Fr. Thomas Betz's Keynote Speech about Chinese Catholics in America Now Available

On July 31, 2026, the US-China Catholic Association's 30th Biennial Conference was honored with a keynote speech by Fr. Thomas Betz, OFM Cap., entitled "Nourishing Trust and Friendship: Chinese Catholics in America Following the Way of Christ." We invite you to watch the video of Fr. Betz's speech, now available on our YouTube channel: https://youtu.be/xVA8-LqSF_8

Fr. Thomas Betz, OFM Cap.

Below, you may view an AI-assisted transcript of Fr. Betz's speech:

Fr. Robert Carbonneau, CP, Ph.D.: So, my name is Father Rob Carbonneau, and I'm chair of the coordinating committee here, and it's an honor to have our keynote speaker, Father Thomas Betz. 

Anyone who travels the east coast corridor on Route 95 and goes into Philadelphia has to go through–if they're lucky–inner city Philadelphia, and they go through Chinatown in Philadelphia. And Father Thomas Betz, for his years as a Franciscan Capuchin, has been a key person to make sure that Chinatown that you see and stop by exists today. So, we're very honored to have him here. He's also been past provincial of the Franciscan Capuchin province based out of Pittsburgh, and their missionaries were in Gansu Province in the early 1900s. There's a quote of one of the men who was in Gansu, which is a very rugged province in in northern part of China where he said, at one point he says, "I feel sometimes every day I'm on the doorsteps of hell," and it it was an intense statement made out of love of commitment to the people, and that bore fruit because Father Tom was telling me when I was talking to him that he went back to Gansu and actually encountered Catholics that knew the congregation from Pittsburgh and from the United States who had kept that faith all these years up until the present day. So, it's a great honor for the United States China Catholic Association to have Father Thomas Betz here as our keynote speaker. He'll speak for a while and then we'll entertain questions, and we welcome him. And thank you, Father Tom, for being here. [applause]

Fr. Thomas Betz, OFM Cap.: Thank you, Father Rob. It really is an honor for me to be here. I see some of my parishioners walking in right now from Philadelphia, and I'm so happy to be here. 

Yes, you are the only attendees who've gotten applause so far. So that's, that's really good. You know, Father Rob said that one of my predecessors who went to Gansu said that he felt like he was at the foot of the doorsteps of hell. I have to say Chinatown Philadelphia is heaven. So if you've never been there, you really need to get there before--You should put that on your bucket list because it deserves to be. 

And I'm going to tell this story about Chinese American Catholics. That's my task. And I'm going to tell it somewhat through the story of Holy Redeemer in Philadelphia, Chinatown. And I'm going to say some things about some other communities around the country, too. I have to give you a caveat, though. If I say something about your community that's not accurate, don't get mad. You can correct me, and I'd be happy for the correction. But I did do a little bit of research, even made a few phone calls, but I'm confident about the story of Holy Redeemer in our Chinatown, but I'm not as confident about the other communities that I'm going to mention in my conversation. 

I first set foot on the property of Holy Redeemer Chinese Catholic Church and School around August 1st, 1991. I had been ordained a priest about two months when I came to Chinatown. Now, what priest gets to be with the same community for 35 years? I don't know of anybody who's had that privilege, but I have had that privilege. Holy Redeemer operates like an independent parish, but it's connected to St. John's Parish, where I'm also the pastor these days. My first visit to Holy Redeemer in 1991 was to attend a meeting of the committee planning the celebration of the 50th anniversary of Holy Redeemer. Now I remember my first time at Holy Redeemer. I was mesmerized. I remember my first school mass in September of 1991, and I walked onto the altar–behind the altar–and looked at that congregation, and I saw all those Asian faces looking back at me, something like tonight, saw all those Asian faces looking back. I'm no longer mesmerized by Asian faces, but I was that night, that time, it just seemed to me so amazing, you know, I knew immediately that Holy Redeemer was unique. 

First of all, it's in Philadelphia, but Holy Redeemer and Chinatown are imbued with the aroma and culture of China. Holy Redeemer is now 85 years old. And I have been involved with Holy Redeemer for 35 years. A good bit of its 85 year history, about 40% of its time, I've been there. Now what I've learned in terms of preparing for this talk tonight is that Holy Redeemer's story is not entirely unique. Similar evangelical initiatives were happening in other US Chinatowns during the same time frame. So, Holy Redeemer's story: the story begins with the 1939 visit of Bishop, later Cardinal Paul Yu Pin of Nanking, China, later in Taiwan, and his request to Dennis, Cardinal Dougherty, to gather the Chinese Catholics of Philadelphia to meet the Chinese bishop. Only one Chinese Catholic family was found. 

