The Youth in China Renew the Church

Bruno Lepeu MEP
When I discovered the theme of this year’s ECCC, “Future Perspectives of the Catholic Church in China” with a special focus on the “Youth in China,” I got very excited to join as it looked so similar to the subject of my thesis defended in 2023 at the Catholic Institute of Paris, entitled “Emergence of a Fraternal and Synodal Church in China – Theological Analysis of a Survey of Young Chinese Catholics.”
The purpose of my research was to understand what is emerging in the Church in ­China. The understanding of the Church in mainland China is often partial and biased, focusing mainly on the control of civil authorities and the negative consequences for the life of the Church. But what is the daily life of the People of God like? My thirty years of contacts with local communities have made me aware of the work of the Holy Spirit, especially in the lives of young people in China. While the functioning of the ecclesial institution in China is still very clerical, the process of appropriating faith by young people renews the life of the Church, highlighting the fundamental role of fraternal communities, in which essential elements of synodality are lived out, opening onto intimacy with the Lord, Brother and Friend. My sharing will present this process of renewal of the Church in China, being aware that it is only a trend that cannot be generalized, yet with a prophetic dimension.
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