Out of Love

Once free...For ever free.

On March 14 the People's Republic of China enacted the so called "Anti-secession" law. The aim of this law is to suppress freedom of speech in Taiwan and to "legalize" its continuous war threat towards Taiwan (there are more than 700 missiles pointing towards Taiwan and increasing).

This law attempts to suppress freedom of speech when it considers "illegal" all those who have a different opinion towards the question of the identity of Taiwan. Even more it tries to suppress any freedom regarding this matter. You are not allow to think about it and it does not matter if you agree or not with the Chinese Communist "Polit Bureau"; the future of Taiwan has been decided by them, the Chinese Communist Party (a foreign government, by the way), and you have no freedom to think or decide on unification or continuing your existence as it is today, an independent country. Freedom is out of the question. If you agree with them, you are legal, if not illegal… with all the background and dark connotations that to be tagged as "illegal" (especially in matters referred to the motherland) can have; as I usually say to friends… just "free holidays" in Inner Mongolia… for a few years.

The Taiwanese people have fought hard for their freedom. Like the Spanish people they had to renounce to their freedoms for 50 years under Chiang Kai-shek's regime and the Nationalist (KMT) Party rule. Finally, freedom was achieved but a lot of people died on the way; from the mass murders of the 228 incident and the White Terror in the 1950s-1960s to the more surreptitious secret police assassinations, political prisoners, social intimidation of the 1970s-1980s. Blood, tears, and pain escorted the Taiwanese people in their road to freedom and democracy. After the opening in the 1990s and the final change of power in the year 2000 with the election of Chen Shui-bien from the opposition party as president, Taiwanese society finally could speak out. It was hard, but it was worthy. As a demonstrator expressed in his banner, "once free, for ever free".

Now the People's Republic of China (the biggest, in raw numbers, dictatorship in the world) wants the Taiwanese people to renounce to their freedom and unite with China (PRC), when the PRC never has controlled any part of the territories under Taiwan sovereignty. Now China wants us, and here I consider myself a Taiwanese, to renounce to the blood, tears and pains of our forefathers and mothers, of our friends, of all of those who died or had to choose the exile when fighting for the freedom we all enjoy now. They want us to go back more than 50 years and surrender to them our freedom. Well, it would be better for them to try hard and give the Chinese people the same level of freedom, democracy and peace than we have here in Taiwan. It is not for us to go backwards, but for them to go forward, and seeing how swift and unanimous are they when ratifying laws, it seems to me it will be very easy… Please, make a law to set your people free. Please make a law to let your people choose their own leaders. Please make a law that puts an end to China’s armament’s race… Please, do not ask us to renounce to the dreams your own people is dreaming about; it would be unfair.

The leaders of the Catholic Church in Taiwan (quite more close to the old regime that to the actual one) did not say any "official" word about this law. Meekness is really an adjective that usually fits us Catholics, as an institution, quite well. So cautious are we in the institutional level, that if the Son of God decided to incarnate again and do it as a catholic he will be, for sure, a cast-away. Nevertheless I am convinced that a lot of Catholics went to the demonstration. Apart from me in my parish other 2 families went there (out of 10) to say no to China’s belligerency.

On March 326 some political parties and civic associations decided to make a parade to protest China’s belligerent law. It was thought as a kind of carnival-like demonstration. A few Catholics from the JPIC team of the Religious Association and some friends decided to meet and walk together “the mile” with our Taiwanese brothers and sisters. We also wanted to say no to China’s threats and intimidation, and to affirm our believe that the Taiwanese people has the inalienable right to self-determination and to decide their own future by themselves, without interference from China. During the rally someone offered us heart-shaped sticks with the words "peace" and "love". I chose the one with the word "love" and put it on my left cheek. Afterwards, while going to the church to celebrate the Easter Vigil Mass I was considering if I should cleanse it out … you know, it may be “politically” incorrect. Even though, I decided to celebrate the Easter Vigil with the heart-shaped stick, because it fitted our Easter celebration. The reason God created the world was out of love; the reason why he took the Israelite people out of Egypt’s oppression was the same love. The reason he send the prophets, was love. The reason the Eternal Son incarnated as a temporal Human being was love. The reason Jesus did not dodge the cross, was love. The reason why God did raise Jesus was also love…

“For my thoughts are not your thoughts, my ways are not your ways, says Yahweh. For as the heavens are above the earth, so my ways are higher than your ways, and my thoughts above your thoughts.”

Finally after the Easter Vigil, around eleven, when I was going home to rest I stopped by in our neighborhood's convenience store, and the young vendor, a girl, asked me "what’s good about loving Taiwan?"… Well, this seems to be a recurrent question for quite a lot of people who are living in this island called Taiwan. My answer… because it is the place that sustains us, the place where my friends live, the place where I am living, the place where I feel at home… and (this one I did not say then but I say it now…) because it is the place where the gospel incarnates everyday and becomes for me flesh and blood, way, truth and life.

Francisco Carin, cmf

HAPPY EASTER!