Now, Philadelphia had a small Chinatown, and there were Chinese living in Philadelphia. Yet, the Catholic Church and the Chinese community had barely met. This woeful lack of engagement disturbed Cardinal Dougherty, who then assigned one of his most talented young priests, Monsignor Kavanagh, William Kavanagh, Vice Chancellor, to engage and evangelize the Chinese. 

Now, remember, the story is pretty fascinating. 1939, Cardinal Yu Pin–Bishop Yu Pin, then–came. By 1941, two years later, the diocese had built a church and a school for the Chinese. Now, could you imagine that today? I can't. We close churches today. In 1931, shortly after Bishop Yu Pin's visit, Father Kavanagh gathered a group of five, 15 Chinese children and taught them how to make the sign of the cross. That's 1939, sorry, not 1931. 1939, he gathered 15 children, taught them for the first time. In October of that year, 1939, the first nine Chinese were baptized. 

By Pentecost Sunday of 1940, there were 58 converts ready for the sacrament of confirmation. The mission among the Chinese was so successful that, a year later, there was a church and a Catholic school specifically for Chinese children. Now, early US Catholic efforts at evangelizing Chinese were based in Chinatowns. Chinatowns were, and still are, Chinese neighborhoods. They were, and to some extent still are, the center of cultural life for Chinese in the United States. Of course, the Chinese community of the United States is way bigger than Chinatowns now, but they're still important. I'm going to give you four periods of US Chinese history, and it relates to Chinatowns. 

So one, during the 1980s small numbers of Chinese came to the United States, mostly the west coast, larger numbers, not large numbers but larger numbers–came in the 1850s and 1860s to work on–you know what? They came to work on the railroads. Someone sent me a text today who's in Vancouver, one of my Chinese Catholic parishioners who said that the Chinese came to Canada to work on the railroads also. I didn't know that till today. And in the mines. These Chinese were often victims of appalling racial prejudice and sometimes violence. In 1882, Congress passed the Chinese Exclusion Act, which pretty much every Chinese American knows about. The only law ever passed which designated one ethnic group as ineligible for admission to the United States. So Chinese women could not come to join their men who were here. Chinese children couldn't come to join their fathers who were here. And then there were anti-miscegenation laws which meant that Chinese couldn't marry other races. It's a bad time for the Chinese. 1924, additional laws were passed excluding Asians. Now, in 1943, after World War II, the US and China were allies. Chinese immigration was again permitted, but there wasn't much immigration of any kind then, you know, so immigration to the United States was rare for anybody in the 1940s and 50s and 30s. 

Now, this is something I find fascinating. It's worth noting that Holy Redeemer, and–as we will see in a minute–most other Chinatown-based Catholic outreach, started at the end of the extreme anti-Chinese anti-immigration period. It's also worth noting that many Chinese Americans served admirably in the Second World War. So that's three of the periods. Small numbers came, Chinese Exclusion Act, after World War II some immigration was permitted, anti-miscegenation laws were repealed or not enforced. 

After 1965, the immigration and naturalization act lifted origin quotas, allowing many more Chinese and others to enter the United States, resulting in the rapid growth of the Chinese community. To this day, it was not until the late 1980s that my church, Holy Redeemer, began to grow significantly because of this legislation. So again, 1965 is when immigration was became more robust again in the United States. We're kind of now in a little bit of a period of pushing back on immigration. There's been an ebb and flow, but this history is very important to understand Chinese American Catholic experience in America. 

Now, the early Catholic Chinatown missions began when there were few Chinese in America, where Chinese had been victims of racial discrimination, and where there did not seem to be a good long-term prospect for the growth of the community. Now, that's pretty astonishing to me. You build a church and a school for a tiny community with new immigrants not allowed to come. Primarily a not Christian, not Catholic community, and you build them a church and a school, and, as we'll see later, that's the same time–1930s, 1940s–when the other Chinatown Catholic communities came to be, makes no strategic sense to invest in these Chinese communities at a time when there were so few Chinese, not many more coming, victims of racial discrimination and almost no Christians among them. 

