AHC/WI: You don't have the rite!

In the early 18th century, two major catholic rites were suppressed by the pope: the Chinese and the Malabar rites. The suppression of the Chinese rite caused the Kangxi emperor to expel all catholic missions from China, crippling the fledgling community. The Malabar rite was based mainly in southern india and it adopted many hindu practices. This to was suppressed.

My question is, how can we prevent these rites from being suppressed and what affects would this have on the spread of Christianity in Asia?
 
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Well, how many followers did they have before being closed down?

I can't find any definite statistics about how many christians there were. All I could find was a book that stated that in China, the jesuits didn't have enough priest to handle all the new converts. Some of the chinese began baptizing their friends and family members themselves. :p The jesuits weren't happy about that.
 
Maybe in India the Christians might become like the Sikhs, Unimportant overall but important regionally.
With some 10-30 million worshippers. Not a lot in india. but more than OTL.
 
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The crippling of Catholicism in China didn't come from Kangxi, it came from the fact that the Pope, influenced by Spanish Franciscans, said that the veneration of Ancestors constituted worship (a decision only later overturned in the 1930s, IIRC). Therefore an incredibly important part of Chinese culture could not be practiced by Chinese Catholics, completely stunting the growth. This also caused a retaliation from the Chinese Emperor, banning the religion, where it had been tolerated before, by the same Emperor.

Have the Jesuits convince the Pope to their side, and you might see a decent population of Catholics in China. I doubt it would be a major conversion if only due to sheer cultural inertia and that a massive growth could provoke tensions with the government, but I definitely see the Virgin Mary reaching a rather wide audience, and getting absorbed into the fabric of Chinese folk practices.
 
Ya, I can only see Christianity being acceptable as long as it remains a small time religion. If it grew too large it would scare the emperor. I think christianity could become a thriving religion amongst the merchant class.
 
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