Christianity first came to China over one thousand years ago but it did not last long. Alopen, a Syrian monk, introduced Nestorian Christianity in the Tang Dynasty and founded several monasteries and churches. Nestorian Christianity reemerged in the Mongol era in the early 14th century. Nestorian Christianity declined in China substantially in the mid-14th century. Roman Catholicism in China grew at the expense of the Nestorians during the late Yuan dynasty. Franciscan Bishop John of Montecorvino began his evangelization mission...
Observing the situation of many African states, one becomes aware of lacerated societies, or at least of societies in “high tension” where the main issue at stake is one of internal cohesion. Many states resemble aggregates of entities forced to live together while doing their utmost to affirm their own uniqueness. Thus, the political space becomes the field in which these different entities enter into competition, at times violently, endangering national unity. In particular, after the beginning of the 1990s,...
“The ultimate destiny of the universe is in the fullness of God, which has already been attained by the risen Christ, the measure of the maturity of all things.” Here, I am citing Pope Francis from his encyclical Laudato Si’ (LS), n.83, and, in turn, his footnote which makes explicit reference to the origin of this thought, Fr. Teilhard de Chardin. Teilhard (1881-1955) was a Jesuit, anthropologist and spiritual figure of great importance. He lived through the far-reaching tensions of...
The mission in China in the 17th century still draws the attention of many scholars, such as historians of science, theologians and missiologists today. This mission, which in the first hundred years was predominantly led by the Jesuits, was noteworthy in several regards: the Jesuit missionaries adopted a policy of accommodation to Chinese culture: they evangelized, they propagated indirectly by using European science and technology, and adopted an attitude of toleration toward Confucian values and rites. The development of an...
In a private meeting with Polish Jesuits in Krakow, Pope Francis said: “the Church needs to grow in discernment; in her capacity to discern.”1 He emphasized the importance of priestly formation and exhorted the Jesuits to work together with seminarians, especially by “giving them what we ourselves received from Ignatius’ Spiritual Exercises: the wisdom of discernment.”2 But what is discernment? There are a lot of good theoretical definitions of it. Here I simply take it to mean the capacity of...
On March 25, in the Renaissance setting of Rome’s Campidoglio, 27 leaders of European Union countries and three representatives from its Brussels-based institutions, Jean-Claude Juncker, Donald Tusk and Antonio Tajani, gathered to sign a common declaration for the 60th anniversary of the signing of the Treaties of Rome. As the Italian Prime Minister, Paolo Gentiloni, underlined in his speech, the occasion marked how “this has been a voyage of achievements and hopes that have come to fruition, with others yet...
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