Teresa Meng Weina’s story is beautiful. The slight
almost sixty-year old Chinese lady, winner of the international
Vittorio Colombo prize, entrusted her story to Vatican news agency Fides.
She talks about how one can become a Christian in today’s
communist-capitalist China, where the big change triggered by business
and money no longer manages to keep its inestimable social costs under
wraps.
Meng Weina’s story is linked to the key phases
that have marked the past few decades in the People’s Republic of China.
At the time of the Cultural Revolution, she was still a girl, the
daughter of a high official of the communist nomenclature. In the 80’s,
when she was in her 30’s she lived in Guanzhou (Canton), the capital of
Guangdong, where the economy first started “opening up” as a result of
Deng Xiaoping’s efforts. She says she belongs “to that generation that
had no ideas of its own and incapable of reflecting on life.” She added
that in the mid 80’s she felt “lost and disappointed by [her]self
because [she] wasn’t able to accomplish anything in [her] life.”
Then she happened to read a short article in an
old newspaper, about the Nobel Peace Prize awarded to Mother Teresa of
Calcutta. She is moved by this little Albanian nun who helps her find a
way out of her desolate existential situation. She decides to follow her
example and dedicate herself to the poor, the homeless and the mentally
ill. At the time, she did not even know Mother Teresa was a Catholic
nun, Meng says. She herself has never come across Catholicism. She knows
nothing about “Patriotic Churches” and “illegal Churches”.
That name, printed on an old crinkly newspaper
page, was what led her to other Christians. First, the Christians of
Caritas Hong Kong, whom she contacted to help achieve her aim, given
that in China “charity initiatives were practically non-existent”. With
their support, a new school was inaugurated in Guangzhou in 1985, which
began offering assistance to 96 mentally disabled children.
At the time, there was no such thing as social
services provided by non-governmental entities. Huiling - a Chinese
organisation whose name stands for “spiritual wisdom - changed that. In
1990 Huiling started taking in over 16s with mental disabilities. Then,
in 1995, Fernando Cagnin, an Italian priest from the Pontifical
Institute for Foreign Missions, started working for the organisation.
“When Fr. Cagnin arrived,” Meng said, “he didn’t
speak to me about the Catholic faith at the beginning. His life inspired
me to find my path. It was not the words he used that made his message
so strong, but the fact that he lived this message.” Meng attended
catechesis courses in Guangzhou Cathedral and was baptised during the
Easter vigil of 7 April 1998. She chose Teresa as her Christian name, in
memory of the blessed figure who accompanied her in a mysterious manner
during her first steps in her Christian adventure.
Teresa Meng’s story is a beautiful one, also
because it describes a dimension of Chinese Christianity which
newspapers and agencies that specialise on the Churches in China,
ignore: the silent but determined charity work that many baptised
Christians are carrying out in China, within the limits imposed by the
State’s policy on religion. Those who testify the Word of Christ in the
only way it is meant to be testified not just in China but in the rest
of the world: not with speeches or cultural battles, but through those
acts of physical and spiritual mercy, which are only practicable if
Christ’s grace is present and changes people’s hearts.
Almost 30 years since its foundation, Huiling
alone has opened more than 100 centres in 13 Chinese metropolises,
employing 300 members of staff who assist over a thousand disabled
people. The NGO’s services are also accessible online, helping thousands
across the country. A bakery chain has also been opened to provide jobs
to those who receive the assistance. “All the young people, visitors
and everyone who has come into contact with us have been infected by our
faith, through silent testimony. We collaborate closely with local
Christian communities, particularly with similar entities run by Chinese
nuns.”
But as Chinese society heads towards the future at
full throttle, selfishness is spreading in various areas. The voracity
of the new oligarchies, widespread corruption, the inhuman consequences
of uncontrolled economic development undermine the ties and Confucian
solidarity upon which social harmony was once based. For example, last
July Chinese authorities tried to make filial piety a legal obligation.
In this context, with the “Huiling miracle” the
government was presented with “an unusual case because thanks to our
work, they realised that the NGOs, religious ones included, are not a
threat, but an efficient aid … Our aim is to restore dignity to the
mentally disabled, by offering them our Christian love and helping them
to reintegrate themselves into everyday life. The authorities liked this
principle so much that they point to us as a model of social service
provision in China and for other NGOs,” Teresa explained.
Teresa is well aware of the fact that Chinese
authorities in showing such great openness, are thinking first and
foremost about what they can personally gain from this in terms of
reductions in social expenses. “Obviously they do not take the role of
the Holy Spirit into consideration!” she told Fides. Huiling’s
founder said care needs to be taken to ensure that that faith-inspired
miracle of charity does not become weighed down by bureaucratic
processes.
The key points in Teresa Meng Weina’s story seem
to bear close similarities with the points Pope Francis focuses on in
his teachings. The Church is a field hospital in China too. Time will
tell whether Christians will be capable of finding new ways to spread
the Christian message across the Celestial Empire, by taking the
adventurous path of charity.