Missionary Methodology

MISSIONARY METHODOLOGY. - M. m. is nothing other than pastoral practice in mission territories and has an exceedingly varied and constant application. While depending on common pastoral practice insofar as it utilizes its principles and general conclusions, on account of the great diversity of the peoples to be evangelized it finds itself having to resolve entirely special questions and problems.

I. GENERAL PRINCIPLES

Missionary methodology proposes primarily the manner of approaching the peoples to be converted, that is, the technique of approach, which can be practiced according to a direct or an indirect method. The direct method, of which the ancient missiologists speak preferably under the heading "de modo convertendi paganos," consists in convincing the pagans of their errors and enlightening them concerning the fundamental principles of the Catholic faith. The indirect method, on the other hand, seeks the points of contact between the principles of our religion and the ideas held by the pagans, so as to arrive progressively at that complete exposition of Catholic doctrine which makes of the pagan a perfect Christian. Today the indirect method is preferably used, though without neglecting the direct method.

Another general problem: the successive or simultaneous character of the work of the apostolate in newly conquered territories. Scarcity of personnel and lack of means make a simultaneous occupation of the entire mission territory impossible, but they do not justify the particularistic and naturalistic tendency which would be ready to take an interest only in those lands and those peoples that presented lesser difficulties or offered themselves, as it were, for conversion. The best solution is given by the middle way, which knows how to dispose conveniently of the missionary forces, which are not too numerous, taking into account not only the character of the peoples and the local environment, but also the other qualitative, personal and social factors. These elements can cause the choice to fall upon one new field of labor rather than another. It is therefore legitimate to admit a preferential treatment toward some people because of extrinsic factors such as geographical extent and density of inhabitants with a view to future development; the qualitative value that regulates the position of races in the international sphere; the greater or lesser capacity to receive the Gospel; the present and future harms deriving from wars, from the Protestant threat, from moral decadence and from other similar elements; the decisive character of the present moment in relation to all these positive and negative factors. It must not be forgotten, however, that the apostolate is rather a work of God, who by his Grace knows how to reward the heroism and the sacrifice of confessors and martyrs, causing abundant harvests to sprout even in territories that human prudence regarded as sterile.

A third general problem concerns the intensive and extensive method to be used in a given territory. The extensive method seeks to create the greatest possible number of mission stations to be visited at intervals. The intensive method, on the other hand, prefers to restrict the field of its activity and to work in depth in the souls of the new Christians. Both methods have their advantages and can be used with success in the different phases of the apostolate. At the beginning of a new missionary expedition it is perhaps better to follow the extensive method, erecting the greatest possible number of stations and small centers, making use also of catechists. Such a system is always to be recommended in those territories where the law prevails according to which the minister of one religion cannot establish himself within certain limits in which another minister has already established himself.

After a general taking of possession it is necessary to have recourse to the intensive method in order to consolidate the first success, developing the principal stations, erecting parochial and quasi-parochial districts and attending to the utmost to the discipline of the Christian life of the new faithful.

Missionary methodology also treats of the supernatural and natural means of the apostolate and generally numbers among the first divine Grace, miracles, prayer and the personal holiness of the missionary, and among the second the catechumenate, schools, the formation of the native clergy, social and charitable works, and also sacred art and medicine. Another very vast field is constituted by the culture, the customs and the religious beliefs of the various peoples, of which it is necessary to know all those elements that can facilitate the preaching of Christianity.

These problems, however, belong rather to special methodology.

Saverio Paventi

II. MISSIONARY METHODOLOGY AMONG PRIMITIVE PEOPLES

Ethnology defines primitive peoples as people whose cultural development, through a complex of causes not always controllable, has come about with extreme slowness or has crystallized into indistinct forms. The lack of a system of writing is generally indicated as the specific characteristic of primitive peoples; it would, moreover, be difficult to find any other common trait, since the cultural differences that distinguish them from one another are many and profound. They bear witness to the spiritual capacities of these peoples, both as persons and as peoples; capacities about which, now that the well-known controversy over the mentality of primitive peoples has been overcome, no doubt remains for the ethnologist. Geographically, primitive peoples are distributed in the greatest number on the African continent, but there are some on all the other continents, pushed into marginal zones or isolated.

The Church, both in antiquity and in the following centuries, never hesitated to turn to primitive peoples.

The first methodological rule of missionary penetration is a thorough knowledge of the cultural state of the peoples to be evangelized and especially of the indigenous language. A knowledge to be integrated with the study of their usages and customs. Since today primitive peoples are almost all under colonial government, a new series of problems imposes itself on the study of missionaries. It is essentially a question of the phenomenon of acculturation, that is, of the contact and interpenetration of primitive cultures with Western and Christian civilization. It is up to the missions, by right and by duty, to enlighten and direct. The old dilemma of m. m., assimilation or adaptation, does not cease to present itself for primitive cultures, which, however poor, are not lacking in elements that can be exploited for the purpose.

The problem of the school is today among the most urgent in missions among primitive peoples. For this reason the missions today count on a vast network of schools, elementary, secondary, and vocational. The cooperation of the missions in the school was requested by colonial governments, and although this has sometimes imposed on the missions grave financial sacrifices in order to conform to government regulations, the missionary school activity has proved more substantial and effective as a result. It should also be noted that it is in the field of the school that Catholic missions must sustain the rivalry of Protestant missions, all the more favored by the abundance of means.

To the work of the schools is added health activity by means of hospitals, leprosariums, clinics and dispensaries. Social works are also effective means of penetration. Social life, particularly in industrial and commercial centers, today presents among primitive peoples the same acuteness of problems felt in our countries. Especially among primitive peoples the norms for catechumenates prove extremely useful and often necessary.

Bernardo Bernardi

III. MISSIONARY METHODOLOGY IN CHINA

The method of evangelizing China must be considered under two aspects, historical and practical.