Now, one of the most remarkable mostly unknown papal social teaching encyclicals is Exsul Familia by Pope Pius XII in 1952. If you read the current–the new encyclical by Pope Leo, where he goes through a history of Catholic social teaching, he doesn't mention Catholic social teaching on immigration. Just to make a little plug, if you want to learn more about this, if you go to the website and put "Catholic social teaching immigration," an article that I wrote will pop up. It's on the USCCB website. And the basis of Catholic social teaching on immigration is this document by Pius XII. Pius XII speaks on two things. He speaks forcefully of the rights of migrants and the moral imperative for Christians to assist migrants. regardless of religion. So he speaks about the rights of migrants and the duty of Christians to help them. Sounds familiar. Pope Leo is saying that today. 

He also spoke about the need to take care of Catholic migrants. So two prongs. One is we need to take care of the humanitarian needs of all migrants. And secondly, the Catholic Church has a duty to give care, spiritual care to Catholics who come to America. Pope Pius said the Catholic Church has always been on the side of migrants, has always defended their rights. Sort of true. Pope Pius said the church must always offer help to suffering migrants. And he cited the cases of Palestinians, Christians and Muslims in the holy land as an example. The Catholic Church at this time began a laudable work with Muslim and Christian migrants in the holy land. He also said that Catholics need to embrace Catholic migrants and help them live their faith in a new land. Now the movie Cabrini depicts a real event in the life of St. Francis Xavier Cabrini. Many of you saw the movie. Cabrini founded a new community of missionary sisters, and she hoped that her sisters could go to China as missionaries. However, when she told Pope Leo XIII of her desire, he told her, "Go west, not east." While Pope Leo did foster many missionary ventures to non-Christian lands, including China, his own heart was taken with the plight of poor Italian immigrants in the United States. From the time of Pope Leo XIII to the present, we often hear from the church of our duty to offer charity to migrants of all religions, and that we must safeguard the Catholic faith among Catholic immigrants. The church rightly understands that if Catholic migrants are not welcomed, they will lose the Catholic faith. So the church sends missionaries to the nations, and we send missionaries to China and Southeast Asia, Africa. We've sent them all, all these years, and we have to assure that Catholics are welcomed wherever they go. So if a Catholic comes from Zimbabwe, that Catholic needs to be welcomed in our churches. It's in the United States today, it is a critical pastoral need for the future of our church and the good well-being of of human beings. But this is what I want to make a point about. This is one of my major points I'm making here tonight. By 1939, immigration from all countries had ebbed. The heyday of European immigration and immigration ministry was over, at least for a time. But in Philadelphia and other major US cities, the Catholic Church encountered an immigrant community that was not Catholic. And church leaders in Philadelphia, San Francisco, Los Angeles, and Chicago planned a robust evangelization outreach. In Philadelphia, they even built them a church and a school. This was not a social service outreach to help suffering immigrants. It was not to secure the faith of already Catholic migrants.

This was a full-scale mission of evangelization among non-believers in the United States. I don't think there's ever been anything else like this in the history of the Catholic Church of America. An outreach to non-Christians who came here as migrants. Now, many people came to the United States from China already Christian, already Catholic after 1965, especially in the 80s and 90s. Many of you are those people or your parents are those people. But the first Chinese Catholic outreach was evangelization. Up until the late 1980s, the mission of Holy Redeemer and other Chinatown Catholic ministries was not to receive Chinese Catholics from Asia, but to encounter and evangelize non-Chinese, non-Christian Chinese people living in the United States. 

Now, what happened in Philadelphia is similar to what happened in other Chinatowns. Again, I'm going to summarize what I've said. The mission was primarily to evangelize Chinese Americans rather than to care for Chinese migrants, for Catholic migrants from China. Two, the missions began around 1940, though San Francisco's mission was somewhat earlier, but still, San Francisco's mission kind of followed the pattern of the 1940s being the time when it revved up. Churches, Catholic and Protestant, became the most important institutions in American Chinatowns. Every citizen of Chinatowns knew the churches and respected them. Well, I can't say everybody respected them, but pretty much everybody did. Catholic churches in Chinatowns were centers of faith, education, recreation, social service, and community. The primary target of this evangelization was not adults, immigrants. It was their children. The language of ministry was English. Holy Redeemer, for the first 50 years, had no Chinese language ministry. And that's true for the other communities, as well, because there was no need for it. They were evangelizing American-born or American-raised Chinese kids. The people in the Chinatowns were mostly from Cantonese-speaking parts of China. 

