the lettura of Shen Bin

Rome (AsiaNews) – This year marks the centenary of the Council of Shanghai, the first Plenary Council of the Church in China. For the occasion, the Pontifical Urbaniana University in collaboration with the Agency Fides organized a conference today to highlight the historic event of a century ago, but also to look at today’s challenges, starting with the idea of ​​the “Sinicization” of religions, an issue at the heart of religious policies of Chinese President Xi Jinping.

Pope Francis also underlined the importance of the 1924 council, which brought together the bishops and apostolic prefects present in China at the time, in a video message released today.

There was a lot of curiosity surrounding the first official visit to Rome by the current Bishop of Shanghai, Mgr. Joseph Shen Bin, at the center of tensions last year after Chinese authorities unilaterally transferred him to China’s main episcopal see, a situation later resolved by Pope Francis’ decision. to name him too.

Bishop Shen was accompanied by key academics and church officials from the People’s Republic of China, who brought their views on what happened a century ago, as well as their views on the relationship between the “inculturation” of the faith promoted by the Church’s doctrine and ‘sinicization’, processes seen as two circles that overlap but also diverge.

This also entails the need for dialogue from the perspective of fraternity to avoid the risk of fueling “new self-referential closures”, as Card Luis Antonio Tagle, pro-prefect of the Dicastery for Evangelization, put it this evening in his stated conclusion.

“The stories of our Chinese brothers and sisters have something important to show to the universal Church,” Card Tagle said. “There may be misunderstandings, but (they are) never half-hearted regarding the Church’s journey in China.”

In his speech, Bishop Shen Bin mentioned the realization a century ago of the need for the Church to distance itself from the colonial “protection” of China, but also the resistance encountered in doing so.

He noted that one of the first six Chinese bishops ordained by Pius ‘took advantage of it very early’. of the Shanghai Council.” Yet that change “was not immediate and radical in the Church in China” because of strong resistance.

“At the time of the founding of the People’s Republic of China, only 29 of 137 Chinese dioceses had Chinese bishops and only three of 20 archbishops were Chinese. The Catholic Church in China had not yet truly freed itself from foreign powers to become an enterprise led by Chinese Christians and had not yet managed to shake off the label of ‘foreign religion’.”

What does the experience of the Council of Shanghai say to the Church in China today? For the Bishop of Shanghai, “being faithful to the Gospel of Christ” is crucial for the development of the Church in China.

Bishop Shen noted: “Since the founding of the new China in 1949, the Church in China has always remained faithful to its Catholic faith, although it has made great efforts to continuously adapt to the new political system.”

According to him, “the Chinese government’s religious freedom policy has no interest in changing the Catholic faith,” and he hopes “that Catholic clergy and believers will defend the interests of the Chinese people and free themselves from the control of foreign powers. ”

Even at the time of the founding of the Patriotic Association, the Party demonstrated “understanding of the need for Chinese Catholics to be in communion with Rome in spiritual matters,” provided “they do not go against the interests of the Chinese people, that they do not violate Chinese sovereignty and that the Vatican changes its policy of hostility toward China.”

Today, Article 4 of the Statute of the Council of Chinese Bishops expressly states that it is “founded on Sacred Scripture and Tradition, in the spirit that the Church is one, holy, catholic and apostolic, and in the spirit of the Second Vatican Council . Council.” At the same time, “the development of the Church in China must be viewed from a Chinese perspective.”

Bishop Shen quoted the Gospel: “Render therefore to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s,” Bishop Shen noted that the Western model of church-state relations brought problems to the Chinese Catholic community in the 20th century .

“Some missionaries had a strong sense of European cultural superiority and even intended to use the Christian religion to change Chinese society and culture, which many Chinese inevitably opposed and even resented.”

For the Bishop of Shanghai, healing this divide today means accepting that the development of the Church in China must be “in line” with the “great rebirth of the Chinese nation in a comprehensive manner with Chinese-style modernization,” carried out by the government.

The Catholic Church in China “must move in the same direction and follow a sinicization path that is in line with contemporary Chinese society and culture. (…) We often say that faith knows no borders, but that believers have their own homeland and their own culture.”

The immersion in traditional Chinese culture, which the Shanghai Council planned but did not implement, is also moving in this direction. To achieve that goal, the Church must “explore the use of traditional Chinese culture in expressing the Catholic faith; support the adoption of traditional Chinese styles in ecclesiastical architecture, art and music, and promote the sinicization of ecclesiastical art; integrating elements of traditional Chinese culture into the liturgy of the church, etc.”

During his address at the conference, Cardinal Secretary of State Piero Parolin turned to the prophetic vision put forward in 1924 by the then Apostolic Delegate, Archbishop Celso Costantini, who convened and led the Shanghai Council, highlighting a growing awareness in Catholic Church noted the “continued and then excessive dependence on the foreign component of the mission,” which was echoed in the Apostolic Letter of Benedict XV Maximum illumination in 1919.

“The Apostolic Delegate’s intention – and ours today – was certainly not to institute a trial against history. With poise, he recognized the merits of many foreign missionaries who, with a sense of true charity and devotion, brought the Gospel to China and worked for the social development of this people,” Card Parolin explained. “He also recognized, however, that ‘human assistance’ from foreign powers (…) also had passive moral weight for the economy of evangelization.”

The Vatican Foreign Minister acknowledged that the Shanghai Council met with fierce resistance. In view of the accusations, Archbishop Costantini always responded “with foresight”, because he realized that Maximum illumination would suffer the same fate as Rerum Novarum“which initially found no favor in certain Old Catholic circles,” but eventually “became the revered and undisputed magna carta of Christian sociology” today.

Parolin also emphasized the very close connection between the inculturation of the Church in China, the indigenization of the clergy and the bond with the successor of Peter. It is no coincidence, he noted, that Pius XI wanted the first Chinese bishops to be ordained in St. Peter’s in Rome. Such “community was precisely the best guarantee for a faith freed from external political interests and firmly anchored in local culture and society.”

Archbishop Costantini’s other goal went in the same direction. Although this ultimately failed, he tried to engage the country’s authorities in direct dialogue, without the intervention of other powers. In its intentions, the Vatican Secretary of State noted, this was the other side of the same effort of inculturation.

This raises questions about the current relationship between the Holy See and the Chinese government. After the 2018 Agreement on Episcopal Appointments, which will be extended for a third time next fall, other questions remain open, despite its difficult implementation.

“It’s always difficult to make predictions,” Card Parolin said in response to a reporter’s question. “We had long hoped for a stable presence in China, even if it would not initially take the form of papal representation, an apostolic nunciature.

“Our goal is to increase and deepen our contacts, but that can also take a different form.” Even the “recognition of the bishops’ conferences is subject to discussion, involving all Chinese bishops. But we are still working on this topic.”