EUROPE/ITALY - Cardinal Chow: 'Sinicization' is an open game that also concerns the Church

by Gianni Valente

Rome (Agenzia Fides) - In the current historical phase, the Catholic Church is called to confront the instances of "sinicization" supported by Xi Jinping's China, drawing inspiration also from the missionary experience of the Jesuits in imperial China four hundred years ago. This is what is implicitly suggested by the important speech given on Friday, November 15 in the Aula Magna of the Pontifical Gregorian University by Jesuit Cardinal Stephen Chow Sau-yan, Bishop of Hong Kong, in the context of the conference "Matteo Ricci. A heritage of friendship, dialogue and peace".

The Conference, organized by the Society of Jesus, the Jesuit Historical Archives and Georgetown University, was attended, among others, by Cardinal Pietro Parolin, Secretary of State of His Holiness.

In his speech, Cardinal Chow retraced some key passages in the historical development of the “new China” that began in 1949 after the victory of Mao Zedong’s communists over Chiang Kai-shek’s nationalists, in order to show how this path has also influenced and conditioned the journey of the Catholic Church in this great Asian country.

Assimilating everything that comes “from outside”

All the religious doctrines and teachings that have arrived in China from outside, the Bishop of Hong Kong notes in a significant preface to his excursus, have always had to take into account the “Sino-centric” connotation of Chinese civilization, culture and mentality, and their tendency to assimilate religious, spiritual, cultural and ideological contributions coming “from outside”.
The most obvious case, explained the Jesuit cardinal, is that of Buddhism, which, arriving in China from India, becomes Chinese and, at the same time, China undergoes the influence of Buddhism. The process is not univocal". The urgency of "assimilation" does not necessarily express a presumption of self-sufficiency closed in on itself and impervious to encounter and contamination.

Even the adventure of Matteo Ricci and the Jesuits in China, stressed Chow, referring to the themes developed in the Conference, Ricci is confronted with this "assimilatory" connotation characteristic of Chinese culture and civilization, aimed at making ‘foreign things acceptable’.
The choice of the Jesuits is to seek encounter and dialogue with the Chinese cultural and political elites, those who have chosen Confucianism as a theoretical and doctrinal factor for the consolidation of the political and social order. Thanks to this approach, Christianity is perceived by these elites not as a heresy to be rejected, but as a teaching "compatible" with Chinese culture. A process that enters into crisis when, with the ban on ancestor worship, the crisis of the "Chinese rites" begins and the imperial power prohibits the continuation of the Christian experience and preaching in the Celestial Empire.

The discontinuities of the "New China"

In light of these premises, Cardinal Chow retraced the entire history of the Catholic Church in the People's Republic of China. A history - the Bishop of Hong Kong stressed - marked by different passages, which must be recognized and contextualized in their evolution, freeing oneself from any blocked interpretative schematism, also to consider appropriately the present and future condition of the Chinese Catholic communities.

In the early decades, Cardinal Chow stressed, the new Chinese communist system had an urgent need to claim its own identity by marking a break with any foreign element that recalled the previous subordination to Western powers and designs. The expulsion of the foreign missionaries who ran the vast majority of Chinese dioceses also responded to this need for identity. The era marked by Western domination of the Church in China ended in a traumatic way. Tolerance is reserved only for indigenous priests. It was in this context that measures were taken that also affected specific groups such as the Legion of Mary and Catholic Action (acronyms that, for the new Chinese power, already expressed in their name their "fighting" and antagonistic connotation with respect to the new communist order), and which contributed to creating within the ecclesial community a division between those who had not accepted the expulsion of foreign missionaries and those who, on the contrary, considered the end of Western predominance in the leadership of the Church in China and the necessary adaptation to the new situation to be inevitable.

From the Cultural Revolution to Deng Xiaoping's "Reform"

In the era of the Cultural Revolution, the Cardinal continued in his excursus, the Church was also subjected, like all other social groups, to radical options aimed at "decimating all traditional cultures", including Confucianism. It was - noted Bishop Chow - a program applied to the whole of society and to all faith communities, which did not have as its "specific program" the persecution of the Catholic Church.
The Church, too, was submerged by anti-Western and anti-imperialist campaigns directed against all those who were labeled "counter-revolutionary elements".

Even in this phase, the Catholic Church paid in part for its persistent identification with the West, perceived as an enemy whose presence had to be erased from China. A phase, continued Cardinal Chow, which was gradually overcome at the time of the reopening led by Deng Xiaoping. A process that, in the 1990s, also led officials of the apparatus and organic academics of the Chinese system to put aside the doctrines on religion as the "opium of the people" and to recognize that faith communities are part of the path of civilizations in history and cannot be "erased and suppressed by force." According to this new line, religious realities must be curbed and prevented when they cross certain "red lines" and religion is used as a tool to sabotage the political and social order guaranteed by party control. Otherwise, even the political apparatuses take note of the fact that religions can "bring benefits to Chinese society." This change of perspective also helps to understand the expansion of charitable works and even evangelistic activities in Chinese society in recent decades.

“Sinicization”, an open game

In the current historical phase, explained Cardinal Chow in the conclusion of his speech, Xi Jinping’s China knows that it has become the second economic power in the world and feels the urgency to clearly and effectively define its identity in order to affirm its role on the world stage. The slogans of “Sinicization” demanded by current political leaders in all spheres and aspects of Chinese reality respond to this urgency. A process, noted the Cardinal, that involves not only religious communities, but also “the media, fashion, leisure activities and all expressions of social life”, all of which are called to adhere to a perspective of “greater unity and better service to the country”.

In this context, the Church is also facing a new scenario, which sees the apparatuses insisting on the national reality, the centralizing role of political authorities and the pressing demand that all subjects and social realities integrate “Chinese elements”.
"We are inside this process, this metamorphosis," added Cardinal Chow, and "we need to understand what is happening." In the meetings on the theme of the sinicization of the Church in which he participated, both in Hong Kong and Macao, the Jesuit Cardinal noted a "progressive clarification": before - he said - everyone "made their own monologue", now people are beginning to share considerations on the issues discussed. "We too - he suggested - must "go and see", with an attitude of dialogue. Taking into account what the Church recognizes and teaches on inculturation. Without holding back. Pray - suggested the Bishop of Hong Kong - that the Spirit may enlighten everyone so that this ongoing process may be open to the truth." (Agenzia Fides, 16/11/2024)

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