Now, I'm going to say a little bit about the history of the other churches in the United States. St. Bridget's in Los Angeles, founded by Colombian fathers who have been forced to leave China in 1939. Same year, evangelization began in Philly. A center was built in 1940, a year before Holy Redeemer Church and School were built. From the center, the church conducted a language school and other programs for children. Like Holy Redeemer, the focus was on the evangelization of children, but without a school. In 1980, the first Chinese priest arrived from Hong Kong and Chinese-language Mass began.

Holy Redeemer, it was in the late 1980s that we began Chinese language ministry. St. Bridget's is still a vibrant center of service in LA, Chinatown. And of course in LA there are Chinese language masses in other parts of the archdiocese and other places. St. Mary's San Francisco, built in 1854 as a cathedral for the diocese, built by Chinese laborers but not for Chinese people. There's never really been regular Chinese language masses. I actually talked to somebody on the phone because that didn't seem possible. Today, there's a Chinese deacon that assists at one of the parish masses, which makes it effectively bilingual. For many years, St. Mary's school educated and evangelized children, mostly Chinese, but the school is now closed. Transfiguration New York was built for German immigrants, later for other immigrants, and then Chinese. It's been a church of immigrants from its beginning to the present. The church was founded in 1832, not primarily Chinese for many years. Now it is, and it's still open. St. Teresa, Chicago, was originally Italian. There was an effort in the 1920s to evangelize Chinese children, but permanent evangelization began in 1940. Same as Holy Redeemer, same as the others. 1941, a school opened and is still open and they have Chinese language masses now, one Sunday a month. So, it's interesting that the original Chinese missions were English-speaking.

Now, Holy Redeemer, let's talk about that again. Similar to the other Chinese Chinatown missions, it not only became a Catholic church, but it became the preeminent hub of Philadelphia Chinese life. Holy Redeemer introduced sports to the young people, organized baseball, basketball, football teams. Our kids aren't very good at football. Actually, they aren't very good at basketball either, but they play. Our kids competed, and still do, in CIO sports. Eventually, in Philadelphia, the Philadelphia Suns was formed out of the two churches, and it's now a vibrant large Chinese youth sports organization. The Suns, very close to the two churches, teach and perform Chinese cultural lion dancing. The director of the Philadelphia Suns works for the Chinese Christian church, you know, and one time I was talking with a vocation prospect for the Capuchins, and it was a cold day, and school was closed that day, and I accidentally stepped outside without my keys, and locked myself out. I couldn't figure a way to get back in. I tried to call the principal. Nobody answered their phones. So I said to this vocation prospect, we got to go down to the Chinese Christian church, the Protestant church and get a key. So I went down to--he was looking at me like "what"?--I went down to the Protestant church, Christian church. And rang the bell and said can I borrow the key to Holy Redeemer? Sure. Took my key and he said, “Why do the Protestants have a key to the Catholic Church? And I said how else would they get in? Again, these kinds of activities seem to be the same in all the other US Chinatowns. 

Now, several things were happening since the 1960s in Philadelphia. Many graduates of Holy Redeemer moved away from Chinatown, away from Philadelphia, causing a decline in the number of people involved at Holy Redeemer. In fact, Chinese Catholics were told to integrate into local parishes. And so, Holy Redeemer shrank. Immigration from Asia was not a factor. Trickle. And in Philadelphia at least, the government condemned the church, and was going to tear it down to build a highway. That's when Chinatown residents stood up and fought for 20 years to save the church. And then they created Philadelphia Chinatown Development Corporation, which built hundreds of homes in Chinatown, protected the businesses, saved the church. I came after the church-saving had already been done, and I became the president of PCDC for many years, Philadelphia Chinatown Development Corporation, for about 25 years. And so we were, and we built [clears throat] AC across Chinatown is here, highway is here, Holy Redeemer is to the north of the highway. We knew that the only way to save Holy Redeemer was to tear down the neighborhood and build a new one because the neighborhood was just blight. So we did that, built homes and so now Holy Redeemer is, you know, a firm.

But then in the early 1990s, late 1980s, early 1990s, something remarkable happened. They started coming from Asia already Catholic.

And when they came from Taiwan or Hong Kong, not the mainland so much, already Catholic, the first reaction was to look for a Chinese Catholic church. And they came and wondered about why don't you speak Chinese here? You know, you're all Chinese, right?