History presents various phases of Christianity in China, to which correspond different methods used for the conversion of unbelievers. Leaving aside the apostolic period with the presumed entry of St. Thomas into China, and also the parenthesis of the 7th century with the coming of the Nestorians (635), as attested by the stele of Sian (Shensi), the first of the periods with a well-defined history is the one that may be called Franciscan, from the fact that it was the Franciscans who pressed forward to the evangelization of China.

Innocent IV also cited this among the reasons for convoking the general Council of Lyons in 1245 and accordingly sent Fra Giovanni di Pian Carpinio as legate of the Holy See to the court of the Great Khan. The other Franciscans sent to China enjoyed full freedom of propaganda under the Mongol dynasty of the Yüan (1280-1368).

But with the fall of the Mongol dynasty, Catholicism was swept away in the devastating vortex, because the new Ming dynasty regarded religion with as much suspicion as the previous one had supported it.

In 1579 Fr. Matteo Ricci arrived in China, and, aware of the enormous difficulties he had to face, he conceived the bold design of reaching the very throne of the Emperor, turning to account the reputation as a scholar and scientist that he enjoyed. His numerous contacts with personalities of society in Peking and elsewhere gave Fr. Ricci the opportunity to speak of religion, to cultivate neophytes and to prepare new conversions. The 463 confreres, scholars and scientists of sixteen different nationalities, among them 64 Italians, who followed Fr. Ricci, continued the work he had begun until the suppression of the Society in 1774.

The Lazarists and the other societies and religious Orders that later took their place also adopted their method. Thus, together with science, they were able to teach the catechism and the norms of Christian life as well. But unfortunately the ill-fated question of the Chinese rites (v.) arose, creating for the missions a new situation bristling with difficulties, with the consequence that Christians and their religion came to be regarded as enemies of the national rites, so that at first the authorities and the educated classes withdrew, with the result that the missions had to turn to the countryside. Having lost the favor of the Court, the religion came to be confused with the secret societies, which China has repeatedly proscribed; hence the persecution that enriched the Chinese martyrology.

A new era opened when, because of the so-called Opium War, England in 1841 had Hong Kong ceded to it, and it, together with France, in the treaties they concluded, imposed that China be opened to missionaries. Thus came the era of the protectorates, and the missions took advantage of the treaties, which opened the way for them and facilitated the means of evangelizing the immense Empire. Not all governments, however, knew how to maintain a line of perfect neutrality in the political field; some even were pleased by the thought of taking advantage of the missions for political interests; and this harmed the missions, making them suspect and drawing upon them an odium they did not deserve. In any case: new times, new circumstances, new methods had imposed themselves and had borne their fruits.

The year 1900 and its revolution, with all its consequences, is but an effect of China's ill will over the pressures it had suffered and the occupations of territory, in which the missions, though extraneous to them, shared the odium. In that explosion of hatred against the foreigner there were true martyrs, whom the Church has recognized, but who once again call for reflection on the advisability of a renewal of methods of propaganda better suited to current times. Estimating the Chinese population at 400 million and the conversions of a year at an average of 100,000, it would take no less than 4,000 years to have a converted and Christian China, supposing that general conditions were to remain those of the last years of the Empire and the beginning of the Republic.

With the fall of the Manchu dynasty and the consequent birth of the Republic, a substantial change took place in China, in contrast even with its millennial traditions. The revolution of Oct. 10, 1911 at Wuchang and its much-vaunted success was but an effect of the decadence of the Court. The Republic therefore found a China weak, exhausted, upheaved, disorganized and unprepared for so radical a change of regime, which facilitated brigandage of imposing proportions.

At first the missions were generally respected and indeed became places of refuge for the population, and the missionaries often acted as mediators between assailants and victims, saving hostages from prison and death and also sparing entire cities from bombardment and looting. These facts raised the prestige of the mission; they brought the authorities and the educated and wealthy classes closer, no less than the poor without support. The schools overflowed with pupils, the catechumens could no longer keep up with the ever-growing demands, and entire villages asked to be converted. The missionaries found themselves unequal in strength and number to second so extensive a movement.

There then asserted itself the movement begun by Fr. Lebbe, for a rebirth, moral as well, and with the true faith, of a China drained of blood and exhausted. It is the optimistic current, which would certainly have obtained more practical and lasting successes if to its zeal it had joined greater calm and serenity of judgment and action, had abstained from all interference in politics and had frankly admitted also the deficiencies and errors of the old and new China. Since there was no lack of steps and directions perhaps too extreme, there followed a reaction which, though motivated by the best intentions, ended by taking on a pessimistic tinge, presented by Fr. Kervyn in his Méthode de l'apostolat moderne en Chine, who perhaps, more than personal ideas, gathered the various opinions current at the time, presenting them unfortunately with so disheartening a pessimism that the S. Congregation de Prop. Fide advised young missionaries against reading that book.

Fr. Lebbe, with the current he led, sought to bring out and place in the best light whatever in China's morality, doctrine, literature, usages, customs, character and history lent itself as a path and bridge of easy access to Christianity, unfortunately closing, in the enthusiasm that animated him, his eyes to deficiencies and gaps that are not repaired merely by ignoring them and by deluding oneself into possessing more than was the nation's real endowment. Kervyn went to the opposite extreme: concerned to safeguard the orthodoxy of doctrine and the purity of morals and discipline, he believed that the missionary movement had slipped onto a slippery slope toward certain ruin.

The golden mean was followed by the great majority of missionaries who, taking account of new times and new needs, met the just aspirations of their country of adoption, and with far greater calm and tranquility spared no efforts and sacrifices for the conversion of China. They set out to save China by means of the Chinese, preparing persons and environments that are not transformed in an instant; avoiding the enormous errors committed by the progressives who ruined the poor Emperor Kwangsu with the government of the hundred days; resolved upon the most generous renunciations of every nationalism, insisting upon a local clergy and bishops, as the Franciscans under the Mongols and the Jesuits and the other Orders of the following epochs had already planned, but resolved not to disinterest themselves from the Church in that great nation until it could be considered sure of itself.

