We think of China as a monolithic communist state.

But is it?

Or is there a different China that we know little about?

Out of China’s population of a billion-plus, there are only 70 million members of the Communist Party.

The number of Christians in China is estimated at 100 million and growing.

And there are so many “house churches” that nobody knows how to count them.

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It is predicted that soon there will be more Christians in China than in any other country in the world.

This is a phenomenon that the Western media do not tell us about.

Is Christianity yet one more item that China will be exporting to us soon because our home-grown variety is so B-grade?

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The Chinese Communist government itself has mixed feelings about its Christians.

The Catholic presence, despite persecution and repression, has great influence.

The Catholic Church in China, as in so many nations, is arguably its biggest non-government organisation.

Some Chinese leaders see Christianity as a much-needed “glue” to help keep their diverse society together.

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In China, and world-wide, those who hate the Christian Faith have a few worries.

However, those who love the Faith also have worries.

Since 1970, world population has doubled.

Numbers of Muslims and Christians have both doubled.

But the big multiplier is the rising numbers of so-called Charismatic/Pentecostal “Christians” — these have increased 8-fold since 1970, now numbering about 600 million — almost a quarter of those calling themselves Christians worldwide — the majority of them ex-Catholics.

The universal culture that was once the Catholic Faith has dwindled since the Second Vatican Council of the 1960s.

Does not today’s world need, more than anything else, for Catholics to get their beliefs, liturgies and cultural framework back into gear in a hurry?