The Chinese Americans thought it was an invasion from outer space. You know, when I arrived in 1991, the church was torn apart by the fight between the American-born who were also raised in the school and these new people who came from Taiwan and Hong Kong. and other places wanting to hear mass and have activities in their own language. The sisters who were running the school and the church before that basically said we don't have enough space for everybody, so let's fight to see who gets it. And when I came along, and after a while the theme was there's plenty, there's plenty of space for everybody. Let's just figure out how we allocate it. 

The educated Chinese who came from Taiwan did speak English for the most part. But it doesn't mean they didn't want to worship in their own language, their first language. That was something, a lot, of the–I remember the people would say “they speak English, why are they wanting to have a Mandarin mass?”, you know, but we got through it. We also had in those days a large number of Southeast Asian–Vietnamese, primarily–refugees come, and many of them were ethnic Chinese, Cantonese. And so they didn't speak English and so they became a factor in our church. The priests, for a while they put two priests in charge, one after another, who were from China, elderly, and they had goodwill, but they were incapable of taking care of the American-born Chinese. It was an interesting bad time for our church. 

And when we Capuchins came in 1991, the Chinese priest left about the same time. Mass attendance was low, people were not happy, we had no money. But as immigration continued, the church was built up, especially when everyone was welcome. So school enrollment dropped, and especially these Vietnamese immigrants had had lifted the school with, you know, new members, Catholic kids. Mass attendance was very low in those years, early 90s. But as we began to revive things, mass attendance went up, and all the masses, many of the school children started asking for baptism again. We baptized quite a few kids in the school. Most of them don't go to mass after they grow up, but that's true for American-born kids of every ethnicity, you know. We began religion classes for kids. We only had the school in those days. And then when we started religion classes for public school kids, we eventually had 80 kids in religion classes on Sunday. Now it's about 50. It's only because of the patterns of immigration. It's not because any of any kind of departure from the faith. So, we have activities and, you know, once again it's a pretty vibrant, vibrant church. We have a--we're the playground for the community. I have lots of stuff boasting about all the things we do. You know, pilgrimages, Bible studies, retreats. I probably don't need to say this.

With the way we took care of our Chinese-speaking immigrants for many years, priests would come. First we had these elderly priests who were in New York mostly, who had left China at the time of the revolution, and they came and they would come every week on the bus, and they would have the Masses on the weekend and go back. They were wonderful, sweet old men, really beloved, not in tune with younger people, but revered. And then Marion began that program of educating Chinese priests. And so then they were in Washington and New York, mostly Washington, and they began to come, you know, once a week to do the Mass. And then we had the best and the brightest priests of China coming to us. You know, we had the old guys who, you know, they were good guys, but then we had the best. You know, they didn't live with us, but they came, and that was an interesting bridge. We're going to talk about that in a minute. 

And now about five years ago, we have our own Chinese priest. The Mandarin community under him has flourished. And all three communities attend the same–the Cantonese, Mandarin, English–attend the church together in peace. The Mandarin mass is by far the largest language group, now filled with immigrants, almost all from Fujian province. I don't know if you're finding that to be the case in some of your parts of the country, but that's certainly true in Philadelphia. 

Since Holy Redeemer's primary method of evangelization was to encounter Chinese-American children through the school, there was not much consideration of the situation of the Chinese of the Catholic Church in China. I want to make sure I didn't worry too much about the Catholic Church in China because the people of our parish had no experience of it. Their parents weren't Chinese, a few handful, but they weren't from China. They were Catholics from here. As Catholics first arrived from Asia they were mostly from Taiwan, Vietnam and Hong Kong, not China. 

A few Catholics arrived from mainland China and these had practiced the Catholic faith in the underground church. Now, the few Catholics from mainland China were underground Catholics, then and now. Well, now it's lots of Catholics, but underground Catholics, but the priests who came from China for studies were from the open church, the one endorsed by the government, and this caused some mistrust, particularly from parishioners from Shanghai. Some of our people have spent years in labor camps and when these priests came, that wasn't something they were ready to accept right away. But as time passed, the Chinese priests, the Maryknoll sponsor priests, came to be loved as holy, enthusiastic and dedicated young men, and they went back to China to became leaders in the church in China. Some of these priests put up with some disrespect, but they put up with it and they won the hearts of pretty much everybody. And these priests now in China, some bishops will say they loved Holy Redeemer and they will say that their priestly vocation was strengthened by their association with our community. Now the diabolical program of the government of China to harm the Catholic Church was to create two churches, dividing the Catholics into two groups. These two groups, the underground and the open churches, came to mistrust each other in China. This lack of trust and unity has undermined everything in the Catholic Church of China. Some of this has spilled over to Chinese Catholic communities in the United States. but not much.

