China: Over 22,000 Christians baptized on Easter Sunday

On Easter Sunday, April 15, it was reported that 22,104 people were baptized into the Christian faith in China. The statistics were collected by the Study Centre of Faith in the Chinese province of He Bei. These new Christians joined the Catholic Church. Of these, 75 per cent are adults who belong to 101 dioceses. In He Bei itself, 4,410 people were baptized on Easter Sunday, 615 more than last year. In Hong Kong, which has more than 360,000 faithful, there were 3,500 baptisms.

In some Chinese dioceses, not all baptisms are celebrated at Easter. For example, in Shang Hai there were 379 Easter baptisms but the total figure could exceed 1,500 by the end of the year. According to Sister Li Guo Shuang of the Study Center, "there are still some dioceses or communities which, due to communication difficulties, have not yet reported data to us. So we must emphasise that the figures are not complete, they may still increase".