Scholars listed a number of facts to illustrate that in modern history, the activities of Catholic missionaries were closely linked with foreign forces' invasion of China.

Professor Dai Yi said: "Lots of foreign missionaries followed the warships of foreign aggressors to China in and after the Opium War, and actually foreign aggression and missionaries' activities are combined into one. That is, missionaries' activities were an integral part of invasion, missionaries acted as guides and tools for foreign aggressors and in return, aggressors paved the way for the missionaries' activities."

Some participants at the meeting stressed that foreign missionaries should pay for their actions because their evils exasperated the Chinese people and eventually led to the outburst of the Yi He Tuan (known as Boxers) Movement.

Participants pointed out that foreign missionaries executed in certain "religious cases", such as Auguste Chapdelaine, Franciscus de Capillas and Albericus Crescitelli, had only themselves to blame for still being hated by people today, because they failed to stop evil.

The Holy See, disregarding the strong opposition from the Chinese people, has "canonized" these infamous missionaries.

This reveals the Vatican's intention of intervening in China's internal affairs through religious activities, the scholars said, pointing out that the "canonization" tramples on the sovereignty of the Chinese Catholic Church and is a provocation to all Chinese people.

The scholars said China is strong enough to protect its national security and dignity and any attempt to distort history and humiliate its people is doomed to failure.

Participants at the meeting included professors and researchers from the People's University of China, Peking University, the Beijing Normal University, the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences and other academic institutes specializing in history or religion.

(Xinhua 10/06/2000)