At least at Holy Redeemer, most Catholics from Asia are from the underground church or from Hong Kong, Taiwan, or Vietnam. However, when a person shows up from mainland China, even a priest, even today, some people can mistrust that newcomer, suspecting a Chinese spy. However, for the most part, these divisions within the Catholic Church of China are not a major factor in the United States. One of our women, who's an older lady born in Vietnam, had never even been to mainland China. She's Catholic, Cantonese. She says she won't go to confession to our Chinese priests. I said, "Why?" She says, "I'm afraid he's going to call the government and tell them what I did." I said, “Do you really think the government of China cares about your confession?”

During the 1990s and especially after 2000, more and more Chinese began to come to Philadelphia from the mainland, mostly from Fujian Province. Again, they came from the underground church. These came most often, almost completely without legal documents. Most were smuggled across the Mexican border. They either remained in the United States without legal status, or they applied for asylum based on China's draconian one-child family planning program, or based on religious persecution for being members of the underground church. I'm a lawyer. I represented many of these people in court and organized their representation if I didn't do it. It was a huge engagement with these people that their legal needs could be understood and taken care of at church. It took a while for Holy Redeemer to engage this new community. 

And so when the Taiwanese, Vietnamese, Vietnamese Chinese and Hong Kong Chinese came, it took a while for us to figure out how to engage that community. When the Fujian came, absolutely not speaking English, poor, undocumented–it took a while for us to figure out how to engage that community, too. But once we did, growth exploded. Now, beginning in 1998, I would, the young woman that picked me up today--Peter, your niece is Indonesian? or born Indonesian Chinese. Beginning in 1998 with the anti-Chinese riots, large numbers of ethnic Chinese arrived from Indonesia, fleeing anti-Chinese discrimination. I saw all these newcomers. I heard their language. I didn't think they looked Chinese, but they didn't talk like Chinese, you know, and they had moved up to the north of Chinatown. And I said, "Who are these people?" So I went over one day, they were eating, and I said, "Can I eat some of your food?" I'm dressed like this. They looked at me, you know, so I said, "Will you come over to the church Sunday?" I found out they were Indonesians. I figured they were Muslims. When I said, "What can we do for you?" They said, "Please, Mass in our language." So we had a Mass in 1998 and the church was packed like Christmas. And I said, "They can't stay here. There's, you know, too many of them, which is very interesting. I was praying and praying and praying for more members, and God sent me hundreds and hundreds for a church that fits like 200 at most, 150. 

So we moved them to South Philadelphia, St. Thomas Aquinas. At one point they had 7,800 people at Sunday at Mass. Now they still have 200 or so, you know, maybe more. But several Indonesian Chinese Catholic families stayed at hold. I wish more had stayed because they're wonderful, wonderful members of our community, even though I did send them south, but they're really good. 

So far, I've told you the story of Chinese Catholic communities formed in Chinatowns. But as many Catholics began arriving from Asia, some were grafted into these Chinese Chinatown communities like I told you about. Some simply went to English Catholic churches, English Masses, you know, neighborhood American churches. But others formed and found–first of all, we lost some Catholics, lost lots of Catholics who didn't find a church home in the United States. So I don't want to sound like everything's fine. It's not. We lost a lot of Catholics. Lost them to Protestant churches. Lost them to nothing. But three other structures emerged. 

Prayer groups. As Chinese Catholics arrived in the United States and did not find a Chinese language, church or ministry, often families gathered for prayer or Bible study. Some groups found a Chinese-speaking priest to visit them occasionally for mass or other assistance. Some of these private prayer groups have become the seed of more organized Chinese-language pastoral and sacramental activity. Well, this is how our Taiwanese Mandarin-speaking community started. It started as a prayer group in the suburbs. And then they came to Holy Redeemer and said, "Well, we want to, you know, belong to you." And of course, they were told no. But anyway, they got in anyway. And now they're there. So, prayer groups. 