After the plan to make himself emperor failed (Dec. 3, 1915), Yuan Shikai died almost suddenly on June 6, 1916. Political events led to the struggle between the north and the south and to a communist infiltration. There followed a period of confusion and anarchy, during which the missions had to fend for themselves, seeking to cultivate good relations with the legitimate local authorities or with the brigands, in order to be able to continue the apostolate. The war against Japan increased the difficulties, and missionary work in the various territories presented itself under many different aspects according to local circumstances.

The fundamental document of the new China, according to Sun Wen, was to be his San-min-chu-y or "Three Principles of the People." Not to speak of the falsehoods, errors and oddities of which Sun Wen made himself a master, dogmatizing on every branch of human knowledge, the most immediate and real effect he obtained was to excite and develop Chinese nationalism, though going beyond the limits of truth and practicality; and the patriotic and youth movement ended in revolutionary agitation. Moreover, in that intoxication, the young saw only the errors of Europe and of the foreigner, forgetting the greater gravity of their own. This mentality and this environment, formed particularly in the schools and among the educated class, also influenced the young Chinese clergy, among whom certain excesses likewise manifested themselves, which cannot pass under the title of love of country. A pushed nationalism led some of the indigenous clergy to meddle in that political field, from which the Church by principle keeps itself aloof, drawing upon themselves responsibilities and odium that could have been avoided. Another error was to believe that the local clergy could now suffice without foreign help. That parenthesis, soon closed by the good sense of the majority, had its consequences.

No one, it is well to recall, before and more than the Church had so largely recognized the just aspirations of the Chinese people, and a magnificent testimony of this was given on Oct. 28, 1926 with the consecration of six Chinese bishops by the hand of the Supreme Pontiff himself. The new regime seemed to invite Catholics to take advantage of the much-proclaimed freedoms in order to update and adapt their methods of action to the new environment. The subject was studied both with regard to the population and in relation to the missionaries. Since the great mass was poor and illiterate, it was proposed to call as far as possible all the new converts into catechumenates near the missionary, there to receive the appropriate instruction, Baptism, and to learn to confess and communicate — things which, by remaining in their own homes, were postponed for the great majority by tens of years, and even until death. The catechumen was to be maintained free of charge during that time, or would give a very small contribution.

To avoid an overcrowding beyond the capacity of the premises, it was also proposed to give the catechumens who studied at home an alms as a subsidy for the time spent in study. Since by staying in the catechumenate they had to suspend their work, whereas by remaining at home study stole time from work. For large centers and especially the cities, it was proposed to open halls for public conferences on religion, freely accessible to all. Some were opened in Beijing, Tianjin and other cities, but they were judged impractical and of little yield. An attempt was made to hold public disputations, but it was soon seen that they were not in conformity with the Chinese spirit, and it had likewise to be acknowledged that the method initiated by the Protestants of preaching in the public streets took on a charlatan-like appearance, which the Chinese despised. There was also talk at the regional conferences presided over by Msgr. De Guebriant in 1919 of flying missions, as a means of making up for the scarcity of missionaries, but the missionary always on the move, without a fixed point to serve as a center of radiation, produced only passing effects.

It was proposed to intensify the opening of schools of all grades and to promote effectively instruction in every respect; to multiply the works of charity, asylums, shelters, hospitals, dispensaries and, as for hospitals, the necessity was noted that the sisters should also take charge of obstetrics and maternity wards. It was deemed opportune, however, to point out that these works of charity, magnificent in themselves, should not absorb all the personnel and resources of a mission to the detriment of the work among the pagans; that they should therefore rather be reduced in favor of the latter.

As a consequence of the peace treaty, after the revolution of 1900, or following agreements for particular riots stirred up to the detriment of the missions, it was thought to do works of charity by interceding for the remission or reduction of the penalty of the guilty, but making the condition that they be converted. A method that aroused criticism and that gave conversions not always serious and lasting. Thought was also given to an updating of the proximate preparation of personnel. Given the scarcity of subjects, in many missions nothing was awaited but the arrival of a young priest to put him immediately to work, after an accelerated study of the language and a summary instruction on the environment, uses and customs. The Protestants had set the example of applying the newly arrived young men to a serious study, and the Catholic missions had to persuade themselves of the necessity of presenting men truly instructed in the Chinese language and culture. For this reason study houses for missionaries arose throughout China, and especially in the large centers, and the missions decided to leave them there under the guidance of good teachers, until they possessed well the written and spoken language and were well informed about the life, uses and customs of the country.

Praising and recognizing the goodness of so many new initiatives, the missionaries agreed that the principal method was that of having numerous catechists, as cooperators of the missionary and chosen from among the people. It is the readiest, easiest, most expeditious and least expensive, and the one that gives the most serious and lasting fruits. With the aim of embracing a vaster field, the missions have opened schools and colleges for the education and instruction of catechists. The cultural field presents an immense possibility and offers in the service of religion language, literature and art as well as the varied industries of the country. The missions have not failed to take advantage of it not only in the past, but particularly after the awakening of an ardent nationalism, demonstrating how the Church appreciates and knows how to make the most of the particular culture of converted peoples. With the intention of making use of the very culture of the Chinese people as a means of leading them to the faith, learned and zealous missionaries thought that, as a practical means and one less offensive to pagan pride, they could show that the new law preached by them had already from remote antiquity left clear traces in their classical books, held as the code of the deepest wisdom of their ancestors.

At the head of this school is Fr. De Prémare, a Jesuit, who in a manuscript dated from Canton on 21 May 1724, sets out to highlight that in the ancient Chinese classical books there are vestiges of the principal truths of the primitive revelation. Through a more thorough study of the Chinese classics over forty years of life spent in China, he remained enthusiastic about the poetry of his thesis. While recognizing the ability and the magnificent intentions of Fr. De Prémare, scholars agree that the method is dangerous for lack of a serious foundation and that in it there is instead more fantasy than positive reality. More practical, on the other hand, is what Fr. Alfred Fabre suggests in his De l'ombre à la lumière, where he demonstrates that the Chinese people is more ritualist than religious, and, with a comparison between the principal manifestations of its worship, also calling upon opportune citations from the classics, but with greater objectivity, with a parallel between Chinese ritualism and Catholic ritualism, he seeks to lead the soul of the Chinese from paganism to Catholicism, from external worship to true worship in spirit and truth. This method, with reflective and studious persons, can be used usefully under whatever form society may present itself and wherever the individual may be found.

