Did you know that the last USCCA Book Circle Discussion of the Fall semester will take place on November 16? Throughout the year, Book Circle participants have learned about Catholicism in dialogue with Eastern spiritual traditions through the writings of Thomas Merton and John C. H. Wu. On November 16, the USCCA Book Circle will discuss the perspectives of Bonnie Thurston and John P. Keenan on Merton's understanding of Buddhism. According to Bonnie Thurston, "The aspects of

Our Hope is in Christ: Theme of the 29th International Conference. I n August 2024, we celebrated the 35th year since the founding of the USCCA at the 29th International Conference, which gathered 150+ lay and religious individuals in Chicago from over a dozen countries, including the U.S. and China.  Spanning three days, four keynote speakers, a range of pastoral reflections, academic panels, and other events, the Conference fostered a deeper conversation surrounding Christi

Celebration of Dutch Bishop Frans Schraven Martyrdom in Zhengding By Antonius 2 November 2024, All Souls Day At 8:00 PM on the evening of October 9, 2024, priests from Zhengding and Xingtai Dioceses, staff of the Faith Press, four deacons, two religious, and hundreds of Catholics gathered to celebrate a memorial mass for Bishop Schraven, C.M., a Vincentian Missionary, and his companions in Zhengding, praying for Bishop Schraven’s canonization. This year, many pilgrimage group

Models of Sanctity, from Martyrdom to Dying to Oneself By Chiaretto Kin Sheung Yan On All Saints Day, we venerate saints, those who have been recognized (canonized by the Church), and those known only to God, whose life is a source of inspiration for us to live a meaningful life and not to settle for a mediocre existence. Those holy persons known only by God are like seeds, similar to the martyrs, buried in the ground and to bear fruits in due time.  On the Feast of All Sain

Did you know that Dr. Naomi Thurston, author of Studying Christianity in China: Constructions of an Emerging Discourse , presented the closing keynote speech at the 29th USCCA International Conference? We invite you to watch the video of her presentation, "Echoes of Hope: Chinese-Christian Debates in Republican and Post-Reform-Era China": Naomi Thurston, Ph.D. teaches and researches the history of Christianity in China and contemporary Chinese Christianities at The Chinese Un

In Athens, Greece, you can find statues of Socrates and Confucius facing each other, signifying a kinship between the quests for wisdom celebrated in the East and the West. These statues inspired Tom McGuire, USCCA Director Emeritus, to invite us to reflect on John C. H. Wu's words in Beyond East and West : Mencius had a wonderful insight into the workings of providence. He said, "Whenever Heaven wants to confer a great work on anyone, it first drenches his heart with bittern

On Saturday, October 19, 2024, the USCCA Book Circle gathered to discuss Thomas Merton’s essay “A Christian Looks at Zen,” written as the Introduction to John C. H. Wu’s book The Golden Age of Zen . New and familiar faces from different locations around the world found fertile ground for discussion of comparisons between Zen Buddhism and the Catholic Christianity espoused by Wu and Merton. Much of our discussion followed from Wu’s and Merton’s observations on the complementar

by Simeiqi He, Ph.D . Having spent over two decades in China seeking to understand the Chinese soul, the Jesuit scientist and theologian Pierre Teilhard de Chardin wrote on September 8, 1949, “[w]e wonder…why so few deep conversions are effected in China despite the flood of missionaries.” To such a question, he gave a simple answer, “it is because…our magnificent Christian charity lacks what it needs to make it decisively effective, the sensitizing ingredient of Human faith

As Mission Sunday approaches, the USCCA invites you to an upcoming free public lecture on November 9 featuring Dr. Lian Xi, David C. Steinmetz Distinguished Professor of World Christianity at Duke University, who will speak about Lin Zhao and on what her story reveals about Christianity in twentieth-century China. Dr. Lian Xi is the author of Blood Letters: The Untold Story of Lin Zhao, A Martyr in Mao's China . We invite you to fill out the public lecture interest form to i

On Saturday, August 3, 2024, at the 29th USCCA International Conference, we were glad to learn from Dr. Anthony E. Clark, Dr. Xiaoxin Wu, and Fr. Rob Carbonneau about "Understanding China's Past and Present Realities as a Foundation for Future USCCA Relationships." The video of this presentation is now available via our YouTube channel: About the Speakers Anthony E. Clark, Ph.D., FRHistS, FRAS Anthony E. Clark 柯學斌 is the Edward B. Lindaman Endowed Chair at Whitworth Universit

