What's even harder to deal with is that "today 'Taiwanese consciousness' is on the rise, but most early clergy were foreigners, not local Taiwanese, and the church seemed 'foreign.' Some have even interpreted our work as being on behalf of imperialism," says Rev. John Baptist Wu, secretary-general of the Chinese Catholic Bishops 'Conference. This has been a blow to the church's image.
更令人尷尬的是，「近年來台灣本土意識勃興，早年多以外籍傳教士為主的天主教，更被指為『洋教』；我們的工作也被解釋為帝國主義的侵略行為」，天主教中國主教團秘書長吳終源神父指出，這使得教會的形象大受打擊，因而削減民眾信奉意願。