CHINESE JESUIT PRIEST.

New Zealand Tablet, 29 May 1919, Page 35

CHINESE JESUIT PRIEST.

A visitor of unusual interest recently in New York was the Rev. Peter Chan, a Chinese Jesuit priest. The young member of . the Society of Jesus has come from Europe, where he finished his studies and received Holy Orders. With French, Spanish, and Portuguese * already at his command, he now desires to learn English. Father Chan comes from the south of China. In 1912 a new mission was established, there, with headquarters in the town of Shiu-Hing, 70 miles from the great city of Canton. In this district the Pagans number 6,000,000, and the Catholics only 1000, with 300 catechumens preparing for baptism. Father Chan himself belongs to a family that has been, Catholic, for 250 years. When the Jesuit missionaries were withdrawn in the latter part of the eighteenth century most of the Catholic population gradually removed to .larger, centres, like Canton and Macao, where they could rely upon having Mass and the Sacraments. Only, the Chan family and one other clung to their homes and remained faithful to their religion through more than. a century of difficulties and persecution. . .