Second, most Chinese ministry happens today when a Chinese-language Mass is scheduled at a local parish. So, the local parish has English Masses in the morning, and there's a Chinese Mass scheduled at a less than ideal time, 2, 3 in the afternoon, right when football games are being played, you know. But this is what happens to other non-English-speaking immigrant groups like Hispanics, Haitians, Vietnamese. When there are not so many of them, they get the 2:00 time slot that nobody wants. At least in Houston, there's a newly founded Chinese Catholic church that also has other Asian communities, Ascension. I need to learn more about Ascension. Immigrant groups usually want their own church, but this is expensive and often not supported by local dioceses, and of course many Chinese Catholics attend mass in their local parish, perhaps connecting with other Chinese Catholics from time to time and perhaps not. China is a large country, and the Chinese have a long history in the United States. Everything I learned about diversity though, I learned from the Chinese. They're a diverse people. They're not all the same. At Holy Redeemer, our people now cooperate and genuinely like each other. However, when we have parish gatherings, I can see those people talking are Cantonese from Vietnam and those people are Cantonese from Hong Kong and they're the Taiwanese. And we do cross barriers, but you know, we still recognize who's Fujian, who's American-born Chinese, and who are Indonesians.

There's a huge difference based on when and how people came to the United States. Families who migrated to the United States in the 1960s have a very different experience from Chinese who came illegally across the Mexican border in the last 10 years. And their experience is different from the Chinese who came from Taiwan to pursue graduate degrees in the 1970s or 80s. These are different from the Chinese coming from the mainland now, international students for education and work. And some Chinese come from the diaspora, from Latin America, from the Philippines, Burma and Malaysia, Singapore. Chinese Catholics are diverse people, not really one people. They do share a familial and often ancient link to China. As sensei, however, Chinese Catholics come to care about their US Catholic community. Whether it's a Chinese church, a Chinese mass, a prayer group, or belonging to an American parish, they come to care about the Catholic church here where they practice, where they worship, where they have friends, where they raise their kids. Education, experience can help them to care about Chinese Catholics in China. This is what the focus of this conference is: caring about the Chinese Catholic Church in China. Exchanges can also help Chinese Catholics from China to be aware of the vibrant Catholic life that one can find in North America. A few years ago, a Chinese young man who became Catholic at Holy Redeemer, he went to our school, he married a devout Vietnamese Catholic girl who had a priest uncle. All Vietnamese have a priest uncle. Um, [cough] [clears throat]

He was married in a Vietnamese Catholic church, and his first child was baptized in the same Vietnamese Catholic church. When his second child was born, he told me he wanted me to baptize the child at Holy Redeemer because he wanted his in-laws to know that we Chinese can be Catholics, too. And I think in a way that's an important point. That it's one thing, I think, that our Chinese Catholic communities do, is they make it quite normal to be Chinese and Catholic. Catholics are a very small minority in China. In the United States, few Chinese are Catholics, but strong Catholic Chinese communities make it quite normal to be Chinese and Catholic. When Chinese become involved in their parish or community and grow in their Christian faith in that community, their experience of being Chinese and Catholic is normal. I look at our kids in our church who go to Sunday school and they, you know, they go to the nursing home and visit the elderly, and we go apple picking, and we go, you know, do all the things churches do with kids. The kids do the nativity play, baby Jesus and Joseph and Mary and the angels and the shepherds and all that. And they love their church, you know, and it's normal for them to go to church and be part of the church, and they're Chinese.

Past three years, we had a deacon from China serving at Holy Redeemer who's now a priest and who's now right there. He was ordained to the priesthood in Philadelphia this past May, because our Chinese-speaking parishioners were proud and delighted. They hosted two festive celebrations. Most people get one party when they're a priest, but he had two. And Chinese Catholics came from far and wide to attend, because they were proud of a Chinese young man who became a Catholic priest. 

His ordination did not have a huge impact on our English-speaking Chinese community. But they were also proud of David that he became a priest. Now, the mission of the USCCA is to foster encounter between the Catholic Church in the United States and in China. Is there meaningful encounter between the Chinese Catholic Church in the United States? Not just the Catholic Church, the Chinese Catholic Church and China. As we all know, the situation of the Catholic Church is complicated, and no one can glibly describe the situation of China in a few words. Until the past few decades, immigrants did not usually have the opportunity or the means to visit the land of their birth. Consequently, the only contact that most immigrants had with their former homelands was through new immigrants arriving with news and perspective. As immigration to the United States slowed, contact with the homeland diminished. So the Chinese here didn't meet people from China much, and so they didn't think about China much as immigrants assimilated into the US culture. Interest in the family's ancestral homeland decreased. Until the 1980s, few Chinese Catholic immigrants came to the United States. So there was limited encounter between the US Catholic Church and the Chinese Catholic Church. For the most part, Chinese American Catholics are committed to their parishes or communities wherever they worship, whether they are majority Chinese or not. However, there are significant points of contact between Chinese American Catholics and the Chinese church in China today. 

