For religious who study abroad, returning to China can be a challenge

Published: 2007-04-05

BEIJING (CNS) -- Studying abroad can help Chinese priests and nuns understand the universal church, but it also can cause a culture shock when they return to their country. Sister Pauline Yu Chunjing was 34 years old and still had one year of study left at New York's Fordham University when the Sisters of Our Lady of All Holy Souls elected her their superior. Sister Pauline, who already had earned a master's degree in pastoral theology at St. John's University in Collegeville, Minn., traveled back to China for about 10 days, then returned to Fordham to complete a master's degree in spiritual direction. She said that when she returned to China again early in 2006 she had to readjust to the culture. "I did not feel that I changed too much, but other sisters could see immediately that I changed," she said March 5 in Beijing. Sister Pauline said she became frustrated when members of her order came to her for very small things, and she became impatient with them. "They think it's obedience, but I think it's not (being) responsible for themselves or their work," she said.

Copyright (c) 2007 Catholic News Service /U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. The CNS news report may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or otherwise distributed, including but not limited to such means as framing or any other digital copying or distribution method, in whole or in part without the prior written authority of Catholic News Service .