Catholicism is foreign to China. There are many different opin- ions on when Catholicism was first introduced into China in theworld of academia. According to Da Qin Jing Jiao Liu Xing Zhong Guo Bei (the Memorial of the Propagation in China of the Luminous Religion from Daqin), which was unearthed in1626 in Xian, the majority of the scholars agreed that Christian- ity was first introduced into China was in Tang Dynasty in the7th Century. But Jing Jiao, which was first introduced into China, was one denomination of Christianity, not the Catholic Church which this book talks about.
In 1293, it was still Yuan Dynasty in China, Pope officially sent an Italian missionary whose name was John of Montecorvino to China. This was the first attempt of the Catholic Church to send missionaries to China. Unfortunately, following the over- turn of the Yuan Dynasty, the Catholic Church was almost dis-appeared. In the 16th and 17th centuries, the Catholic Church made great progress in China and adapted Chinese culture ac- cordingly because of the efforts that the Jesuits, such as Matteo Ricci, made when they came to China. Moreover, these Jesuit missionaries helped to promote the cultural and scientific ex- changes between East and West. Because of this, the Catholic Church in China developed quite well. When the Rite Contro- versy broke out and intensified as time went on, the Catholic Church was suppressed for one hundred years. When the Opium War started, the Catholic missionaries reentered into China to evangelize the Chinese. Though the Church developed under the protection of the unequal treaties between China and other coun- tries, it was rather unsteady and had numerous conflicts with the Chinese society. This affected the Church"s localization terribly.
In 1949, the New China was founded which indicated that the Chinese Catholic Church entered into a new phase. The Catho- lics started an Anti-Imperialists and Pro-Patriotic Campaign and decided to self-manage the church affairs and to be more inde- pendent. This helped the Catholic Church to change its semi- colonial and semi-feudalist nature and eventually helped the Church to continue its existence and development in the social- ist China.
After half a century, especially, in the last 20 some years post the Chinese reform, since the Catholic Church insisted on the principle of the Three Self"s (self administration, self-sup- port, self propagation), it had its opportunity to continue its evan- gelization in China. The result was indeed tremendous. Up to the end of the last century, the Catholic population increased to5,000,000; the reopened and newly built churches were more than 5600; there were 36 minor and major seminaries and 60 or so convents. The rights of religious freedom have been protected and the normal religious activities were resumed. The Chinese Catholic Church and the faithful have contributed greatly to the modernization of China and the world peace, as well as the mu- tual friendship among the peoples. The Chinese Catholic Church has earned its respect and honor from both China and abroad.