Sunday at the South Cathedral

My second Sunday in China was a little rainy to begin with, but became a sunny day despite that.

I was able to catch a Mass at the South Cathedral in Beijing which really lifted my spirits and made me feel a comforting sense of normalcy.

I had missed last week's mass, so I was really looking forward to it. Last week, I had visited St. Josephs, and thought that's where the English mass was being held. As usual, I was slightly mistaken. The taxi took me to the South Cathedral for the mass and all was fine, even though I was in a TOTALLY different area of town.

The cathedral was built in 1601 and was visited over 20 times by Chinese Emperors. They have masses in English every Sunday at 10.00 and 4.30.

I was really overcome, quite frankly, by being at this church. I got a bit emotional. Not only because it felt great to be going to mass, but because of all the hardships this parish and diocese has had to go through over the years just to survive. Riots, Japanese occupation and the PRC's policies have been tough, I'm sure. To a certain extent, I applaud the Chinese for "allowing" the church to continue, although I have heard that masses are restricted to foreign nationals. I did not have to show a passport or anything (like anyone would confuse me with a Chinese national) but I didn't see anyone else showing theirs either.

There was a heavy media presence there as some kind of political - Western - big shot was there. Strange to see video and still photographers shooting communion and wandering all around mass.

Father's homily included "questioning authority" which was an interesting topic. Nothing too hard hitting, but a message there nonetheless.

The congregation applauded us visitors and were obviously happy we were there. We outnumbered the parishioners - no surprise - a fact pointed out by the priest to much laughter.

They have a great choir and a beautiful church. I look forward to next week's mass.

PS - Father told me that he has 17 seminarians helping him with services at the athlete village. I told him I thought that was so kind. "God bless you", he said "but that's our job, isn't it?". Touche.