China-friendly Jesuit feted

A Papal visit to China still looks a long way off

By David Willey in Rome

The 400th anniversary of the acceptance in China of the Italian Jesuit missionary, Matteo Ricci, is being celebrated in Rome and Beijing this month.

Ricci is credited with introducing Western culture into China as well as stimulating Chinese studies in Europe.

Marco Polo's legendary journey to China 700 years ago may be better known, but the Jesuit Matteo Ricci's influence on relations between China and the west at the beginning of the 17th century had more profound consequences.

Cardinal Etchegaray is to attend a conference dedicated to Ricci

He brought the Christian religion to the attention of the court of the Chinese emperors and introduced the Chinese to the principles of geometry, applied mathematics, the Latin alphabet and scientific map-making.

In China he drew the first world map showing how the middle kingdom, as the Chinese called their country, was related geographically to foreign countries.

A rare contemporary copy of this map is on show this week in the Italian embassy in Beijing.

Later relations were never smooth between the Pope in Rome and China.

For centuries there were arguments over how far Chinese rights could be permitted in church liturgy.

The Chinese communists threw out the Pope's ambassador shortly after they took over in 1948.

Diplomatic breakthrough?

Two conferences on Matteo Ricci are being held this month.

One has already taken place in Beijing, while another starts at the Papal university in Rome on Wednesday.

Among those taking part will be Cardinal Roger Etchegaray from the Vatican who has carried out several diplomatic missions to China on behalf of the Pope, and scholars and theologians from both China and Rome.

Some Hong Kong publications have recently suggested that a breakthrough in relations between Beijing and the Vatican is in the offing, but this view seems premature.

The Vatican refuses to remove its ambassador from Taiwan and transfer him to Beijing.

The so-called Chinese Patriotic Catholic Church, which is tolerated by the Chinese authorities and has several million members, insists on appointing its own bishops without kow-towing to Rome.

A Papal visit to China still looks a long way off.