By Cindy Wooden
Catholic News Service
ROME (CNS) — Italian Father Matteo Ricci, the 16th-century Jesuit known for his positive relations with the Chinese, is a model for dialogue and evangelization in the 21st-century globalized society, said speakers at a conference in Rome.
Father Ricci’s experience and writings remind people “that there are basic similarities in all human beings, in human nature: hope, suffering, questioning the meaning of life. We all share those whether we are Westerners or Chinese,” said Jesuit Father Augustine Tsang Hing-to.
Father Tsang was born in mainland China to a Catholic family, “but I escaped by swimming to Hong Kong — four hours to Hong Kong, at night — and then went to the States.”
The priest, who now teaches at Fu Jen Catholic University of Taiwan, spoke to Catholic News Service March 1 before speaking the next day at a conference marking the 400th anniversary of Father Ricci’s death.
Father Ricci, who was born in 1552 and arrived in China at the age of 30, delved into studies of the Chinese language, culture and Confucianism. His respect for the Chinese gradually paved the way for his dialogue with China’s government and cultural leaders.
At the same time, “he was very frank and strict, explicit and direct on the goodness of the Christian faith,” Father Tsang said, and “he did not hesitate to point out the defects of Taoism and Buddhism.”
While Father Ricci found great fault with what he understood about Taoism and Buddhism, he believed that Confucianism in its purest form was a philosophy open to Christianity. After his death, missionaries developed the so-called “Chinese rites” — Confucian-based social rituals involving ancestor veneration and offerings to the emperor — which allowed Chinese converts to preserve elements of their heritage while being Catholic.
Centuries of controversy ensued and although the rites developed after Father Ricci’s death, he was so strongly identified with that disputed form of inculturation that his sainthood cause was not opened until the 1980s.
Father Tsang said it was unfortunate that the controversy led some to question Father Ricci’s holiness.
It is true, he said, that Father Ricci “was very friendly with the Chinese, respecting the Chinese culture, but in terms of the faith, he was very unabashedly Catholic.”
In his speech at Rome’s Pontifical Gregorian University March 2, Father Tsang said Father Ricci was not so “narrow-minded as to regard non-Christian cultures or religions as nothing good; indeed, he saw quite a lot of compatibility between early Confucianism and Christianity,” and recognized that Confucian teachings could be seen as preparing the Chinese to receive the Gospel.
Father Ricci’s respect for the Chinese and his commitment to sharing the Gospel with them offer the still-relevant lesson that Christians cannot claim God is at work only among Christians, but at the same time they cannot claim that all religions are equally valid paths to salvation, Father Tsang said.
Father Tsang said the Chinese today need the Gospel just as much as they did in Father Ricci’s age.
The country is enjoying economic prosperity, but “there are grave, hidden problems,” including the repression of human rights, a growing divide between rich and poor, widespread use of abortion and “alarming pollution.”
Father Ricci “did not befriend the Chinese and stop there. He intended to bring them the much greater blessing — the knowledge of Jesus Christ,” he said.
Italian Bishop Claudio Giuliodori of Macerata, where Father Ricci was born, said the Jesuit is still a model for dialogue and evangelization because “he entered into the Chinese culture without losing himself and in a way that allowed him to introduce themes from the Gospel into the culture.”
His relationship with the Chinese “took place in the context of dialogue, with respect, but without forgetting that his mission was to bring the Gospel,” the bishop said.
Roberto Sani, rector of the University of Macerata, said Father Ricci’s example could help people today deal with hopes and fears about their increasing contacts with people of other cultures and religions.
Just as the global expeditions of the 1500s gave Europeans a sense of an expanding world filled with previously unknown cultures, globalization today is challenging people to recognize their common humanity and share their knowledge and beliefs, Sani said.
“Ricci is a model for young people today. He was strong in his faith and culture, but able to establish a real dialogue with the Chinese,” he said. “He is a model of a Christianity that does not close itself within four walls, but goes out into the world.”