Issued by the Catholic Center for Studies and Media - Jordan. Editor-in-chief Fr. Rif'at Bader - موقع أبونا abouna.org

Published on Tuesday, 26 March 2019
There is no Silk Road without mutual trust between China and the Vatican

By Antonio Spadaro/ lastampa.it :

Historical crossroads between Christians, Muslims and Buddhists. Potential encounter between Xi and Francis if relations are strengthened.

The book "La Chiesa in Cina. Un futuro da scrivere" (Ancora), edited by the director of "Civiltà Cattolica" Antonio Spadaro and dedicated to the relations between the Catholic Church and China after the agreement reached between the Vatican and Beijing on the appointment of bishops, was presented today in Rome, The Superior General of the Jesuits Arturo Sosa, Monsignor Claudio Maria Celli and the President of the Council Giuseppe Conte among the panelist. Moderator: Father Antonio Spadaro. Below, Father Spadaro’s analysis of the conference.

It is a fact that China is playing an important role in the organisation of global trade. History today must help us to understand that globalization does not coincide at all with the "westernization" of the world, but must be framed within a broader perspective.
In fact, it is time to retrace the long history of the "Silk Road", active between the first century BC and the fourteenth century. We rediscover a Eurasian continent that in the first millennium and beyond has been deeply interconnected, even from the cultural point of view. The Silk Road, as Beijing intends to continue it, relaunches centuries of history of political and commercial relations. That is why it requires great attention today. It is a global project with deep roots.

Change of mentality
Having signed the memorandum with all the following reactions, we must now look ahead and consider how the Chinese initiative cannot be assessed solely on the basis of its economic and financial importance. That would be short-sighted. Beijing places great emphasis on cultural exchanges between the peoples of the Euro-Afro-Asian ecumene, and it does so by investing resources in countless initiatives dedicated to intangible cultural heritage: museums, fairs, exhibitions. Culture is fundamental to China's strategy for ensuring its international influence.

We are certainly experiencing the overcoming of Western modernity and a change of mentality both in the East and in the West. Historians wonder if we are experiencing the end of five hundred years of Western dominance. The debate reflects the dilemma of a Western society that feels the future of the world less and less in its hands.

The presence of other major players on the international scene (India, Japan, Brazil, Russia) makes for a very complex scenario which requires global governance. In this sense, Europe must find its own coherent profile. And let's not forget other players such as multinational and transnational corporations, non-governmental bodies. An East that emerges and submerges the West is unthinkable. Nor is it possible to imagine an East or a West in which there is a single "centre" with respect to so many peripheries. The geopolitical gaze that Francis has been carrying out since the beginning of his Pontificate insists on overturning the sclerotic scheme of relations between a "center" and its "peripheries".

European culture, at least until the Enlightenment, has always looked with close attention at the Chinese culture. Christianity bears witness to this. The splendid letters of the Jesuit missionaries in China - actual reports - at the time were an opportunity for intellectuals, even those far from the faith, such as Voltaire, Montesquieu, Rousseau, to get to know Chinese culture. The Jesuits, in some way, have "chinazed" Europe.

Subsequently however, a sense of superiority prevailed. European colonialism between the 19th and 20th centuries imposed a Euro-centric vision. The Wars of Opium made Christianity appear to the Chinese population as a foreign religion, that of the colonists.
Francis clearly contradicted this colonial vision several times. Let us remember that, at the end of his trip to Myanmar and Bangladesh, he spoke explicitly of the new role that China is playing in the international context. He said: "China today is a world power: if we see it from this side, it can change the view".

The "change of view" evoked by the Pontiff summarizes the reflections that we have made so far. And it is in this "view" that the provisional agreement of 22 September last between China and the Holy See must be placed. The spokesman for the Beijing Foreign Ministry, Geng Shuang, on the sidelines of President Xi Jinping's visit to Italy, said that the agreement "constitutes an important step. China stands ready to continue in this direction with the Vatican, to engage in constructive dialogue, to improve understanding, to build mutual trust and to promote the improvement of bilateral relations”.

Many expected a meeting between Xi and Francis in Rome. But it is also true that trust must be built in a solid way. What is certain is that the Silk Road, and its ambitions, will not be possible without this growing trust between Beijing and Rome understood as the See of Peter, given the global nature of Christianity.

Dialogue
In fact, it was precisely on the Silk Road that an extraordinary meeting of different religious traditions took place: Christians, Muslims, Zoroastrians and Buddhists met and lived side by side. Precisely in this pluralistic environment, Christianity was willing to enter into a fruitful dialogue with cultural and religious traditions very different from the Jewish and Greek-Hellenistic it had come in contact since its beginnings.

But along the Silk Road there are the Arab countries. The Turkish conquest of Istanbul in 1453 and the affirmation of the Ottoman Empire were among the causes that interrupted the Silk Road. Today that fracture between West and East must be reabsorbed. And China and the United Arab Emirates have already signed agreements that intertwine the two worlds. Let us not forget in this sense that the other event with a strong geopolitical impact, besides the Chinese one, is Francis signing the Document on human fraternity in Abu Dhabi with the Imam of Al-Azhar. It is not difficult to understand that peace in the world passes through China and Islam, two major priorities of the Francis’ Pontificate, which is equipped with a needle and a long, resistant thread.

Christianity in the Tang era along the Silk Road remained faithful to the Gospel, fully taking up the Buddhist and Taoist vocabulary, becoming - without fear and hesitation - fully Chinese: many centuries before Matteo Ricci.

Thanks to the September agreement, ancient ties are now reconnecting in a more harmonious way. The hope is that we proceed as if we were riding a bicycle, at the right speed, allowing us to move forward , without skidding and without stopping.