Mar 3, 2009 / 21:06 pm
A University of Alabama professor who recently studied in China for several months reports that Catholics in the country are enjoying freedoms but are anxious about government monitoring and “terrified” their liberties may be swiftly taken away.
Dr. Anthony E. Clark, assistant professor of history at The University of Alabama, returned to the United States in December 2008 after studying the history of Christianity in China. He particularly focused on the stories of Catholic martyrs and the destruction of Christian churches during the Boxer Rebellion, which lasted from 1898 to 1900.
Though the nation’s Christians are engaged in “enormous restoration work” and enjoy “enormous freedom,” Prof. Clark said, “at the same time, you’ll see an arrest of an underground bishop, or a couple gets a warning from the party police about a visit they had with a foreigner.”
“So the old powers are still there, and you don’t know when they will re-emerge. Chinese Christians are enjoying a freedom that causes an equal amount of anxiety. They’re terrified. They live in terror for the freedom that they have.”