Because China has approved the Patriotic Catholic Church in the country, the religious group’s members are growing, yet clergy supply is shrinking. The situation is the same in the Protestant churches in China.
Among the reasons cited by the vice president of the Chinese Patriotic Catholic Association, Liu Yuanlong, is the underground Catholic Church and lack of attention by bishops to recruitment of seminarians, reported China Daily.
China has 6 million members of the Patriotic Church – but estimates place members of the underground church still loyal to Vatican at 12 million – spread across 106 parishes. The number of members is still growing, but the number of seminarians is down to less than 800 training for the priesthood at 10 major seminaries.
As it is, the number of clergy is small, at 3,316 priests and 5,622 nuns, according to data from the Bishops Conference of the Catholic Church in China.
Like in other developing nations, the growth of the middle class has boosted living standards in China.Tasting the small luxuries that come with the higher standards – such as ownership of electronic gadgets, access to western movies and overseas travel opportunities – have discouraged the Chinese youth from opting for a life in the church service where living standards are simpler.
Add to that the long history of the persecution of Christian churches by the communist government, so being required to be patriotic to Beijing turns off some Christian Chinese youth from entering the seminary or being part of the Patriotic Church and instead prefer to be with the underground Church.
Among the forms of persecution that the Catholic Church in China experiences is the removal of the cross from a church in Zhejiang Province, reported by The Tablet in late February 2016. Since 2013, about 2,000 crosses have been removed.
While the Protestant Church in China is bigger with more than 30 million members, it also has difficulty recruiting clergy, according to the Three-Self Patriotic Movement of the Protestant Churches.
The Vatican, despite the lack of official ties, has declared May 24 each year as global day of prayer for the Catholic Church in China.