Section 67 Sinners

"Working at night every day, this gas bill is unbelievable." Although he was satisfied with the work of the Jesuit priests, he complained that they still had to work at night—the devout priests refused to give up their daytime preaching and missionary work, and had to leave their artistic work at night. This made Dean Wu a little distressed -- the fuel department refused to reduce or exempt gas fees for religious sites under the religious office system, and refused to calculate the price according to the "internal allocation price", so it had to charge the fee according to the "general commercial use".

The Lingao Church system receives little financial support: more than ninety percent of the funding has to be raised by the Lingao Church itself. Of course, Dean Wu has the support of the Jesuits, a big donor, in terms of human and financial resources. Otherwise, Dean Wu really didn't know how to keep the church running. The Church's estate is limited, and the adherents that have developed are mostly poor and poor, and although they are "fanatical" in their level of piety, they have little money to give.

"No matter what, we have to let the propaganda and construction departments have some blood." He said to himself, "And Hu Qingbai is there, let Father Jin go to the sculpture class and art class, and collect some fees by the way......"

Gonzalez and Trini's intrusion lifted his spirits. He certainly knew about the recent arrival of representatives of the Dutch East India Company. Not only did I know, but I also saw the photos and brief introductions of the three main representatives. So as soon as the two came in, he recognized them.

Both the Spaniards and the Italians were Catholics, so from the moment the "Magdeburg" submitted the list of crew members and underwent quarantine, the General Directorate of Political Protection and the Ministry of Colonial Trade issued a circular reminding the Catholic churches of Lingao that Gonzalez and Trini might enter the churches, and that the various departments should do a good job of reception and publicity.

Wu Shimang presided over the work of the church for several years, had the most dealings with Europeans at that time, and knew their religious sentiments very well. The Spaniards are also characterized by strong religious sentiments, so they came in and didn't say a few words, which made the Spanish veteran ruffian so emotional that he almost burst into tears. Mr. Trini, who was not very religious as an Italian, had no religious freedom to speak of during his years in Batavia, and was forced to attend Protestant ceremonies every day, which made him very disgusted and enthusiastic about the Catholic faith, which he did not care much about.

Wu Shimang worked in marketing in the old time and space, worked as a human resources trainer, and originally had a full range of lip service, but in this time and space, he has been mixed with religious people for a long time, and the most seen are missionaries.

As for the working Jin Lige master and apprentice, it was certainly very happy to be able to see two parishioners from Europe who had traveled thousands of miles from overseas. The two sides soon struck up talks. The three of them talked happily in Italian that they could both understand, and Wu Shimang stood aside with a charming smile - even though he couldn't understand a word, he didn't care at all. Because he carried a voice recorder with him. After a while, the content of the conversation of the three men will be handed over to the General Directorate of Political Protection, where the elders who can understand Italian will be asked to translate it.

The two men visited the church and were impressed by its size and structure, with Triny paying particular attention to detail as an Italian cartographer who himself was well versed and proficient in a wide range of crafts – a characteristic common to Italian artists since the Renaissance. A painter is often a sculptor, metalworker, architect or even engineer. Reach? Finch is nothing more than the best of them.

Trini looked at the murals and sculptures that were under construction on the walls, and a disapproving smile appeared on his face. In the eyes of him, a professional artist, the level of Jin Lige's master and apprentice is still a little worse. The Jesuit missionaries to China and Japan studied astronomy, mathematics, physics, and art before leaving for East Asia, but they were generally not very skilled in their professional standards.

Although he was polite, he did not comment on this. Turning his gaze away from the walls, he soon noticed the stained inlaid glass on either side of the chapel under construction, but rather a large-scale landscape—somewhat similar to the simple line style of the medieval tapestries Trini had seen: endless fields, rolling golden waves of wheat; Lots of red houses, with huge chimneys; On the green slopes are dense orchards, and below the mountains are white flocks of sheep; Fishing boats loaded on the blue sea......

These patterns are simple and bright, and they are very different from the traditional decorative glass windows of churches. Trini watched carefully, trying to figure out what it meant. Obviously, these glass mosaics are expressing a kind of beauty and abundance......

In the glow of the gas lamp, climbing on the scaffolding and carefully inlaid the glass on the iron glass frame were a group of women and half-grown children. Dressed in uniform, undyed cloth jackets, one by one they were silent and carefully attached to the frame.

