A conference on the legacy of “friendship, dialogue and peace” of the great Jesuit missionary was held yesterday at the Gregorian University. Cardinal Parolin noted the “continuity and specificity” of the last three popes on the relationship between Beijing and Ricci. Father Lombardi stated that he embodied the model of inculturation. The mission is a seed that is sown in an immense field.
Rome () – On Friday, November 15, a conference entitled “Matteo Ricci, a legacy of friendship, dialogue and peace” was held at the Gregorian University of Rome, in which historical reflections on Ricci’s legacy and the Jesuit mission in China with considerations on current events and expectations for the future of relations between Christianity and China.
The conference was divided into two clearly differentiated moments. At the opening session – which was attended by a large audience of foreign students and scholars, along with numerous Chinese residents in Rome, journalists, the bishop of Macerata and authorities working in the offices of the Holy See (among them Archbishop Claudio Celli , protagonist of recent missions to China on behalf of the Holy See) – some of the protagonists of the dialogue between the Holy See and China took the floor. Cardinal Secretary of State Pietro Parolin illustrated the thoughts of John Paul II, Benedict XVI and Francis on Matteo Ricci and China, showing the continuity and specificity of each one. The Cardinal of Hong Kong, Stephen Chow, referred to the path of the Catholic Church in China, also dwelling on the current situation and expressing hope for a deepening of the ongoing dialogue. The Jesuit Federico Lombardi – editor of the positive of the cause of beatification – affirmed that Ricci, champion of dialogue and encounter, embodied the model of inculturation that centuries later was adopted by Father General Pedro Arrupe, for whom the diocesan phase of beatification has just completed. The current superior general of the Society of Jesus, Arturo Sosa, insisted on the sanctity of Matteo Ricci’s life and his religious inspiration, stating that today Ricci continues to be a point of reference and a concrete model for the mission of the Jesuits.
The Gregorian University, the ancient Roman college where Ricci completed his philosophical, humanistic and scientific studies, organized the congress together with the Historical Archive of the Society of Jesus and the sponsorship of Georgetown University (United States). It was not an occasion in which news was announced but an initiative that brought together and involved above all the world of Jesuits linked to the history of the mission in China, among them the directors of the Ricci Institutes of Macau, Paris and Taipei.
The academic sessions were led by Jesuit scholar Nicolas Standaert from the University of Leuven (Belgium), who has guided Christian studies on China with innovative perspectives for decades. Scholars from various parts of the world participated, including the young Valentina Yang and the director of the Li Madou Study Center of Macerata, Father Giovanni Battista Sun. Also Elisa Giunipero, from the Catholic University of Milan, and Anthony Clark, from Withworth University (USA). The common thread was to capture the value of Ricci’s mission in the dimension of the relationship with the Chinese reality and his interlocutors and friends. The mission is always a reality “in the midst of” (between)and it must also be seen and above all from the point of view of the other, that is, of the reception and the relationship to which the mission gives life.
I would like to conclude this reflection on an interesting day of study and interaction between scholars from all over the world with a consideration. We must not forget the modest numerical dimension of Matteo Ricci’s mission and place it in the right proportion. At the death of the humanist missionary (1610) there were a total of 16 Jesuit missionaries in China, and small communities that did not exceed 3,000 believers, among whom the high literati were no more numerous than the fingers of one hand. A very modest reality, a completely irrelevant percentage in an immense country of between 150 and 200 million inhabitants, which at that time was already the most populous in the world.
The mission has always been a seed sown in an immense field. The number of missionaries, their training and their qualities are always radically disproportionate to the immensity of the undertaking: now, as in the past and (presumably) also in the future. The mission in China is eloquent proof that the meaning of a Christian experience cannot be measured in terms of accounting results, but by its evangelical quality. And after more than 400 years, the Christian experience of a handful of foreign missionaries and a few Chinese Catholics continues to be a light that illuminates the present, a very valuable mine from which we continue to extract new meanings and orientations.
Add Comment