Catholic Mission in East Asia

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The Christian mission in East Asia began in 1289 with the Franciscan mission in China, but it culminated with the Jesuit mission .

Franciscan Mission

In 1294 Johannes von Montecorvino went to China. In 1368 the Franciscan Mission in China collapsed as the Ming Dynasty fought against the Christians.

Jesuit Mission

From 1545 Francisco de Xavier missioned on the Indian peninsula of Malacca and on several islands of the Moluccas, discovered by the Portuguese in what is now Indonesia.

Japan

On his return to Malacca in 1547, he met the samurai Yajirō from Satsuma , whose reports convinced him to bring the Christian faith to Japan . After settling affairs of the order in Goa , which served as a kind of basis for his missionary work, he set out on the voyage to Nippon in 1549. August 15, 1549 is the day of his arrival at the port of Kagoshima on the Japanese island of Kyushu . Francisco de Xavier spends around three years on mission in Japan. He founds the first Christian church in Yamaguchi. He was not admitted to the Japanese emperor in Miyako (today: Kyōto ) in 1551. Nevertheless, his missionary work was very successful. He and his successors were able to convert several daimyo . In 1582 they sent an embassy to Rome to contact the Pope .

According to the Jesuits' reports, they built over 200 churches. The number of Japanese Christians is said to have been 150,000 at that time.

China

Matteo Ricci traveled to China in 1582. There he first settled in Chao-ch'ing in the province of Kwangtung, learned Chinese and produced his "Great Map of the Ten Thousand Countries". In 1589 he went to Shao-chou and taught Western mathematics there, as he had learned from his teacher Clavius . In 1599, since Beijing was closed to foreigners, he went to Nanjing and worked on mathematical, astronomical and geographical problems. In 1601 he went to Beijing .

His work was continued by Nicolas Trigault . Trigault worked as a missionary and pastor in Nanjing , Hangzhou and especially in the capital Beijing . In 1614 he was appointed procurator of the Order of Japan and China.

In the course of 1615 Trigault obtained important concessions from Pope Paul V. Especially the mission in China was now allowed to celebrate the entire liturgy in the national language (and no longer necessarily in Latin ). In addition, the missionaries in China were allowed to adapt their clothing to the national costume at liturgical celebrations.

At the turn of the year 1617/18 he put together a group of 22 Jesuits. Under his leadership, this group set out from Lisbon in mid-April 1618 for China.

Before leaving Trigault brought his order general Claudio Acquaviva to separate China from Japan in terms of order politics and to establish it as an independent order province; with him as procurator. In July 1619 they reached Macau . From there they founded u. a. the missions Hunan and Kaifeng .

Mission in the 20th century

How the relationship to mission in Asia changed in the 20th century can be seen in the work of Mother Teresa , who had worked in the Loreto Order in Bengal since 1928 and who was involved in education. After a "vocation experience", she was given permission to leave the order and live among the poorest of the poor. In 1950 she founded the order "Missionaries of Charity", which made neither teaching nor mission its main task, but caring for the dying, orphans and lepers.

Many of its admirers and followers criticize the fact that the order still does missionary work at all and that it works exclusively for missionary work in some branches, such as in Papua New Guinea .

See also

literature