L'Osservatore Romano: Holy See
China Agreement - A Date in History
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| Professor Giovanni Maria Vian. |
The Director of the Vatican newspaper, L'Osservatore Romano,
Giovanni Maria Vian, retraces the history and perspectives of Christianity in
China, following the signing of the Provisional Agreement on the Nomination of
Bishops by the Holy See and the People's Republic of China in Bejing today.
By Professor Giovanni Maria Vian
The 22nd of September is surely destined to
make history: for the signature in Peking of a provisional accord between China
and the Holy See on the appointment of Bishops, an agreement prepared through
decades of long and patient negotiations, while the Pope begins his visit in
the Baltic nations. Pope Bergoglio in fact arrived in Lithuania at the same
time as, thousands of kilometres away, his representatives reached a milestone
which, although certainly not conclusive, already appears to be of great
importance for the life of Catholics in the great Asian nation.
The agreement was announced and, even if foreseeably
contrasting and opposing interpretations are unceasing, the news is very
positive and immediately circled the globe. The Pontiff also recognizes full communion
to the last Chinese bishops ordained without pontifical mandate, with the
obvious intent of assuring the normal unfolding of daily life in many Catholic
communities, as confirmed by the simultaneous provision which establishes,
north of the capital, a new diocese, the first in over 70 years.
Thus, it is a truly important step in the history of
Christianity in China, where the first traces of the Gospel are truly ancient,
as attested by a stele raised in 781 in Xi’an, in the heart of the enormous country.
Indeed, the great monument–standing nearly 3 metres high and discovered in the
1600s–documents in Chinese and Arabic characters the narrative of the arrival
on the Silk Road, already in 635, of Christian missionaries likely coming from
Persia. Their names are engraved in the limestone rock, along with the
announcement of the “Luminous Religion”, with a synopsis of the events of this
tiny community furnished with dozens of other names, and with an exposition of
the Christian doctrine then entrusted to hundreds of books translated and
spread in the centuries that followed.
The history of this extraordinary tradition is then
extended, oscillating between unexpected burgeonings and persecutions, even
intersecting with the missions–primarily Franciscans–sent by Pontiffs and
European Christian sovereigns for nearly a century, beginning in the latter
half of the 1200s. At the start of the modern age the new order of Jesuits,
crown jewel of the Catholic Reformation, led the missions in China, from
Francis Xavier to Matteo Ricci, to recall only the most well known in a series
of those who have few equals in the history of spreading the Gospel.
Political interference, doctrinal stiffening, envy and
disputes among religious orders, however, considerably complicated the work of
the missionaries. This was hindered by the disastrous controversy over Chinese
rites that dragged on until the mid-1700s, a century later than the
brainwashing imposed by colonial powers, and eventually by repeated
persecutions, even throughout the 1900s.
Only in 1926 were the first Chinese bishops ordained by Pius
XI in Rome, while 20 years later his successor established the Catholic
hierarchy in the country. These “two facts of the religious history of China”,
described as “symbolic and decisive”, were recalled on 6 January 1967 in the
homily for the Epiphany–high praise for the country–by Paul VI, who little more
than a year earlier, in a speech to the United Nations, had asked that
communist China be admitted to the organization. And it was Pope Montini
himself who arrived, “for the first time in history”, during the hours he spent
in Hong Kong (then under British control), in Chinese territory. “To say a
single word: love”, the Pope exclaimed. And he added, looking far into the
future: “The Church cannot silence this good word; love, which shall remain!”
See the original article.
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