Some asked themselves whether the countryside and the great mass of the people should be preferred, or the educated class and the authorities in the cities. This question had a serious reason in the first attempts to introduce religion into the vast Empire. A wrong step could cut short the work from its very beginnings, while a well-guessed one could also easily resolve the immense problem. Such a question no longer has any reason to be after all the experiences made on the subject. The Catholic religion is known, at least by name, even in the remote corners of the Republic. The immensity of the territory, the number of the population, the difficulty of environment, of regime and the truly exceptional circumstances in which that nation finds itself advise directing missionary action in all fields, toward all classes, in all environments and, given precisely the grandeur of the work that lies ahead, only thus can one hope to obtain some fruit always.

At present China is under the communist regime. It is perhaps prudent to say at once a word on how much will still be granted to the missions. It is no longer a question of method, but of being able at least to remain; it is no longer a matter of means, but of life.

Lorenzo Balconi

IV. MISSIONARY METHODOLOGY IN INDIA

The problem of the conversion of India to Catholicism offers possibilities that perhaps no other non-Catholic region presents. India is the country of a profoundly religious people, among whom spiritual values are considered of primary importance and the whole of social life is organized on the basis of religious prescriptions and distinctions. All scholars of Indian history must recognize that the search for God has always been an unchanging aspect of the events of its history and that such a preoccupation has led it to neglect certain important aspects of political and economic activity and of social unification.

Christianity in India goes back at least to the 5th century. Missionaries who came from Syria evangelized the south-western region. Today that community numbers almost three million, of whom more than half belong to the Catholic Church and enjoy a relatively high social standing. In their external life they are perfectly Indian and have been regarded as such; however, they have not taken advantage of their social position to carry out missionary work.

The second movement of Christian penetration into India began with the arrival of the Portuguese in the 16th century. Their ardent zeal and enthusiasm led them to impose prohibitions on local customs and usages and to grant permissions, which gave rise to the famous question of the Malabar rites (v.). An intelligent work of adaptation was undertaken by the Jesuit De Nobili and by others, but it did not achieve the desired goals because of the question of the rites. In the last century the English government introduced English education into India, and in the various Protestant and Catholic schools many Indians came to know the doctrinal and moral principles of Christianity. Unfortunately, since English literature is largely Protestant, several prejudices against Catholicism infiltrated the minds of many. The greater ease of penetration gave great development to the apostolate among the untouchables and the aboriginal tribes of certain provinces, with good results. From the history of the missions in India some conclusions of the greatest importance can be drawn. In the first place, India offers a bewildering variety of races, languages, and types of culture and civilization. It is obvious, therefore, that missionary work must use different methods for the different groups and social classes.

Consider the numerous group of those belonging to the lowest class in India, with its two subdivisions of the untouchables and the aborigines, who number almost 100 million. Among them missionary work has been very successful. The two classic methods of approach have proved quite satisfactory. The aborigines are animists, and the depressed classes are polytheists and believers in the existence of evil spirits. The subtle speculations of philosophical pantheism are not familiar to them. The greatness of the doctrine of a transcendent God, the equality of all men before him and the consequent rejection of every notion of untouchability, his Providence and his love for men, the beauty of the person of Our Lord, and above all the message of the beauty and importance of suffering in human life, touch immediately the heart of this simple people, exercising upon it an indelible impression. Their great poverty and their many physical miseries make them the object of Christian charity, whose works of assistance constitute a great means of apostolate. Today, however, the missionary value of these works of material charity has greatly diminished. The loss of a large number of people, who could have been absorbed by Hinduism, has alarmed the Hindu leaders. One of the programmatic lines of the reformed Hinduism of the 19th century, shared by almost all the new groups — the Brāhmā Sāmā, the Arya Samā and the Theosophical Society — has been the suppression of caste and of untouchability. Moreover, the development of the political movement and of democratic ideas independently of religious considerations has given a great impulse to the work for the regeneration of the untouchables, which was crowned by the formal abolition of untouchability by the Constituent Assembly of India. It is therefore clear that those unhappy peoples no longer feel the same impulse to embrace Catholicism as in past years. Nevertheless it would be a grave error to diminish too much the missionary value of the works of charity, which make the warmth of Christian charity felt, and the profound human sympathy that the untouchables desire much more than material well-being. Even among the upper classes the works of Christian charity have great apostolic value because they always constitute the testimony of the tender charity of Our Lord.

The experience of the past leads to another conclusion: it is necessary to avoid as far as possible a direct attack against the beliefs and practices of the followers of non-Christian religions, which deprives the preacher of the aura of sympathy without which the truths of the faith ordinarily do not penetrate deeply. Moreover, it is true in general that beliefs, customs and practices are almost always more complex and more difficult to understand fully than a superficial knowledge can suggest. If the adversary receives the impression that he has not been understood or that his case has not been presented accurately, every argument will have a mediocre effect on him. The Catholic apostolate must avoid every condemnatory tactic, limiting itself to a courteous refutation when this is required by the truth, and must devote itself principally to an attractive exposition of the luminous truth of which it is the messenger. To what point is the adaptation of Christian thought and practices to non-Christian beliefs permitted? Without doubt the acceptance and maintenance of the aesthetic and intellectual aspects of non-Catholic cultures is not only permitted but essential, also in order to avoid the isolation of the converts from the rest of their own countrymen. The consequences would always be sad even when the converts desire such separation and a cultural change for whatever reason.

