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Chinese Catholics pray at the Nantang
Cathedral in Beiji ng . Many who attend "Patriotic "
By Jack Smith
m *&igns of hope and causes for worry have developed for Chinese Catholics since the return of Hong Kong to China , according to Franciscan Friar Paul Pang. Father Pang is Director of the Vatican Office for the Promotion of Overseas Chinese Apostolate and was a recent guest on the Archdiocese of San Francisco 's television program , Mosaic. When Hong Kong became a Special Administrative Region of the People 's Republic of China in 1997, many Catholics there feared that the communist government would attempt to interfere with the Church as it does on the mainland , he said.
churches privatel y
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Two Catholic churches exist in mainland China: the Catholic Patriotic Association , whose bishops are appointed by the state , and the illegal, underground Church which is loyal to Rome. The Beijing government claims there are about 4 million Catholics in mainland China , but Father Pang estimates there are closer to 13 million, including those in the underground Church. Many bishops and priests in the underground Church have been jai led and members are not allowed to practice their faith publicly. While no Patriotic Association churches exist in Hong Kong, Father Pang feared they would attempt to make inroads after the hand-over. "In the beginning we thought there were three possible scenarios; an open attempt to start Patriotic churches , an underground movement to create them or an effort to encourage local procommunist priests to create their own Patriotic church," he said. PANG, page 19
Landings offers compassionate welcome By Tom Burke
VV
hen it comes to religion in the United States, the only group of people that comes even close in number to the country 's 40 million active Catholics is the nation's 20 million inactive Catholics. This statistic and a philosophy of "compassionate listening" is what drives Landings, a ministry founded in Seattle 12 years ago by Paulist Father Jac Campbell to "empower" inactive Catholics to join the Church again. Recently, Father Jac trained volunteers from 16 parishes of the Archdiocese in the Landings program. Father Jac, formally John P., explains his surname as "Campbell like soup . " The Boston native was ordained in 1969 and from 1976 to 1980 served as chaplain to the NeWman Center at University of California at Berkeley. He met the Paulists while a student at Boston 's Northeastern University. At the time, the community was responsible for "almost all of the Newman Centers" serving the New England city 's more than 30 secular colleges, Father Jac said. The Landings title like its philosophy came out of listening "We just batted the name around a lot, " Father Jac said recalling the early days of the program. "We didn 't want an acronym, so we toyed with people going out and coming back. One of the women who helped me write it was in the airline industry and someone else , from Seattle where we piloted the program, said 'you can invite someone over but if you don't have a slip for them to dock their boat it's almost like inviting someone home for Thanksgiving LANDINGS, page 18 and not having a place setting for them. "
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Ireland s' Catholic heritage is celebrated at the St. Patrick 's Day parade in San Francisco March 11.
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