Clueless
Member
- Apr 30, 2024
- 32
- 36
I'm currently in China for a month and there I had visited the Catholic Sacret Heart Cathedral in Guangzhou, Guangdong, China.
A few disclaimers:
- The stained glass is covered by metal bars, this is very usually in Guangzhou, there are several reasons for this. It's an area with many tyfoons and stuff flies around when a tyfoon hits. Furthermore, it's also done to prevent breaking it through glass.
- There is a sign at the entrance court of the church which explains that the church and the government don't always align, but as any church, they have the responsibility to abide by federal and local laws. Their goal is to preach the gospel as pure as possible and keep the Roman Catholic traditions inside of the church intact. They ask understanding for Chinese Christians for this complexity and encourage everyone to abide the local law.
- No, inside the church court there is no state marketing signs or other forms or propaganda.
My experience, walking here felt incredibly good. It was quite, peaceful, one of the church servants was explaining the origin in Christianity and the Cathedral in Guangzhou, but my Cantonese is limited so I couldn't understand most of it.
I'd like to state that all local visitors, probably atheist with buddhist/taoist influenced lifestyles, all acted very respectful, interested. I was around at the opening visiting hours for the general public.
Some facts:
- Daily Cantonese sermons are given. In the weekends or evenings they give some mandarin sermons and on sunday there is an English sermon as well.
- The cathedral was mostly funded by Napoleon III.
- This Catholic cathedral was founded in the 1800s and was built by Chinese craftsmen in European Gothic style
God bless the Chinese Christians, who sometimes have to bite their tongue.
But I guess so do we with all the woke-ism.
A few disclaimers:
- The stained glass is covered by metal bars, this is very usually in Guangzhou, there are several reasons for this. It's an area with many tyfoons and stuff flies around when a tyfoon hits. Furthermore, it's also done to prevent breaking it through glass.
- There is a sign at the entrance court of the church which explains that the church and the government don't always align, but as any church, they have the responsibility to abide by federal and local laws. Their goal is to preach the gospel as pure as possible and keep the Roman Catholic traditions inside of the church intact. They ask understanding for Chinese Christians for this complexity and encourage everyone to abide the local law.
- No, inside the church court there is no state marketing signs or other forms or propaganda.
My experience, walking here felt incredibly good. It was quite, peaceful, one of the church servants was explaining the origin in Christianity and the Cathedral in Guangzhou, but my Cantonese is limited so I couldn't understand most of it.
I'd like to state that all local visitors, probably atheist with buddhist/taoist influenced lifestyles, all acted very respectful, interested. I was around at the opening visiting hours for the general public.
Some facts:
- Daily Cantonese sermons are given. In the weekends or evenings they give some mandarin sermons and on sunday there is an English sermon as well.
- The cathedral was mostly funded by Napoleon III.
- This Catholic cathedral was founded in the 1800s and was built by Chinese craftsmen in European Gothic style
God bless the Chinese Christians, who sometimes have to bite their tongue.
But I guess so do we with all the woke-ism.