Therefore the system of adaptation to Indian culture, introduced by Fr. De Nobili, was a wise and necessary step. De Nobili's converts, as well as the converts of today, in the territories where he worked, are externally indistinguishable from other Hindus. They wear the same clothing; they bear the same names or Sanskrit and Tamil translations of Hebrew and Latin names similar to Hindu names; they have long hair tied in tufts and earrings. Converted Brahmins are strictly vegetarian, wear the scapular in the form of the sacred cord and use the distinctive marks of caste, to the surprise of modern Europeans. On this last point a word of explanation is necessary. There is no doubt that the maintenance and persistence of caste marks among Tamil Christians went beyond De Nobili's intentions. In particular the separation, within the Church itself, of the group of converts from the depressed classes was a survival that the early pioneers did not foresee. In our days of social reforms among the Hindus themselves and of the abolition of untouchability, this Christian caste separatism has caused a little scandal and, instead of helping conversions, has constituted an obstacle. The ecclesiastical authorities have been aware of this and have acted with vigor, abolishing these distinctions, not without the opposition of the caste Christians. It must be admitted, however, that among the converts of the Portuguese missionaries such a practice does not exist.

But cultural and social adaptation does not exhaust the problem. There exists a more serious question, that of the adaptation of philosophical and religious doctrines, that is, the effort to present Christian truths with the concepts and phraseology current in the highest Hindu thought and practice. This movement seems to go far beyond the ideas of adaptation proposed at the beginning by Fr. De Nobili. A learned demonstration of such a method is represented by the book of Fr. Johanns, To Christ through the Vedanta, and by the pamphlet of Fr. I. B. Fessein, The Vedanta vindicated. In this regard it is easy to accept the language of devotion and to adapt to Christian use the tone and spirit of certain hymns common among the Hindus, in which the concept of God and of his human manifestations is often closer to Christian thought. Indeed, among the Christians of Mahratta origin some popular hymns that are perfectly Christian are modeled closely on the devotional hymns of Tukaram, Namdev and other devotees of Vithoba. Moreover, it can be said that a good part of the beautiful Christian poetry in the Tamil language is based on the work of the Tamil Saivites and on the hymns of the celebrated Thiagaraja.

The crucial problem is always the adaptation of philosophical and doctrinal truths. Can the religious and philosophical speculations of the great Acharya, Shankara, Ramanuja, Madhva and their followers be adapted to Christianity as the thought of Plato and Aristotle was adapted? The present state of the discussion does not make an answer possible. Some considerations on the matter can, however, be set forth. In the first place, one must not forget that, notwithstanding certain divergences among the different schools of Indian philosophy and the existence of a limited number of ancient and modern adherents of a rigorous monotheism, the pantheistic conception of God is one of the predominant aspects of Indian philosophy. These ambiguities make it very difficult for the Christian believer to ascertain whether the concepts hidden behind certain names such as God, sin, Providence, common to Hinduism and Christianity, are identical in the two systems. It is obvious that pantheistic ambiguities make difficult for the Hindu certain intellectual and moral dispositions essential for the act of faith that is indispensable in Christianity. On this point adaptation must not bring about any confusion of ideas.

In the second place, one of the greatest obstacles to the conversion of the highly educated class of Hindus to Christianity is the concept of religion, vaguely current formerly in Hindu circles and now specifically and emphatically taught by Hindu leaders such as Ramakrishna and Mahatma Gandhi, according to which religions are schools of spirituality, means of attaining union with God, and just as there are different methods and schools of spirituality for obtaining this union, so the different religions are all of equal value in attaining this goal. For an educated Hindu today, Christianity is not a false religion, but is a great and good religion suited to the genius and culture of the European peoples, while his own is more suited to the genius and culture of the Indian people. Now any apologetic method tending to confirm or encourage such an attitude toward the whole religious question certainly cannot be defended.

In the third place, between India and Europe there does not exist the great cultural and psychological difference that is noted between peoples of European origin and civilization and peoples of other civilizations, especially those of the Far East, adduced as the reason and justification for a complete adaptation. The majority of the peoples of India belong to the Aryan race. They speak languages that derive from the common Aryan stock; during the last 120 years they have had a European system of education that has shaped their concepts of art and philosophy; in their entirety they accept the methods, the conclusions and the system of expressions common to modern European scientific research and are familiar with the categories of thought current in European philosophy. They can, therefore, understand and absorb the great theses of European Christian philosophy without serious difficulty.

It follows that India, on the path of preparation to receive the faith, has need not so much of a Christian philosophy as of a correct and complete transmission of the central ideas of Christian philosophy, which constitute the "praeambula fidei." To accomplish this, during the last 100 years the great instrument of the school has been placed in the hands of Catholic missionaries. The demands for education are constantly growing to such a point that the government with its resources is incapable of satisfying them. An appeal is made to private initiative and also to the missionaries to undertake educational works of a university type, which are assisted with generous financial aid. The great Christian educational institutions have not only gained a social and personal influence that has placed them in a position of esteem in the days of India's independence, but have also accomplished an indispensable work for the philosophical preparation that seems absolutely necessary before Indian intellectuals accept the Christian faith integrally. One must, therefore, conclude that a higher education given to a great host of non-Catholic students is not only a particular aspect of missionary work in India today, but also an important means of missionary methodology in the country.

Here a consideration arises, suggested by the concept of religion as a method or school of prayer and of union with God. It is not difficult to demonstrate that even basing oneself on this partial and insufficient concept of religion, Christianity has a claim to superiority over the other religions. To this end, the diffusion of the lives of the Catholic saints and of Christian holiness in general is destined to produce a profound impression on the minds of the Hindus. India bows reverently before examples of holiness. In the scale of values the saint still ranks higher than the soldier and the statesman. The immense prestige exercised by Mahatma Gandhi over his fellow citizens was due principally to the fact that he expressed in an imposing manner the Indian type of the saint. Indians read avidly the lives of the Christian saints. Perhaps until now full use has not been made of this opportunity. Every exaggeration must be avoided and one must base oneself rather on scientific investigations and on an accurate presentation in order to be able to win a decisive advantage, before the modern mentality, over the stories of Hindu ascetics and fakirs. If one succeeds in showing that Christianity is the most effective school of holiness, a great step would have been taken toward its acceptance as absolute truth. The "Catholic Truth Societies," the newspapers, the periodicals and the Catholic publishing houses can work in this direction with great profit.

