SPEAKING PERSONALLY…
FEAST OF THE VISITATION: One of my favorite places in Vatican City has always been the small, historic, beautiful church of Santo Stefano degli Abissini. I have attended several funeral visitation vigils for cardinals, and have been to Mass there as well, always a bit overcome by the history and simple beauty. And one of my favorite events in the Vatican is the annual procession that is about to start in the Vatican gardens at the church of Santo Stefano to mark the feast of the Visitation. If you are ever in Rome on May 31, try to attend this remarkable annual event.
MATTEO RICCI , JOAN AND CHINA: Today’s general audience catechesis focussed, as it has for weeks, on apostolic zeal with Pope Francis choosing a special “witness to zeal” each week. Today he spoke at length on Jesuit Fr. Matteo Ricci, a singular and amazing missionary who dedicated his life to evangelization in China, a goal his fellow Jesuit, Fr. Francis Xavier, wished to reach but never did, as we learned at the May 17 general audience.
In 1995 I was in Beijing where Fr. Ricci, who died May 11, 1610, is buried. I was a member of the Vatican delegation to the United Nations conference on Women in September 1995. We had extraordinarily little time in the weeks that we were in Beijing to see some of the sights but several delegation members did visit Fr. Ricci’s tomb in Zhalan Cemetery, the oldest Christian cemetery in China.
I was enormously impressed with Italian-born Fr. Ricci’s story and tried to learn all I could about this man – who always dressed as a Chinese scholar – whom the Chinese called “Sage of the West.”
YouWenhui 游文輝, alias Manuel Pereira c. 1610, oil on canvas, 120 × 95 cm. © Society of Jesus, Il Gesù, Rome.
One biographical site noted, “Ricci arrived at the Portuguese settlement of Macau in 1582 where he began his missionary work in China. He became the first European to enter the Forbidden City of Beijing in 1601 when invited by Emperor who sought his services in matters such as court astronomy and calendar science.”
It was Emperor Wanli of the Ming dynasty who donated the land specifically for the burial of Matteo Ricci. It was an unheard of honor for the Chinese to do this but Emperor Wanli did have great respect for the Jesuits in general and Fr. Ricci in particular whose name in China was Li Matou.
I felt very privileged not just to be a member of the Holy See delegation to the Beijing conference but privileged to be in China, whose millennia-old history is one of the most fascinating imaginable. I could write a small volume on what I learned and experienced during those weeks in this vast Asian nation. A few years later I had an equally amazing learning experience when I visited Taiwan for 12 days – another small volume for sure!
One chapter of such a book would be the offer I received to return some day to Taiwan to teach English at the Wenzao Ursuline University of Languages in Kaohsiung, Taiwan! I will have to find my video of that trip!
CANDLELIT PROCESSION IN VATICAN GARDENS MARKS FEAST OF THE VISITATION
At 7 this evening, feast of the Visitation, the annual candlelit procession in the Vatican Gardens will take place as the faithful pray the rosary and process from the church of Santo Stefano degli Abissini to the Grotto of Lourdes in Vatican City. Cardinal Mauro Gambetti, archpriest of St. Peter’s Basilica, will deliver remarks at the grotto.
Tradition says this church was built by Pope Lei I (400–461), who named it St. Stephen Major in remembrance of St. Stephen protomartyr. There was already a monastery here at the time of Pope Gregory III (8th century). It was restored by Pope Sixtus IV who assigned it in 1479 to Coptic monks in the city and the name was changed to St. Stephen of the Abyssinians (Ethiopians). Considered the national church of Ethiopia, St. Stephen’s is one of the only standing structures in the Vatican to survive the destruction of the first St. Peter’s basilica in 1506.
MATTEO RICCI: “HE BROUGHT CHRISTIANITY TO CHINA”
Today at the general audience, Pope Francis praised the apostolic zeal of Venerable Matteo Ricci, one of the early Jesuit missionaries to the Far East whose love for the Chinese people remains a model of consistency for Christian witness.
By Deborah Castellano Lubov
Matteo Ricci’s love for the Chinese people remains an enduring source of inspiration.
With this sentiment, Pope Francis described Venerable Matteo Ricci, one of the early Jesuit missionaries to the Far East, at his weekly General Audience on Wednesday in St. Peter’s Square, as he continued his catechesis series on saints who personified apostolic zeal.
“His love for the Chinese people is a model; but what is a very timely one, is his consistency of life, his Christian witness. He brought Christianity to China…”
The Pope praised Ricci’s excellence in various areas, but stressed that his greatness, above all, lies in his being “consistent with his vocation, consistent with that desire to follow Jesus Christ.”
Last week, Pope Francis praised St. Andrew Kim Taegon, the first native priest of Korea and a martyr for the faith, who dreamed of reaching China, but was not able to fulfill that dream. This week, instead, he spoke of Ricci who did.
Reflecting on the saint to the thousands of faithful in the Square, the Pope remembered how originally from Macerata, in Italy’s Marche region, Ricci studied in Jesuit schools and having himself entered the Society of Jesus. Enthused by the reports of missionaries, like many of his young companions, he asked to be sent to the missions in the Far East.
Father Ricci would go to China, and patiently go on to master the difficult Chinese language and immerse himself in the country’s culture. It would take 18 years, and unshakeable faith, to arrive in Peking, the Pope said, overcoming frequent mistrust and opposition.
Thanks to his writings in Chinese and his knowledge of mathematics and astronomy, the Jesuit Pope observed, Matteo Ricci became known and respected “as a sage and scholar.”
His vast learning and ability to engage in sincere and respectful dialogue, the Holy Father explained, were employed in the service of the Gospel. “This opened many doors to Him,” the Pope said. Ricci, he noted, made the Gospel known not only in his writings, but by his example of religious life, prayer and virtue.
In this way, the Pope suggested, Ricci attracted many of his Chinese disciples and friends to embrace the Catholic faith.
Matteo Ricci died in Peking (modern Beijing) in 1610, at the age of 57, “dedicating his whole life to mission.” Ricci was the first foreigner permitted by the Emperor to be buried on Chinese soil.
Great Missionaries
The Pope praised the strong prayer life of Ricci which propelled all his work, and that animates the life of missionaries.
Consistency and closeness to Christ, through prayer, the Pope suggested, is one of the greatest characteristics of the great missionaries, before inviting the faithful to ask themselves whether they are consistent in their Christian faith.
Joan's Rome 