www射-国产免费一级-欧美福利-亚洲成人福利-成人一区在线观看-亚州成人

US EUROPE AFRICA ASIA 中文
China / Society

Church puts faith in recruitment drive

By Xu Wei (China Daily) Updated: 2015-11-19 07:18

The number of Roman Catholics in China's larger cities is surging, but plans to train more priests are being derailed by a lack of applicants for seminaries, as Xu Wei reports.

Church puts faith in recruitment drive

Seminarians read the Bible during evening prayers at the National Seminary of the Catholic Church in Beijing.[Photo by Wei Xiaohao/China Daily]

When Zou Yunlong decided to enter a seminary and train as a priest, he was fully aware of the price he would have to pay: No wife, no children, living-and possibly dying-alone, and being ready to serve his parishioners at any hour of the day for his entire life.

"It's a process of constant self-reflection to see if I am fit for the priesthood," Zou said, referring to his life as a seminarian. "Even today, my family is still trying to change my mind. But I am as committed as ever," said the 32-year-old student at the National Seminary of the Catholic Church in Beijing.

When he completes his studies, Zou will be assigned to a church in Guizhou province, but a shortage of priests means he will have to travel frequently between different parishes to provide religious services.

Statistics provided by the Bishops Conference of the Catholic Church in China show that the country's 6 million-plus Catholics are served by 3,316 priests, plus 5,622 nuns from 106 orders.

In recent years, the number of Catholic worshippers in China has risen steadily. In response, the national seminary and six other establishments across the country have been charged with widening the talent pool for the priesthood.

The problem is a lack of applicants. In 2010, Zou was one of 22 new trainee priests enrolled at the national seminary, but this year the number of new recruits has fallen to just four. Moreover, there are only 556 trainee priests at the nation's 10 major seminaries, so boosting applicant numbers is a high priority for Bishop John Baptist Yang Xiaoting, the seminary's newly inaugurated president.

Yang said the main factors responsible for the decline in applications are the challenges posed by a secular society and the recently relaxed family planning policy, which has resulted in a large number of families with just one child.

He said every student displays an extraordinary amount of courage when they enter a seminary: "This is especially true in China, when many new students are their parents' only child, and there is an overwhelming expectation that one's child will continue the family line."

The shortage of priests is so severe in some dioceses that one priest serves more than 5,000 parishioners. "The solution, I believe, lies in the elevation of lay people because our trainees mainly come from lay families," said Yang, who is also vice-president of the Bishops Conference of the Catholic Church in China.

A difficult choice

In 2008, when seminarian Zou first investigated Christianity, he thought he would identify contradictions that would help him to discredit the doctrine. "I was curious to know why so many people had chosen to believe in this religion, but I needed to know about it before I could debunk it," he said.

However, as he learned more about the church, he became fascinated. "I discovered that it is a belief rather than a superstition, and there is a reason it has been around for thousands of years," he said.

The toughest part of entering the priesthood involves coming to terms with the fact that you will never father children, he said. "It also means your parents will lose the person they should rely on in the future," he said, adding that even the most devout Catholic families raise objections when they learn that their only child has opted to join the priesthood.

The challenges are constant because joining the clergy means life is spent resisting worldly temptations, especially money and sex. "Human flesh is vulnerable, and we are human beings, after all," he said.

Zou estimated that at least 10 percent of his peers have abandoned their dreams of entering the priesthood and have left the seminary, and in recent years, several ordained priests in his diocese have also left the clergy, mainly because of parental and family pressures.

"That's why it takes six years of training at the seminary and at least one year as an intern in a diocese before one can be ordained. You need to be absolutely sure you are ready to go down that road," he said.

Previous Page 1 2 3 4 Next Page

Highlights
Hot Topics
...
主站蜘蛛池模板: 国产一区二区在线免费观看 | 亚洲精品国产福利一区二区三区 | 一区二区三区在线 | 网站 | 男人添女人下面免费毛片 | 欧美成人免费看片一区 | 国产精品va一级二级三级 | 欧美2区| a一级爱做片免费 | 亚洲欧美在线观看视频 | 韩国主播19福利视频在线 | 一区二区三区在线 | 欧 | 国产精品视_精品国产免费 国产精品视频久 | 亚洲成年 | 久久香焦| 成人欧美日韩高清不卡 | 不卡精品国产_亚洲人成在线 | 午夜性生活视频 | 国产97在线观看 | 日本三本道 | 性欧美精品久久久久久久 | 精品色综合 | 尹人成人 | 亚洲一区在线观看视频 | 亚洲成人中文 | 全免费毛片在线播放 | 免费老外的毛片清高 | 精品在线视频观看 | 午夜神马视频 | 国产高清精品久久久久久久 | 国产成人精品视频免费 | 真人一级毛片全部免 | 色资源二区在线视频 | 一级特黄爽大片刺激 | 久久国产精品久久国产片 | 国产特黄特色的大片观看免费视频 | 成人亚洲精品777777 | 欧美日韩精品在线视频 | 日韩精品一区二区三区中文字幕 | 97久草 | 日韩在线成人 | 精品视频在线免费看 |