But more than the story of lives lived in the past and in distant places, the examples of holiness that Catholic missionaries can and must give are immensely more effective. As has already been said, India admires the saint, and in its concept of holiness, asceticism and mortification have a very important place. Without fear of exaggeration it can be said that nothing more weakens the cause of missionary work and diminishes the possibilities of Catholic propagation than the observation of seeing Catholic missionaries, who have renounced the world and correspond to the Hindu "sanyassis," living a life that seems similar to that of the English rulers and the other European "sahebs."

Certainly, although austerity is a relative thing, one cannot deny that many European missionaries live a hard life of mortification, but their secret self-denial is often unknown to an unsympathetic observer. In India, as elsewhere, it is not enough to be just, but it must appear that justice is practiced. Similarly, it is not enough for a man to be truly holy, but his holiness must appear and shine before men. In that country there is no place for human respect regarding religious practices. Prayer, mortification, austerity of life are things that are admired and that should not be hidden among the glories of Christianity. When all other methods have failed, when discussions about the qualities of this or that method of adaptation seem to lead nowhere, such a fundamental truth always remains. To bring souls to God and to Christ one must live in a deep and clear union with God and with Christ.

In the vast territory of India, setting aside Islam, besides Hinduism, there are also followers of Buddhism, Jainism and Zoroastrianism. This fact shows that, contrary to the general supposition, India is not the country of a tenacious conservatism in the field of religions. Among the adherents of these religions the missionary method must not differ from that considered best among the high-class Hindus.

Hull, The Great Antithesis. Hinduism Vs. Christianity, Bombay 1938; Paul de la Croix, Hindu Religious Mentality, Madras 1938. Gerolamo d'Sousa

V. MISSIONARY METHODOLOGY IN JAPAN

To properly understand the problems of missionary methodology in Japan, one must first penetrate the Japanese psyche, especially in the light of the various ideologies that have nourished the spiritual life of the Japanese. These ideologies have by no means resolved themselves, in the soul of the people, into successive stratifications. Confucianism did not exclude the pre-existing Shintoism; Buddhism was able to coexist with Shintoist or Confucianist beliefs, in the name of that broad tolerance, of that curious syncretism, which drive the Japanese to try everything in order to absorb everything, convinced that absolute truth does not exist and that relative truths are all susceptible of perfectibility. Thus the history of religions in Japan is, in substance, the history of the progressive fusion of Confucianism and in particular of Buddhism, on the basis of ancient beliefs pre-existing the spread of these foreign religions.

Confucianism, which reached Japan from China around the 3rd century A.D., and its highly elaborate norms constituted the premise of the psychological developments of the Japanese. Courtesy, love of country, respect for hierarchies and for constituted authority — sentiments so alive in the Japanese — have their roots in this ancient code of honor and social morality in which, however, there is no trace of an ethic that would justify the metaphysical grounds of these norms.

In the 6th century Buddhism, already widespread in the Far East, penetrating into Japan from Korea and gaining a hold on the upper classes through the work of Prince Shōtoku (572-621), supplanted Confucianism and Shintoism, substituted for them the leaven of a more mature and more ancient civilization, and introduced into Japan the concept of the afterlife. Assuming the attitude most consonant with the Japanese "forma mentis," Buddhism began by assimilating Shintoism and penetrated, in a relatively short time, with such intelligence and elasticity into Japanese life as to become indissolubly joined to it. In a short while it knew how to create a way of living from which it is no longer possible to divert the Japanese. But this state of affairs does not generate an insurmountable obstacle to conversion. It is not difficult to accept and welcome the refined poetry of certain manifestations that have, in the final analysis, by now lost any religious sense. If today, in fact, Buddhism preserves its positions in the countryside, in well-advanced cities it has instead been almost completely emptied of an authentic religious sentiment, to assume the complex appearance of a pantheist philosophy. Even the intellectual bonzes are rarely believers, and those who do believe are superstitious and ignorant. But the divine ferment of spiritual restlessness exists and is proven by the rise, the swarming and the affirmation of superstitious beliefs, such as those of tenri-kyo, hitono-michi, ohmoto-kyo, etc.

The greatest obstacle that stands in the way of Christianity is rather given by the materialism that nests in Buddhism as in Confucianism, by the lack of a consciousness of universal and absolute values — a lack that is the fruit of that innate eclecticism by which Japan appears, even today, the immense crucible of the most disparate ideas in a continuous phase of adaptation and transformation. Nonetheless, already St. Francis Xavier in 1549 wrote that it "was a joy" to sow the divine word among that people, greedy for moral equilibrium and spiritual certainties.

A fervent apostolic activity then united missionaries and people in a single impulse (v. GIAPPONE, III. Evangelizzazione). When Meiji opened the country's frontiers (1868) to Western civilization, the Japanese people easily mastered the technical secrets of the Western world, but it was not easy for them to assimilate the fruits of its millennial philosophy. It was above all utilitarianism, scientific positivism and modernism that penetrated the Japanese soul. Moreover, the Protestants, with their schools and the press, cast Catholicism in a bad light and succeeded in winning over various elements of the educated class.

Catholics too had come to Japan, without having the means of the Protestants, without being supported by the prestige of a great European Catholic élite. Although the Constitution of 1889 guarantees freedom of worship, opposition to Catholicism was strong everywhere, in the progressive cities as in the countryside tenaciously entrenched in ancestral traditions. Catholics fought and fight on two fronts: against the advance of progressive theories and the stubborn defense of the ideological positions of the past. The efforts of the missionaries and, in particular, of the fathers of the Paris Foreign Missions, who practically laid the foundations of the Japanese Church, were enormous. The Marianists founded the first Catholic school; very many others followed, until, in 1913, the Jesuits established the first Catholic university.

But nationalist sentiment was stronger than ever. Having defeated Russia, Japan believed in its invincibility. The militarists took advantage of this to disrupt the weak oppositions of the intellectual class imbued with liberalism and to secure, imperceptibly, the levers of command, up to the final catastrophe.

