The Catholic Church in China (called Tiānzhǔ Jiào, 天主教, literally "Religion of the Lord of Heaven" after the Chinese term for the Christian God) has a long and complicated history. John of Montecorvino was the first Roman Catholic missionary to reach China proper and first bishop of Khanbaliq during the Yuan dynasty (1271–1368).
After the 1949 takeover by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), Catholic and Protestant missionaries were expelled from the country and Christianity was generally characterized as a manifestation of western colonial imperialism.
In 1957, the Chinese government established the Catholic Patriotic Association in Beijing, China, which rejects the authority of the Holy See and appoints its own preferential bishops. Since September 2018, however, an agreement was reached, giving the Pope the power to veto any bishop which the Chinese government recommends. However, the Church has claimed this agreement was breached in November 2022 and July 2023 when two bishops were installed without prior approval or consultation by the Vatican.
Chinese terms
Terms used to refer to God in Chinese differ even among Christians.
Arriving in China during the Tang dynasty, the earliest Christian missionaries from the Church of the East referred to their religion as Jǐngjiào (景教, literally, "bright teaching"). Originally, some Catholic missionaries and scholars advanced the use of Shàngdì (上帝, literally, "The Emperor from Above"), as being more native to the Chinese language, but ultimately the Catholic hierarchy decided that the more Confucian term, Tiānzhǔ (天主, literally, "Lord of Heaven"), was to be used, at least in official worship and texts. Within the Catholic Church, the term '' (公教, literally "universal teaching") is not uncommon, this being also the original meaning of the word "catholic". When Protestants finally arrived in China in the 19th century, they favored Shangdi over Tianzhu. Many Protestants also use Yēhéhuá (耶和华, a transliteration of Jehovah) or Shén (神), which generically means "god" or "spirit", although Catholic priests are called shénfù (神父, literally "spiritual father"). Meanwhile, the Mandarin Chinese translation of "Christ", used by all Christians, is Jīdū (基督).
Catholics and Protestants
The modern Chinese language generally divides Christians into two groups: adherents of Catholicism, Tiānzhǔjiào (天主教), and adherents of Protestantism, Jīdūjiào (基督教) or Jīdū Xīnjiào (基督新教—"New Religion"). Chinese speakers see Catholicism and Protestantism as distinct religions. Thus, in Western languages, the term "Christianity" can subsume both Protestants and Catholics (i.e., Christians as opposed to, for example, Hindus or Jews). In Chinese, however, there is not a commonly used term that can subsume the two (but today in Chinese Catholic literature, the term "Jīdū zōngjiào" (基督宗教) is used to signify all Christian sects, as the term in Chinese means "religion of Christ"). Eastern Orthodoxy is called Dōngzhèngjiào (東正教), which is simply a literal translation of "Eastern Orthodox Religion" into Chinese.
Tang dynasty (618–690, 705–907) The Catholic Church first entered China during the cosmopolitan Tang dynasty era, although it had few native Chinese followers until the 16th century in the Ming dynasty.
Yuan dynasty (1271–1368)
The Nestorian Christian and Turkic Chinese monk Rabban Bar Sauma (c. 1220–1294) travelled from China to Europe to meet Pope Nicholas IV.
Missionary priests of the Latin Catholic Church in Europe are recorded to have entered China in the 13th century, with the earliest being Franciscans. The Italian Franciscan priest John of Montecorvino arrived in Khanbaliq (modern-day Beijing) in 1294. In 1299 he built a church and in 1305 a second opposite the imperial palace. Having made a study of the local language, he began to translate the New Testament and the Psalms. Estimates of converts range from 6,000 to 30,000 by the year 1300. In 1307 Pope Clement V sent seven Franciscan bishops to consecrate John of Montecorvino as Archbishop of Peking. The three who survived the journey did so in 1308 and succeeded each other as bishops at Zaiton, where John had established. In 1312 three more Franciscan bishops arrived from Rome to aid John until his death in 1328. He converted Armenians in China and Alans in Beijing to Catholicism. Armenians in Quanzhou were also Franciscan Catholics. The Franciscan Odoric of Pordenone visited China during this era. Katarina Vilioni's Catholic tombstone was found in Yangzhou.