China-Zentrum Catholic Colloquium focuses on young people in China

The pandemic and the outbreak of dramatic conflicts have changed many things, in the world as well as in China. The generation of boys and girls born after the turn of the millennium, are among those most affected by these events. Young Chinese, believers or not, resemble more their peers from other nations with whom they share the digital and social media worlds, rather than their compatriots from the generations that preceded them.

Siegburg (AsiaNews) - The 11th European Colloquium China Colloquium), which began last Thursday, August 22, concludes today in Siegburg, not far from Cologne (Germany).

Nearly 120 participants, from about fifteen countries, met for an event that has become a tradition and organized by China-Zentrum in Sankt Augustin, Germany. About 50 of the participants are Chinese: lay people, scholars, religious women and priests, from Continental China, Hong Kong, Taiwan and Singapore; or resident in Europe for reasons of study or pastoral service. Representatives of the Orthodox and Protestant missionary communities were invited to share their experience as well. The bishop of Cologne, Cardinal Rainer Maria Woelki, visited the assembly and presided over the Holy Mass.

The theme of the colloquium is of great and timing interest: the young people. The last meeting took place, again in Germany, five years ago: in the meantime, the pandemic and the outbreak of dramatic conflicts have changed many things, in the world as well as in China. The generation of boys and girls born after the turn of the millennium, are among those most affected by these events.

The topic of young people in Hong Kong was addressed in the keynote speech by the bishop of the city, Cardinal Stephen Chow. He listed many initiatives of the diocese that involve and support young people. In particular, he illustrated the Light Up Project in favor of young people who were arrested following the protests of 2019. The diocese supports their studies while in detention, and facilitates their reentry into society by helping them find work and reconnect with their families. The project covers educational, emotional and psychological needs. The diocese is equally attentive to young people still at the margins of society after the protests.

Bruno Lepeu, a MEP missionary who has been involved with Chinese Catholic youth for many years, illustrated their spiritual and existential journey who renew, with their faith, the life of the Church, giving us a sense of hope. The political issues and the difficult relation with the Vatican should not obscure the attention to the lives of young people, who experience the challenges of faith like other young people in the world. Through sharing Bible reading, and trusting the inspiration of the Holy Spirit and confiding on the awareness of the baptismal mission, the youngsters live an experience of synodal and participatory catholic community.

Two young female Catholic scholars, described, based on their personal experience and through studies and statistics, the profound changes of the youth of the millennium. Completely detached from the traditional values ​​of culture and politics, millennial youth seems to renounce the existential goals of the generations that preceded them: finding a job, buying an apartment, getting married and having children. After a generation that aspired to enrich itself for satisfying material needs, there is a generation described as frustrated, unhappy and desperate. It is very difficult for young people to ‘take the narrow path that leads out of the mental and emotional desert’. As a confirmation of this worrisome reading, later interventions in the Colloquium mentioned the tragedy of frequent suicides, which during the terrible lockdowns also involved entire families.

Psychological, emotional and sexual difficulties are also experienced by young people in formation in seminaries (Fr. Fabio Favata, PIME). Fr Joseph Gao Jingchuan, a Chinese priest residing in Germany, offered a groundbreaking study dedicated to the theme of child abuse in ecclesial environments in China.

The Jesuit scholar Antoine Ren offered an in-depth analysis of the lives of young Chinese Catholics studying in Europe. Their faith is at the same time freed from the constraints experienced in China, but must deal with the dismay of discovering the profound crisis of the practice of faith in Europe which, perhaps naively, they considered a Christian continent. They also learned with confusion the contradictions of the Catholic communities, divided between traditionalists and progressives. Faith and politics are mixed in Europe as well, they conclude!

Gao Shining and He Guanghu, a Beijing couple formed of two well-known scholars in Christianity, both emeritus from Chinese Academy of Social Sciences and People’s University of China respectively, spoke about recent theological developments in China. Sino-Christian Theology, after decades of great development, faces the difficult challenges of the post-Covid era, of conflicts in the world, of the rise of an intemperate nationalism and of a certain centralization of thought.

Youngsters of China and other nations in the world share the same struggle to live, the emotional anguish and the rejection of the future. The challenge of young people is transversal, and concerns us all, including young Catholics as well, that are not too different from their peer. They are uncomfortable with traditional and clerical practices and liturgical celebrations, which they easily desert. Young Chinese, believers or not, resemble more their peers from other nations with whom they share the digital and social media worlds, rather than their compatriots from the generations that preceded them.

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