On Saturday, August 3, 2024, at the 29th USCCA International Conference, Dr. Michel Chambon, Dr. Jin Lu, and Dr. Qi Zeng presented on the topic of "Chinese Culture, Context, and Catholicism." We are glad to share the video of this conference session below: About the Speakers Dr. Michel Chambon Dr. Michel Chambon is a Research Fellow at the Asia Research Institute, National University of Singapore. He has a PhD in Anthropology from Boston University and a Canonical License in

We are glad to announce the subject of our next Book Circle discussion: "A Christian Looks at Zen," by Thomas Merton. This essay was written as Merton's Introduction to The Golden Age of Zen , a book by John C. H. Wu. In previous Book Circle discussions, we have explored the friendship between Merton and Wu as it unfolded in letters across cultures and continents. The next Book Circle meeting will be held on October 19, 2024 at 7 am PT / 8 am MT / 9 am CT / 10 am ET / 10 pm C

On Saturday, August 3, 2024, at the 29th USCCA International Conference, Dr. Georges Enderle, Dr. Brent Fulton, and Andrea Lee presented on the topic of "Social Service Outreach in China." We are glad to share the video of this conference session below: About the Speakers Dr. Georges Enderle Georges Enderle is Professor Emeritus in the Mendoza College of Business at the University of Notre Dame. Before joining Notre Dame in 1992, he was doing research and teaching business et

On Saturday, August 3, 2024, at the 29th USCCA International Conference, Fr. Peter Shen, Dr. John Worthley, and Fr. Qiulin Zhang presented on the topic of "Social Services in Rural and Urban China." We are glad to share the video of this conference session below: About the Speakers Fr. Peter Shen Fr. Peter Shen is from Xingtai Diocese of Hebei Province, China. He graduated from Jilin Catholic Major Seminary in 2012. He was ordained to the priesthood in China in 2016. He worke

On Saturday, September 21, 2024, the USCCA Book Circle discussed  a series of talks presented by Thomas Merton on the subject of Confucianism. These talks, presented to novice monks of the Abbey of Gethsemani in 1965, drew connections between Confucian aesthetics and morality with the Christian monastic life. We delighted in seeing and hearing how Merton, perhaps the greatest mystic of the 20th century, taught with such depth, down-to-earthness, simplicity and humor. Lay and

by Tom McGuire Pope Francis's visit to Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, Timor-Leste and Singapore reminded me of St. Paul’s missionary journeys. Like Paul, Pope Francis faithfully proclaimed the Gospel. He appeared tired when he arrived in Jakarta, but as he met the people the joy of the Gospel was evident in his smile. His actions and words were a message of God’s love for all. The people responded overwhelmingly in the affirmative to his Gospel-inspired call for dialogue based

Report by Shirley Wang, Conference Rapporteur I recently ended a developing friendship, and I am ready to defend my decision if you ever ask why. However, a thought recently struck me: did I ever love this person as a friend in the first place? Did I ever genuinely receive this person as who they were? I wouldn’t have thought about it this much if I had not experienced a profound growth in my understanding of friendship at the 29th USCCA International Conference. At a panel s

What does "friendship as ministry" mean, and what does that look like? Find out in our recently published video of the 29th USCCA International Conference session, "Friendship as Ministry": About the Panelists Greta Frei Greta Frei is a PhD student in the Department of History at Boston University working with Dr. Eugenio Menegon. Greta received a BS in Computer Science along with a supplemental major in Chinese from the University of Notre Dame. Her undergraduate thesis expl

We were honored to present the 2024 Venerable Matteo Ricci Award to the Maryknoll Society at the 29th USCCA International Conference. The award was received by Fr. Tim Kilkelly, M.M., on behalf of Maryknoll. The US-China Catholic Association presented the Venerable Matteo Ricci Award on August 3, 2024 to the China Educators and Formators Project. This award was granted in recognition of the Maryknoll's generous contribution to the graduate education of 175 Chinese priests, si

On Sunday, August 4, 2024, at the 29th USCCA International Conference, Fr. Augustine Tsang, S.J. delivered a Keynote Presentation on the topic of "Hope in the Present: Pastoral Work in and for Chinese Christians in Recent Years." We are glad to share the video of this presentation below, which has also been made public on our YouTube channel : Father Augustine Tsang (曾慶導神父) was born in Guangzhou, China. After graduating from high school in Hong Kong, he immigrated to the U.S.