The Church in China

New Zealand Tablet, 11 May 1911, Page 881

The Church in China

The following interesting extract from a letter written by Father Bene Jouon to Canon Robert, the editor of the Petit Messagcr des Missions, is taken from ' The Annals of the Propagation of |the. Faith.' ;V v,->, ' When leaving France I never dreamt of finding in the Celestial Empire a civilisation as European as your own. The great city of Shanghai truly deserves its name of " The Paris of the Far East." ~*...' How can one describe the mass of steamers and men-o'-war anchored in the river, the long wide streets of the ' Concessions ' ? the crowds that throng them, the banks, the shojs, the flood of traffic, the tramways, the motor cars. ~ ' Then there is a perfect network of telephone wires, submarine cables to Japan, America, Europe, and even wireless telegraphy. Yes, there is a Chinese station working from the Marist Fathers' fine College of St. Francis Xavier. I even had the-honor of holding communication, from the Hall of Physics, with the Commandant of the Astrea, and, our receiver being double, I heard the thanks conveyed to us for having announced to the English cruiser the slight, earthquake felt at ; Shanghai. Unfortunately: this r : sudden rush of civilisation does hot in; the least conduce towards making the conversion of China easier. There are countless cinematograph exhibitions in Shanghai, and the Chinese, who are as easily amused as children, spend whole nights there learning anything but what is good. An immense theatre has just been built in the French Concession, and it is not the Catechism that will be taught there. ' In fact, the outlook is not brilliant in the cities, and it may even happen with our Chinese Christians of Shanghai as it does with Italians.who go to Paris the constant contact with wealth, and cheap amusements (sometimes even given free) gradually wean them from the Church and the precepts of our holy religion.'