AHC: Majority Catholic Country in East Asia

How about the Mongols converted to Nestorianism under Mongke Khan, and eventually the Mongolian Church of the East reaches communion with the Holy See?
 
How about the Mongols converted to Nestorianism under Mongke Khan, and eventually the Mongolian Church of the East reaches communion with the Holy See?
I think you'd need an additional POD of some eastern country (Poland?) going in the reformation and then getting holy sanction as part of the deal.

Of course, Christian Mongols has butterflies.
 
Japan would seem the best bet; a line of Christian Daimyos unifying Japan and heavily sponsoring the Catholic Church and persecuting Buddhism could lead to a situation where the majority is at least nominally Catholic. There was a significant Christian presence OTL, and Buddhism wasn't at its strongest during that time, so there is an opening.

Not easy, but much easier than China.

I suppose you could also break away smaller territories as new countries (e.g. a Spanish or Portuguese Ryukyu would likely evolve into a different country).
 
You'd probably need England to stay Catholic, and thus the Americas stay Catholic. Then most missionaries would be Catholic, giving a big boost to Catholic numbers- if all the Christians in South Korea were Catholic, you're over halfway there.
 
Would you considering the whole countries of Mongolia, China, Japan, North Korea, South Korea, and Taiwan, or would you be okay with a smaller region gaining independence? Maybe Hong Kong or Macau can get that.
 
That's why I said they'd be halfway to fifty percent i.e. over twenty-five percent.

Korean Christians are extremely active, so I guess it kinda counts as being a majority. :p
Korea as a Catholic country is an interesting concept. I do wonder the possibility of the Catholic Church being more active in helping in the independence movement.
 
*Chinese rites controversy, because the Dominicans were annoyed at the upstart Jesuits for undermining their position.*

*quietly wishes Clement XI ruled differently on it*

Propaganda Fide said:
Do not act with zeal, do not put forward any arguments to convince these peoples to change their rites, their customs or their usages, except if they are evidently contrary to the religion [i.e., Catholic Christianity] and morality. What would be more absurd than to bring France, Spain, Italy or any other European country to the Chinese? Do not bring to them our countries, but instead bring to them the Faith, a Faith that does not reject or hurt the rites, nor the usages of any people, provided that these are not distasteful, but that instead keeps and protects them.

Korean Christians are extremely active, so I guess it kinda counts as being a majority. :p
Korea as a Catholic country is an interesting concept. I do wonder the possibility of the Catholic Church being more active in helping in the independence movement.

As a Filipino, I welcome our ATL Catholic allies in the north. :):):)
 
Korea as a Catholic country is an interesting concept. I do wonder the possibility of the Catholic Church being more active in helping in the independence movement.

Interesting thought experiment. But, unfortunately, during that period, the Catholic Church appeased/tolerated fascist regimes in general, and rather outrageously supported the Japanese invasion/occupation of China (a major reason why it was expelled from the PRC). So I doubt this plausibility.
 

Delta Force

Banned
Pius XII eventually oversaw an acceptance of the ancestral rites (AIUI, more or less along the lines the Jesuits advocated at the time), so it's definitely not impossible - then again, the 1930s aren't the 1700s.

As for an actual Chinese Rite Catholicism (like the Eastern Catholic churches), that'd definitely be an interesting beast. I wonder what the liturgical colors would be like.

What do you mean by liturgical colors? Is it like the jackets the various personnel on a carrier flight deck wear to identify their role?
 
What do you mean by liturgical colors? Is it like the jackets the various personnel on a carrier flight deck wear to identify their role?

Dude, c'mon, Google is your friend. :p

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liturgical_colours

Someone more familiar with Chinese culture will have to comment on the interpretation of Catholic liturgical colors (for that matter, I don't know which colors were used and when in the 18th century - presumably black, white, red, green, violet and rose?).
 
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Delta Force

Banned

Thematic mood colors then?

Also, a lot of octaves.

Someone more familiar with Chinese culture will have to comment on the interpretation of Catholic liturgical colors (for that matter, I don't know which colors were used and when in the 18th century - presumably black, white, red, green, violet and rose?).

White is a mourning color in Chinese culture. It might work out for its assigned roles, but if red and black are to be maintained there would have to be some kind of differentiation.
 
I can see the priests dressed in black robes like scholars, with belts colored to correspond to the seasons. Maybe the holidays will be moved to correspond to the Chinese calendar to somehow relate to existing Chinese holidays.
 

Delta Force

Banned
All images and captions are from Wikipedia.

514px-Ricci_Guangqi_2.jpg


Matteo Ricci (left) and Xu Guangqi (Chinese: 徐光啟) (right) in the Chinese edition of Euclid's Elements (Chinese: 幾何原本) published in 1670.

NicolasTrigaultInChineseCostume.jpg


The Jesuits of the Jesuit China missions made efforts to adopt Chinese customs. Here Nicolas Trigault (1577–1628) in Chinese costume, by Peter Paul Rubens.

Jesuit_astronome_with_Kangxi_Emperor.jpg


The Kangxi Emperor with a Jesuit astronomer, Adam Schall. "Tapisserie de Beauvais", 1690–1705.
 
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