Today, new immigrants from China interact with immigrants already in the United States and with more established Chinese Catholics. To be honest, Chinese Catholics born in the United States don't understand or appreciate the situation of the Catholic Church in China. But new immigrants come from China, Chinese Catholics already here encounter the Catholic Church of China through those immigrants who tell their stories and have their experiences. 

Two, and I can't say enough about this, Chinese priests studying in the United States. It's impossible to overstate the impact of these priests on Chinese Catholics in the United States. In many places, these priests have ministered to Chinese Catholic communities. Of course, the ministry of these priests has been to Chinese-speaking Catholics, not English-speaking Chinese Catholics. But exceptional priests have come. I've said this several times, and they've formed a bridge between the church of China and the church here. We've had weddings in Philadelphia, when priests from China have come to celebrate with the family, with the bride and groom, because their beloved priests and their connection to China is there. Also, Chinese priests visiting the United States from China, Hong Kong and Taiwan. These priests sometimes come to visit their own family members, or sisters come to visit their family members, but they have an impact because they're present in our churches. Chinese from China, not Chinese Americans, but Chinese from China come and are part of us. And so the bond of unity is forged there. There's more needed and welcome, but there is some significant presence. 

I brought these calendars with me. There, it shows the vibrancy of Chinese Catholic life in the United States. Many different Chinese Catholic communities are featured on each page. I'm going to leave the ones I have here wherever things are left. You may want to look at them and take one with you. But you see from this that there are connections among the Chinese Catholic communities of the United States. That's significant. and there are vibrant Chinese Catholic communities ministering to people, young people, etc. 

I'm going to tell one quick story to close. He mentioned Gansu. This is a story I told Rob and he likes the story, so I have to tell you. So I did visit Gansu, poorest Catholic church in the world. I visited the underground church in Fujian. I visited the church in Haiti, Ethiopia, India, Papua New Guinea. I've spent because of my former work. I used to be important actually, but when I was important, I did a lot of traveling and visiting the Catholic church around the world. I've never seen poorer Catholic priests than what I saw in Gansu. I could say more about that: remote. And so we went the Sunday I was there, we went to the cathedral, we had Mass. I mean they had Mass. We were there. People were very intrigued. American priests here in Tinu Gansu, you could imagine. So 10 years pass, and I'm not at the Chinese church. I'm at St. John's, the other church where I'm also a pastor. And they're telling me there's a Chinese kid in the church wants to talk to a priest because his grandfather died. So I'm thinking, you know, funeral, whatever. So I go see this kid and he's from Gansu. He's a student and his aunt or some relative told him, "You have to go to a priest and you have to read these prayers which I'm sending you in the presence of a priest in a church to honor your grandfather." So he was hellbent on doing that. So he comes to me and I'm thinking, "Oh, I got to bring Father Joseph down. They talk for two minutes. They don't seem interested in each other and I don't understand that." So anyway, I I start talking about, you know, grief and he wants to read those prayers. So we go to the church and he reads 10 minutes of prayers in Chinese and he's satisfied. So I say, "Let's come back and have a cup of tea or something together." So he comes back into the friary again. He's from Gansu. And I said, "Uh, what city?" Tinue. I've been there. went to Mass there. And he says, “about 10 years ago my grandfather told us that he saw American priests in,” and so I'm thinking, “he's not looking for a Chinese Catholic church, looking for any Catholic church, he's way out in the suburbs and he takes the bus into the city, finds our church, finds the one and only priest in North America who actually was present with his grandfather once.” I thought that was pretty astonishing, you know. And actually, last Sunday another man came from China to see me–just another coincidence, you know–who was actually baptized by a Capuchin many years ago. So it's an interesting, very remote part of China and yet the faith is alive there as it is elsewhere. Anyway, thank you for listening and for anything you want to say or have questions or tell me I was wrong about something, please there's a few minutes to do that. [applause]

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Father Tom Betz is a Capuchin priest, the Pastor of St. John the Evangelist Church in Center City Philadelphia, which includes responsibility for Holy Redeemer Chinese Catholic Church and School. This keynote speech was delivered at the University of St. Thomas in Houston, TX, on July 31, 2026, during the 30th Biennial Conference of the US-China Catholic Association.

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