Card. Celso Costantini and Religious Freedom on Venice agenda
Commemorating him 50 years on from his death. He promoted the inculturization of studies and theology and instigated the first Chinese Episcopal hierarchy. A historic convention to study the present and the future: the problem of persecution and the fragile signs of dialogue China and the Vatican.

Venice (AsiaNews) – May 7th and 8th the faculty of cannon law St Pius X, Venice will hold an international convention of the figure of Card. Celso Costantini (the first Vatican delegate to China) and the situation of the Church and religious freedom in the Asian nation.

 

In this way the faculty seeks to remember the stature of the personality that contributed to the turning point in the modernisation and inculturization of the Christian faith in China.  It was Card. Costantini who instigated the Shanghai (1924), ordained the first 6 Chinese bishops (1926) and consecrated China to Our Lady Sheshan, the sanctuary close to Shanghai. This year marks 50 years since his death.

 

In the same way the many experts and delegates want to study and discuss how to proceed in supporting the life of the Church today in China, still signed by violence and persecution, and how to strengthen the frail (and contradictory) signs of dialogue between Beijing and the Holy See.

 

Delegates invited to take part include Fr. Bernardo Cervellera (editor of AsiaNews), Jurist Giuseppe Dalla Torre (rector of Lumsa Universityi Rome), Prof. Wilhelm Müller (Pontifical Urbaniana University Rome), Prof. Bruno Fabio Pighin (Faculty of Canon Law St. Pius X, Venice), Giorgio Feliciani (Faculty of Canon Law St. Pius X, Venice and Sacred Heart University Milan), Mons. Juan Ignacio Arrieta (Secretary Pontifical Council for Legislative texts) and Mons. Robert Sarah (Segretary of the Congregation for the Evangelisation of Peoples).

 

The convention will open with an address by Mons. Ovidio Poletto, bishop of Concordia - Pordenone (original diocese of Card. Costantini).