Letter from Wuhan: Faith in the countryside

Liang Taozhi with her daughter-in-law

Source: ICN correspondent

As Liang Taozhi kneels on the carpet of the prayer room in a village near Yuekou, 120 kilometres west of Wuhan, the accumulated experience of her 86 years seems to be the source of her unwavering attention in prayer. At the conclusion of evening Mass during the weekdays of this week she rose from the floor with the agility of a young gymnast, her bright eyes and friendly smile signalling that she was happy to meet for a conversation.

During my new year visit to this rural parish, the opportunity to meet her and her daughter-in-law has been a precious experience. It has been a time of drawing close to some of the people in one of China's small communities of faith, one of many places that are facing the effects of population decline as younger people continue to move to urban areas in search of a better livelihood.

One of the delights in meeting Liang Taozhi is that she has lived her entire life in one place and is therefore connected with every layer of history that has unfolded here since she way born. Within those layers of history is placed the loss of one of her sons a few years ago. Her active memory also allows her to recall the Chinese name of Fr Robert Staples, a Columban priest from Ireland who lived here from the early 1930s until 1945. A recently acquired copy of his initial impressions of the area sheds humorous light on the way of life that was common in those earlier times. The simple home where Liang Taozhi lives and the presence of people playing cards at a few open air tables speaks of a people who live a life of simplicity, perhaps not far removed from what that observant missionary saw during his first visit 80 years ago.

A recently reimposed Covid-19 restriction on Masses in churches means that nobody goes into the parish church at this time. In a village where there is minimal possibility of coronavirus infection, a creative approach is taken to ensure that Mass is celebrated for the people who wish to attend on weekdays, the small prayer room providing a suitable location. Sunday celebrations are facilitated for bigger numbers of people with another approach.

While all of this is being quietly navigated on a day-to-day basis, the possibility of building a new church in the nearby urban area of Tianmen is also moving ahead. Local officials have recently assigned some land in the city for the building of a Catholic church, the site being compensation for land of a previous generation that was lost by the Church in more turbulent times. As the paperwork is being finalised during these weeks to allow construction to begin, the assumption among the faithful of the area is that work should start whenever possible and that the sight of progress will eventually lead to the people contributing generously to the project.

The possibility of people in this part of China being given permission to build a new church while stories of a different kind emerge in other parts of the country is a reflection of the reality of life here, a situation where the events of life and official decisions are worked out at a local level, often in ways that do not seem logical if comparisons are to be made. What happens in one area of this big country is not necessarily a guide to what can be expected in another area.

During these days in this small village near Yuekou, the pleasant sound of birds and hens is occasionally interrupted by the sound of fireworks, an indispensable part of the two week celebration of the new year. Friday night of this week will be the last day of the new year, a day that is likely to see a final flourish of fireworks announcing that we have completed our welcoming of the Year of the Ox. Compared to the severe restrictions that were being endured by Chinese people during the same time of the new year celebrations last year, the fireworks on Friday night will probably be seen as affirmation that so much has changed.

At an international level during the year ahead, China is likely to claim some limelight for supplying large numbers of Covid-19 vaccines to several countries while not needing to rush the vaccination of its own population due to minimal domestic case numbers. The expected imminent touchdown of a Chinese space mission on Mars is also likely to claim some international attention, a successful touchdown providing the possibility of another confidence boost for the nation. Away from the limelight people like Liang Taozhi are likely to maintain their sense of direction in a faithful way, while others may find ways to quietly build up the facilities that are increasingly needed for the Catholic communities in urban areas.

As is so often the case in China, the year ahead is likely to involve the old and the new, the predictable and the unpredictable, the possible and the impossible, making a contribution to every area of life, including the life of the Church, the result of which we will only see when we arrive to the same place next year. If I were to make one prediction about what might stay the same in China, it would be that Liang Taozhi will still make her daily visit to the nearby church in this village near Yuekou, and that she will continue to prayer and continue to show that all changes and all disruptions are transcended by hope.