In 1945, with the myths pulverized, patriotic ideals humiliated, national pride shattered, the Japanese people found themselves facing the most frightful tragedy of their history, in indescribable conditions of material and moral misery. Only Christianity can fill the fearful void of their soul, but anyone who believed he could win it to God by taking advantage of the advantages offered by the present situation would fall into a fatal error, because the soul of a people does not change, by decree, in the brief span of a few years. In this soul the old ferments of restlessness darkly seethe. If Shintoism, as a national religion, is prohibited, if Confucianism appears remote and out of date, if Buddhism crystallizes into the vain repetition of rites consecrated by tradition, there remain, in the darkest depths of the Japanese soul, all their sediments. Against these sediments, against the utilitarian and opportunistic sense, against the old and the new materialism, against the advancing Marxist ideology, Catholic missionaries must struggle. A hard task, which requires a precise knowledge of a situation that is not only the product of recent events, but has remote origins and is the sum of all that has been set forth thus far.

In the first place it is necessary to show the Japanese people that Catholicism is not in tow of any political power, nor is it a foreign religion of foreigners, because, by its essence, it transcends any racial or national frontier. Moreover, when the force of the spirit has vanquished the adoration of matter, when to the narrow vision of relative truths dear to the Japanese mentality it becomes possible to substitute the incomparable light of the one absolute truth, which is that of Christ, then alone will the ground be free for a fruitful apostolic activity. The missionary's work, therefore, must not be limited to the establishment of charities, always praiseworthy, but — in order to eradicate from the Japanese mentality the utilitarian concept of the missionary, esteemed because he is a learned man and a philanthropist — the basic problem remains that of the cautious and intelligent demolition of all those ideological superstructures of ancient and recent date that have until now barred the way to the universality of the Catholic idea.

If Buddhism has infused in the Japanese a love for nature, for symbols, for solemn ceremonies, the missionary can demonstrate that the Roman liturgy is capable of exercising a far deeper suggestion upon spirits and that no one knew how to love and sing nature like a Catholic saint: Francis of Assisi. If Confucianism has educated the people to courtesy, respect, and fidelity, the missionary will teach that only Catholic ethics, which preaches the same noble sentiments, clarifies their most exalted motive, which is solely the law of love. If the Japanese preserve their sense of dignity and suffer from the present debasement of moral values, due to the consequences of the defeat, the missionary will say that Catholicism is the highest champion of a morality that admits no deviations. If Western philosophies and sciences have polarized the interest of the Japanese, the missionary possesses such elements as to be able to demonstrate that Christian philosophy is far higher than the intellectual currents that have seduced the Japanese spirit, and that the truths demonstrated by science coincide today, in very many cases, with those proclaimed by faith. If to thousands of the dispossessed the Marxist ideology appears as the last hope, the missionary will demonstrate, concretely and practically, by putting into practice the law of Christian charity, that no social doctrine equals the Christian concept of justice and human dignity.

The method will vary according to whether the missionary operates in the cities or in the provinces, whether he has to deal with men or with women, with the old or with the young, with Confucianists or with Buddhists or with Protestants, but the key to final success will always depend on the mental elasticity with which the missionary knows how to present to the prospective converts the unique message of Christ, appealing to the healthiest virtues of the race, which are not incompatible with this message.

The Church has begun to create its cadres in Japan by making use of indigenous elements, and today all the bishops are Japanese. But difficulties arise in great number from the fact that Catholics are in the minority and it is therefore not always possible to carry out a broad selection among the available elements. Japan thus remains, fundamentally, a mission country. The kyoku-renmei (the local hierarchy), which comprises all the bishops, the heads of the various missionary organizations and of the charitable works, is the coordinating body of all Catholic activities, created precisely with the intention of not dispersing efforts. Between the indigenous clergy and the Western clergy there is need of a union as firm as that which bound the first Christians, a weak and heroic minority in the face of the overwhelming power of the Roman Empire, that union which enabled them to ensure the triumph of Christ. In fact, the Church finds itself today in Japan at approximately the same phase of development as its beginnings in the West. It is not possible simply to transplant the complex ecclesiastical organism existing in countries of long Catholic tradition. On the contrary, it is necessary that religious teaching, without impairing the purity of dogma, know how to proceed by degrees, making concessions where possible, subsequently supplementing among the converts this elementary teaching with another, complementary and higher.

Buddhism perhaps had such great success in Japan because it was the bearer of the most refined expressions of that Chinese civilization which the Japanese admired. Today, the Catholic Church presents itself to the same Japan as the highest expression of Western civilization, whose greatness the Japanese acknowledge. And just as Francis Xavier asked that they send him the greatest European scholars so that the force of their arguments might defeat the Japanese sages on their own ground and with their own weapons, so today it is necessary that especially the highest European culture participate, directly or indirectly, in the evangelization of this people.

Agostino M. Kanayama

VI. PRESENCE AND ACTION OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH IN THE COUNTRIES OF ISLAM

If one examines a religious map of the world, and more precisely of the Christian world and the lands of Islam, one is struck by the homogeneity of the divisions. Over immense territories, populated by races that are very different even in their social life, the same religion unites men to the exclusion of every other. One notes the clear distinction and the historical rupture of the "old world" into two zones, the one called the Christian West and the other the East, largely Muslim.

Both are heirs and authors of highly original civilizations, which only rarely express themselves in the languages common to the two worlds in question.

In time and in space there have been contacts between Christendom and Islam, but under conditions that have strangely falsified their results: not a true mutual knowledge, nor a mutual understanding, but only external contacts, which ordinarily have served to deepen the differences, not to say the enmities.

