Macau (AsiaNews) – Next summer, an international conference will be held in in Macau to commemorate the centenary of the first Plenary Council of China, the meeting of all Catholic bishops and vicars that took place in 1924 in Shanghai on the mandate of Pope Pius XI, which represents a milestone in the history of the Church in China.
The symposium will run from 26 to 29 June 2024, organised by the Faculty of Religious Sciences and Philosophy at Saint Joseph's University (USJ) and the Xavier Centre for Memory and Identity, the diocesan weekly O Clarim of the Catholic Church in Macau announced in an article on its website.
The Primum Concilium Sinense, which took place from 15 May to 12 June 1924, was a very important moment in the development of evangelisation of the Chinese people.
Conceived and promoted by the then Apostolic Delegate to China, Archbishop Celso Costantini, the meeting strongly argued that Chinese Catholics should, from that moment on, participate directly in canonical decisions and have access to greater ecclesial responsibilities.
This was the premise for the ordination of the first six native Chinese bishops, who were later consecrated by Pius XI in Rome in 1926.
The legacy of the Shanghai Council will be discussed for four days in view of today's context by world-renowned experts on the history of the Church in China in Macau, most notably Fr Gianni Criveller, a PIME missionary from Italy and AsiaNews editorial director, Austrian sinologist Leopold Leeb, and Anthony Lam Sui-ky, a researcher at the Holy Spirit Centre in Hong Kong.
“The Council’s vision of a local Church in communion with the Universal Church encouraged more priests to evangelize people by ways that are seen as more suitable to Chinese people. This vision was also re-affirmed by the Second Vatican Council,” said Prof Thomas Cai, director of the Xavier Centre for Memory and Identity cited by O Clarim.
“Could it inspire a new Council for China?” he asks. “A lot of practical issues have to be considered for a new Council for China. Maybe, it is better to leave the question to the speakers of our 2024 symposium.”
