The Irish standard., 1912-01-20
Harvest Great, But Workers Few in
the Vast Mission Fields of
Celestial Empire.
The Country is not the Wild Place
it Used to be-Priests and
Nuns Respected.
Irishmen and Their Families to be
Found Living in the Heart
of China.

Rev. J. M. Fraser of the Catholic
Mission at Ningpo. China, in a letter
to the Catholic Register, Toronto, says
that China will be the next mission
field for Irish priests. He says, in
part:
That China is the next mission field
for the Irish appears certain. Be-
sides Fathers Kennedy, Murphy,
OHalloran, Doherty and others al
ready in the field, three others are fin
ishing theology in Holland, and a
number Of others are making their
course in Ireland. There is no good
reason why during the next ten years
a. hundred Irish missionaries should
not land in China. They may be secu-
lar or religious, for both are in China.
Young Irish vincentians, Dominicans,
Franciscans and Jesuits would be very
acceptable in their respective vicar
iates, and young secular priests Il my
self am a secular) are needed
throughout the whole Of China, to be
models for the native clergy, which is
nearly all secular. Seminarians who
desire to go to China may finish their
education in philosophy and theology
In All Hallows or Propaganda, Rome,
where there are ten free burses for
China, or in Colegio Brignole Saie.
Genoa, where I made my course of
theology.
Why should we sleep whilst the
emissaries of Satan are sowing the
seed Of perdition in this vast vineyard
of the Lord? There are 5000 Protest.
ant missionaries, men and women in
China, and they employ 1900 Chin
ese helpers to spread heresy. May an
army of Irish priests and nuns go out
to confound them! When Protest.
ants can go by the thousand should
we, the children Of God and soldiers
of Christ, be afraid? There are, more
over, Irishmen, Catholic laymen, who
are living for the past twenty years
in the heart Of China with their wives
and children in order to make a living.
They put us to shame.
China is not the wild place it used
to be. A foreigner may now go any,
where without a passport and unmo-
Tested. Priests and nuns are respect
ed, even by the pagans, and If an out
break takes place (Which is becoming
rarer and rarer) they are the first to
be protected by the local authorities.
During the last twenty years the
members of the Catholic Church have
doubled in number, there being now
100000 Catholic Chinese. Whilst
most of the money received by the
Protestant minister is spent on his
wife and family, every penny the
Catholic missionary receives goes to-
wards the propagation of the Faith,
the erection of churches, support of
schools, the saving of outcast chill
dren. and the education of Chinese
young men for the priesthood. Then
again, the ca holic priests, as we'll as
the nuns, spend their whole life at
their work, and die in the land Of
their choice. In Ningpo a proof of
their devotedness is found in the
twelve graves of priests, and fifty Sis
ters Of Charity. In this parish there
are, besides myself, two priests. We
have 5000 Catholics to minister to and
Several million pagans to convert (be-
sides the city of Ningpo there are $50
towns and villages). Few conversions
of the rich, or those in power. take
place; but the number Of wo-kmen
and their families converted is stead
lily on the increase. The Catholics are
good, honest people in their daily lives
and faithful to the rules Of the Church.
Their children are so well safeguarded
that although they live in the midst
of paganism, they know little or moth
ing. about idolatry and wickedness.
Hundreds of families date back their
Catholicity two and three centuries
All the Catholics are we'll instructed.
love their religion, and fulfill its obli-
cations in spite of obstacles and sacri.
fees. In our Province we have a
community of ffty-f1ve Chinese nuns,
H.