Islam is convinced that it possesses within itself its salvation, the salvation of each man and of all men. It expects nothing from outside except the danger of corruption and debasement. This is a very strong assertion, full of consequences in its simplicity, but one that many non-Muslims still struggle to understand. Without doubt the Koran contains generous words for the "people of the book," Jews and Christians, who have benefited from the written Revelation; but it reserves harsh words for those who have not known how to preserve the Revelation faithfully. They have changed and falsified their sacred books. One must admit that if the Koran criticizes Christian dogmatic positions, this depends on the fact that it has in mind the doctrines of the Christian heresies that swarmed in Arabia at the time of Mohammed. The criticisms hit the mark more than once. Nevertheless the deep respect for the Prophet-Thaumaturge Jesus, son of Mary, inculcated by the Koran itself, has remained in Islam and has vividly impressed the popular mentality, which knows and venerates not only the person of Jesus but also the central point of Christian doctrine, that is, the precept of goodness and mercy (sūrah 57, 26).

Unfortunately the world of Islam, taken as a whole, sees a Christian world long divided and launched upon the conquest of other peoples and especially of Muslims. Of the Church it has known rather the exterior, in an unpleasant confusion of politics and religion, and it ignores, and could not admit if it knew it, the continuity Jesus-Church and that the Church is the Mystical Body of Christ. Moreover, always following the Koran, it rejects as a greater impiety toward divine transcendence the dogma of the Incarnation. It follows that a mutual understanding in the doctrinal field and in the practical one presents itself as very delicate and difficult.

When Christians began to know Islam, they immediately took up an attitude of defense in order to safeguard Christian doctrine, and the literature is not free from sarcasm and violent attacks. This way of acting has lasted down to our own days, so that the one is the enemy of the other. History speaks of Christians, theologians and religious, who sought by the most varied means to make known to Muslims the true doctrinal thought of the Church. Their efforts, however, remained practically without result. One must wait for the 19th century and the historical circumstances of a new effort by the Church to extend itself into certain regions recently opened to the penetration of the Western world, especially in Africa, in order to confront the true problem of rapprochement. It was the merit of Cardinal Lavigerie (v.) to have emphasized that the difficulty of an encounter is fundamentally of a doctrinal order, but in reality depends on prejudices and obstacles of a psychological order. The true means of making them disappear is that the Church, through Christians and first of all through her priests and missionaries, present herself as the heir and continuer of Jesus, who left to his disciples the single precept of charity. Only through charity will Muslims be able to recognize them as faithful to their Master and to the Gospel and worthy of their confidence.

"The message that you have heard from the beginning is that you love one another" (1 Is. 3, 11). Of that message Muslims await the Church's testimony. This is what is said not only by the Koran, but also by the simple country population, which often repeats it to Christians: "what we await from you is mercy and goodness."

The word charity must sum up the whole reason for the presence of the Church and of her action in the midst of peoples who are not under her obedience. Therefore her first quality must be disinterestedness. If the witness of Christ in the midst of Muslims wishes to be a conqueror, a fighter, who launches into the assault, it is better for him and for the Church that he remain in his own home. He must instead be a witness of Christ and be so for his whole life. In particular he must preserve a complete independence from temporal powers, manifest a sovereign respect for autonomous societies and their structure and for the civilizations in which they live and which have been created or reformed by Islam. It is likewise necessary to respect the efforts of social progress and of evolutions toward this or that form of civilization, even if imbued with a Christian spirit, because this is not the Church's affair. All the more will the Christian show a sincere love for the religious sentiment of those men who do not follow his faith, but who are also men of faith. One must, therefore, love them as they are and not insofar as they resemble us.

More positively, the witnesses of the Church before Muslims must assume their responsibilities so that the material progress brought by the West does not constitute an occasion of moral and spiritual ruin. A total overturning of all the structures of social and individual life is under way. Modern technology and economics are ruining the traditional frameworks that maintained in their efficacy the Islamic precepts of moral and religious life. Everything risks being brutally swept away.

In what way can the Church practically assume her share of responsibility? Primarily, by awakening or creating a new spirit in the Christian minority populations of Muslim countries, that is, an authentically Christian and Catholic spirit. If these were to shut themselves up in a spirit of superiority, they should be invited to open themselves to the surrounding reality: to ensure that the collaborations or contacts that these Christians have sought on the political or economic plane be established also on a human plane. Even at the cost of a true heroism, let them know how to observe an attitude of justice based on the fundamental equality of men, all creatures of God and loved by their Creator, and an attitude of charity that obliges them to dedicate themselves to others even with sacrifice, sincerely convinced that whoever has received more must give more. One easily understands that such an effort, required of Christians, demands a special and arduous formation.

Furthermore, Christian monasticism, with its practice of a life of adoration and contemplation, will be able to draw broad currents of sympathy and confidence toward Christianity. However, those religious congregations whose members consecrate their lives to the world of Islam in a pure movement of charity deserve a special note. They will profess great respect for the opinions and behaviors of those whose life they wish to share. Therefore they will follow their habits, gestures, language, and culture to the limits of what is possible. Through their language and culture, they will seek to grasp their psychology and mentality. With great care they will highlight all the points of history or of philosophical or religious doctrine common to Muslims and Christians.

In this regard it is indispensable to remember that the Muslim community proudly flings itself against any external attempt, since it sees in it a threat and a will to attack what it holds most sacred. Now the Church has been sent to save and not to lose, to bring a completion to what is purest in the aspirations of those peoples, who moreover are ready to welcome what they do not have but not to lose what they possess. The witness of the Church, therefore, will not limit himself to knowing what Muslims are, but through a wise adaptation will walk together with them in all that is morally legitimate, until he is admitted, indeed requested, to make the contribution of new riches. It is easy to understand that such a view of things, such a generous adaptation, makes the missionary an educator, who teaches his fellow men the use of their freedom; and a guide of the other Christians living in the midst of Muslims.

He will be the one who provokes fruitful encounters, conversations, and exchanges in the field of intelligence and action, in order to open hearts and let them be enriched, spontaneously finding their own good. He will take care to restore to all, men and women, the sense of their personal responsibilities so that they may assume them. To this end, he prepares generations of educators, of qualified men, of heads of families. By restoring their confidence in themselves, he will provide them with the practical means of putting into practice the principles that they know and that they realize only in part.

Giacomo Lanfry