This so-called Promoting a More Democratic Church does not involve a change in either doctrine or dogma. Its real pur- pose is how to encourage and organize the clergy and laity to participate in the management of church affairs. They should depend on themselves to discuss church matters in a more demo-
cratic way according to China"s national environment. This is a trend of social management worldwide; this is also a request that the self-developing Chinese socialist society has for all com- munities in China. It is indeed the same as the Church"s "People of God‘ saying that all Christians have the duty and mission to preach the Gospel. By doing this, it helps the Church to make its management become more scientific so as to reduce human er- ror. Most importantly; the Church can heed a wider spectrum of voices, especially, those from other sectors of society, which re- flects the true needs of society. During the last four decades or so, the Church has had some successful experiences after many trials and practices. After the establishment of the CCPC, its mem-bership was extended to all clergy and laity. All the local patri- otic associations became a good model in terms of organizing clergy and laity to participate in the management of church af- fairs. However, within the Catholic Church in China, there are still some different opinions on promoting a more democratic church as well as great differences in practice. All these things need further research and comprehension.
The situation of the Catholic Church in China is quite dif- ferent from the Church in Europe, though it has employed Saint Thomas Aquinas‘ theological concepts. In order to establish a Chinese theological system, delegates at the second Catholic Rep- resentatives’ Congress in 1986 urged: "Work hard in order to cre- ate an environment, to provide materials and to organize all the capable people to study continuously the recent theological de- velopment. After organizing and editing all these materials, we can develop a new theology which is workable in China.‘ After- wards, a Theological Study Group was formed by the BCCCC and had its first Theological Study Seminar in 1987. In the 1990s, the BCCCC expanded the Theological Study Group into a Theo- logical Study committee with its own publication Theological Studies, which comes out periodically. Many seminars were held to discuss a variety of topics: Three-Self"s, Church self-construc-tion, family planning, democratization etc., as well as theologi- cal discussion on the meanings of redemption and ecclesiology in a multi-system society.
On the occasion of the Christmas in 1999, the BCCCC sent out a pastoral letter Millennium Pastoral Letter to All Clergy and Laity in which, the themes of Promoting a More Democratic Church and Theological Studies were restated. The pastoral let- ter indicated its task as to build up the spirit of promoting a more democratic church, enhance the laity"s understanding of church affairs and their participation. The letter also asked the people"to move forward as the new era requires and change their opin- ions to respect and to lead all laity to participate in church affairs in order to work together to evangelize.‘ In terms of theological studies, it states: "Enforcing theological studies and theological thoughts, study and research into the theories and methods suit- able for pastoral work in China, advance the emergence of the Christian faith and Chinese culture so that a theory and guidance can be provided for our evangelization that will be able to adapt to the socialist teachings.’