"Who are they?" Trini asked, feeling a little surprised. Apparently these people were not monks or nuns. But there is a certain ascetic atmosphere in them.

"It's some poor sinner." Jin Lige drew a cross, "May God save their souls." ”

These people are the "bandits" - "sinners" who are in charge of the monasteries. Beginning with the suppression of bandits in the 13 villages, bandits who generally did not commit serious crimes were released and returned to their families after a period of education and forced labor after being captured, and those who met the requirements were accepted for recruitment and enlistment. The families of the most heinous criminals who were killed in the crackdown were given "special punishments": young men were sent to labor camps and assigned to special labor teams, and women and minor children were transferred to Lingao Seminary for "re-education" and "reform" while doing some simple labor. Its purpose is to brainwash and weaken the concept of hatred. so that they can become useful people in society in the future, rather than "destabilizing factors".

Although the "reform" work was placed in the monastery, it was in fact managed by several departments. The guidance department is the General Directorate of Political Protection. After a period of time, the General Directorate of Security evaluates and scores the "sinners" who are considered to have been "reformed" and meet the IV.B level: those who are "unreliable and usable" are released and relocated to new locations, and those who are considered to have "insignificant educational effects" are handed over to the labor camps for "processing".

The clergy were not opposed to this work - it was not uncommon in Europe for monasteries to take care of "sinners". Moreover, the clergy believe that the secular government of the Australians is willing to hand over this work to the church, which is a dependence on and trust in the church, so they are very enthusiastic about the "reform work".

As for Dean Wu, of course, he has no objection, this is free labor for him. The "sinners" worked in special shoe and garment factories run by the Ministry of Light Industry and paid the church a per capita fee for their food and clothing. The rest, of course, is to sponsor church building. Therefore, Dean Wu is very satisfied with this system.

In the security war in northern Qiongbei, there is also a steady stream of "sinners" being sent. Initially, the number of people accepted was limited to the families of the "bandits", and later the crowd expanded to the families of all the "hostile elements" who were eliminated. Therefore, Dean Wu has always maintained a considerable number of "sinners" here.

Mr. Trini was so impressed that he drew a cross. Muttered silent recitation**. At this time, Gonzalez spoke: "Father, I want to repent. ”

When the two left, they donated ten Spanish riyals to the church.

"It's only ten Spanish silver dollars," Wu Shimang watched them away with a smile on his face, but he was very disdainful in his heart - he had thought that Gonzalez's faction would come up with at least fifty silver coins. Just now, Jin Lige also made a confession for them -- these two men, who had been under the hands of the Dutch for a long time, were forced to perform Protestant religious rituals and did not fast according to the Catholic regulations, and they were very uneasy, so they made a solid confession. As for the content of the confession, he will not know until noon tomorrow - the patriarch who knows Italian will not listen to the recording until tomorrow morning. If any secrets can be leaked, he, the general of the religious office, will be the first to do it......

Wu Shimang is very dissatisfied with the current religious work -- he even feels that he has chosen the wrong promotion route in the first place. He originally planned to transform the Catholic Church into a "state church" that would pass through the empire in the future, and for this reason he had already drawn up many specific plans and jihua, including how to divide the diocese in the future, how to manage the church's property, and so on. Dean Wu also selected the address for the future "Holy City". Even the cathars have a blueprint. In his vision, the future state church would be an important liliang that would ensure the passage of the empire through the ages. The friars, knights, and cathars of the Church will be the "shields and swords" of the Senate, and of course he cannot help but think of the martial arts women...... All in all, ambitious.

However, the Senate was very tightly stuck on the religious system, and there was no interest in engaging in state religion at all. He was not allowed to let go of his own hands - and even came up with a "new Taoism" to muddy the waters. This made Wu Shimang very disappointed. When it comes to the level of religion, he is obviously not the opponent of the Jingdao Sect classics, and there are also the opponents of the thief of the spring who has the idea of transforming the systematic classics, and in terms of the organization and management of the level that he thinks is the most level, the Senate has many restrictions. Wu Shimang thought that if he did not plan to move from the religious system, the best way to do this would be to expand his followers on a large scale, especially in the Li district and the "new district". The Senate believed that missionary work helped to stabilize the rule over the unstable region. At the same time, the more effective his mission, the more resources he could receive from the Jesuits.