Before she came to St. Thomas University, Shaye Lernowicz went on a school trip to China as an undercover missionary to analyze religious freedom in the country. She never expected this would become one of the most life-changing experiences she’d had.
“I decided to go because I have a lot of passion for travelling,” said Lernowicz. “But I didn’t quite understand what I was going into.”
She grew up in a family of six children. Her mother works as a nurse and her dad is a truck driver. They had been involved in many activities in their local Catholic Church.
“Growing up in such a big family can be chaotic at times,” she said. “But my parents applied a lot of discipline to us. I loved it because you always have someone with whom you can hang out. We learned how to share a lot of things and spend time with each other.”
This is how Lernowicz first got interested in analyzing religion and psychology and she decided to major in psychology and Catholic studies at the University of Manitoba. There, one of her professors referred her to the study trip to China.
The premise of the trip was to study Chinese culture within a Chinese university, but the real intention of the trip was to analyze how Catholic faith is practiced in the country.
“The government controls so much of people’s freedom that they really don’t experience it the way we experience it here in Canada,” she said. “And even though Catholic faith exists there, it’s not openly practiced. It’s very much controlled by the Communist government.”
STU journalism professor Jan Wong, is currently in China, writing a book about Chinese and European food. She said China tolerates only the government-sanctioned Catholic Church.
“The unofficial Catholic Church is illegal and underground. This is because China wants no organization to compete with the absolute rule of the Communist Party,” said Wong.
Wong said because Catholics believe the Pope is their supreme authority, the government cannot accept an open practice of their faith. She said religious freedom only exists as long as the government is able to control the church.
Lernowicz and her study group investigated the history of Chinese dynasties and their relationship with the oppression of religious freedom.
While in China, Lernowicz visited a small village called Zhujia Village, in the Pudong Area, close to Shanghai. She found a Catholic priest living in the area. He was helping children who were forced into labour as slaves.
He had investigated one of the factories in the village that took children away from several families. Over time, the priest had managed to rescue several children from the factory and teach them math as well as how to write in Mandarin and English.
Lernowicz said because the village was outside a big town, the priest managed to hide the work he was doing. He constructed a church out of sticks and the children wanted to go there every day.
“It was absolutely heartbreaking,” said Lernowicz. “A lot of them hadn’t seen their parents in years. They worked 14 to 16 hours a day to get fed very little. Yet they had the strongest will and compassion I’ve ever seen in my life.”
Lernowicz and her friends stayed to help the priest. They spent their time helping these children learn English. She said although the children had gone through several challenges in their lives, they were smiling and excited to learn new words and meet the Canadian group who went to help them.
“These kids had every excuse to complain, but they were very grateful to everything we did,” said Lernowicz. “We spent two days there, I taught them how to say their name and what was the important thing in their lives. By the second day, they were able to say the words I had taught them.”
After returning home from her trip, Lernowics transferred to STU. Her parish’s priest had recommended the Catholic studies program and she took on psychology as well. She says she would like to go on to complete her masters in spiritual psychology after graduation. The experience in China has stayed with her to this day.
“Going to that village was completely eye opening, not only to the amount of freedom that we have in Canada but being able to appreciate what I have,” said Lernowicz. “Those kids really helped me to see what was important in life. Being there made me see how powerful faith and religion is.”
