posts of principal of St. Ignatius High School in Taipei and president of the Kuangchi Program Service, has been quietly serving Taiwan's Roman Catholic community for more than three decades.

p.101

Understanding and communication are the first steps towards cooperation. On 9 December 1996, while Cardinal Jan Schotte, secretary-general of the Catholic Church's Synod of Bishops, was in Taiwan, he made a special visit to the major Buddhist center of Fokuangshan.