Bishop Sun Wenjun, Bishop Guo Jincai and Bishop Joseph Cai Bingrui in Dalgan Park, home of the Columban Missionaries in Ireland, founded in 1918 as the Maynooth Mission to China.
Sarah Mac Donald
Three bishops from the Catholic Church in China travelled to Ireland last week to discuss a possible future partnership with the national seminary, St Patrick’s College, Maynooth.
Bishop Guo Jincai of Chengde diocese is vice president of the Bishops’ Conference of the Catholic Church in China. He was joined by Bishop Joseph Cai Bingrui of Fuzhou diocese and Bishop Sun Wenjun of Weifang diocese as well as Fr Wang Dongcheng, canon lawyer and lecturer at the National Seminary in Beijing.
“We have had some informal but quite serious exchanges,” Dr Séamus O’Connell, professor of sacred history at St Patrick’s College, told The Tablet. He explained that the visit by the Chinese delegation followed a 2018 visit to China by representatives of Maynooth.
Dr O’Connell paid tribute to the Missionary Society of St Columban, whose links with China had “provided the foundation and the context” for the visit. The visit to China occurred in the year thar the Columbans celebrated the centenary of their foundation as the Maynooth Mission to China.
In light of this link, the three Chinese bishops visited Dalgan Park during their stay in Ireland and spoke to the Columban missionaries about the Church in China today. Speaking through an interpreter, Bishop Jincai told them that there are still more than 30 dioceses vacant in China at the moment.
Greeting the Chinese prelates, Fr David Kenneally told them he was “mindful of our long-standing relationship with China. We were formed to go to China, and to this day, our legal title is reflective of that relationship: the Maynooth Mission to China.”
He added, “We have a bond that no one can break with the Church in China. Many of our members have died in China and are buried there.”
Asked about the tenth anniversary of Laudato Si’ and whether Catholics in China were aware of the impact of climate change, Bishop Guo said, “In our church we encourage the people to follow the Pope” on this issue. He said Church and government were “doing something similar” in relation to the climate crisis. He also appealed for peace and the avoidance of war.
