WORLD AFFAIRS

An apology from the Vatican

Pope John Paul II's recent apology to China for past "errors" is seen as being part of the Vatican's efforts to normalise ties with China.

BISWAJIT CHOUDHURY

THE message that came from Pope John Paul II on October 24 had all the ingredients that would go to make an overwhelming impact - it was addressed to the most populous nation on earth, and came, moreover, as a complete surprise. The Pope apologised to China for any "errors" made by Church missionaries in the past. He said: "I feel deep sadness for those errors and limits of the past, and I regret that in many people these failings may have given the impression of a lack of respect and esteem for the Chinese people on the part of the Catholic Church."

The head of the Catholic Church made his apology in a message to an international convention held in the Gregorian University in Rome. The convention, on dialogue between China and the West, was being held to commemorate the fourth century of the arrival in China of a Jesuit missionary, Matteo Ricci.

VINCENZO PINTO/REUTERS
Pope John Paul II. "I feel deep sadness for those errors and limits of the past."

Although the papal message did not specify the mistakes of the Church, these "errors" are clearly contextualised in the Western imperialist penetration of China. "History, however, reminds us that the actions of members of the Church in China have not always been free of errors... and have been conditioned by difficult situations linked to complex historical events and conflicting political interests." The pontiff spoke of the negative impact the Church's "protection" of European powers had had on China. "The Church must not be afraid of historical truth and she is ready - with deeply felt pain - to admit the responsibility of her children. This is true also with regard to her relationship, past and present, with the Chinese people."

The Pope's apology cannot but revive visions of events that have shaped the course of China's history, as well as its relations with the West. For instance, of the Opium Wars against Britain and France in the 19th century, through which the Western powers won trading rights in China and foreign missionaries gained freedom of movement within the country. Or, of the Tai-Ping revolt in the mid-19th century, led by Hong Xiuquan, a convert to Baptist Christianity, who declared himself to be the "Brother of Christ" and set out to reform China and overthrow the ruling Qing dynasty. He attracted many followers and within a few years a peasant army of hundreds of thousands came to dominate the Yangtze river valley. They were finally defeated by the Qing government, which had the support of Western arms and military expertise.

After a brief period of cooperation in the 1860s, foreign powers, reacting to widespread anti-foreigner violence, renewed their assault on China. There was a series of conflicts and each brought further humiliation and greater curbs on sovereignty for China. Simultaneously, there were attempts by Catholic and Protestant missionaries to convert Chinese people to Christianity. In 1900, members of a secret society called Boxers roamed northeastern China in bands, attacking Westerners, missionaries and Chinese converts to Christianity. The Chinese government secretly allied itself with this violent anti-foreigner, anti-religious movement and soon these bands were burning down churches and Westerners' property in Beijing. An allied force comprising British, French, German, Russian and U.S. troops captured the capital in August 1900, put down the Boxer revolt and imposed the Settlement of Peking on the Chinese government, amending the commercial treaties further in favour of the Western powers.

Soon after the Communist revolution, China broke off diplomatic relations with the Vatican in 1951. Catholics in the country had to cut off all ties with Rome, while those who failed to do so risked persecution and imprisonment. Instead, there is an officially-recognised Patriotic Church, which does not acknowledge papal authority. It ordains its own bishops. Since the 1980s, with its opening towards the West, there has been an expansion of religious toleration in China. Officially, there are about four million adherents to the Patriotic Church.

China's Roman Catholics today continue to practise their religion as an underground group. According to the Vatican, there are about eight million followers of this "clandestine" Church. These faithful are an important reason for the Pope's call to resume diplomatic ties with China, which he made along with his unexpected, historic apology.

Past attempts by the Vatican and China to mend relations have alternated between phases of downturn and complete impasse. Last year the Patriotic Church ordained five bishops on October 1, China's National Day, even as John Paul II canonised 120 Chinese Catholic martyrs and European missionaries, many of whom had been killed in anti-foreigner uprisings during the 19th and early 20th centuries. China described the canonisations as acts of "glorifying" a century of Western imperialism in China. An editorial in the China Daily remarked: "The Chinese people do not want to rake up the past, and would rather look ahead, but this does not mean forgetting history, or abandoning their principles."

Christian proselytising had a major role in furthering the colonial enterprise, and in 19th century China the missionaries were mostly of the Protestant, Anglo-Saxon kind. So the choice of the Jesuit missionary, Matteo Ricci, as a point of reference in the quest for a new rapport among the West, the Church and China. Celebrations to mark four centuries of his arrival in China were held this October both in Beijing and in Rome.

Ricci, an Italian Jesuit, arrived in China in 1582 and remained there until his death in 1610. He introduced the Chinese to valuable developments in the West in mathematics, geometry, cartography and astronomy. He earned an honoured place in China for his immersion into the local culture and for his profound study of Confucian philosophy. It led Ricci and his fellow Jesuits towards an 'inculturation' of their religious mission, which was expressed through a tolerance for local customs and through the incorporation of practices such as ceremonies to honour ancestors and Confucius in a new rite celebrated with converts.

The 16th century Sino-Western relationship, unlike the later Western incursions, was mutually respectful. This was when the first Catholic mission in China was founded. However, other Catholic orders such as the Domenicans and the Franciscans were strongly against such compromises. In the so-called Rites Controversy the Pope denounced the Jesuit view and prohibited the ceremonies. The apology of the current pontiff makes a reference to these theological disputes of the past.

"Ricci was a pioneer and was proposing new rites," says Felix Machado, Undersecretary to the Pontifical Council for Inter-religious Dialogue. Machado hails from Vasai, Maharashtra, and teaches at the Gregorian University in Rome. "There is a strong dynamic within the Church in India, for instance, towards greater inculturation, for moving ever closer to the local reality." Of the Pope's apology to China, Machado said: "He speaks here representing the West and takes a humble attitude, which will encourage Christians everywhere not to negate their own culture, but instead to build on those values."

CHINA'S immediate response to John Paul II's apology and diplomatic overtures was that the government was carefully studying the Pope's message. A spokesman for the Chinese Foreign Ministry said relations could be normalised only on the condition that the Vatican accepted that "it cannot interfere in China's internal affairs using the pretext of religious issues". The other basic condition for normalising relations is that Vatican recognise the "One China" principle and withdraw its representative in Taiwan.

The Vatican's eagerness to normalise ties with China was evident at the convention on Matteo Ricci. Archbishop Giuseppe Pittau, regarded as being close to the Pope, announced that "the Pope is ready, even as early as tomorrow, for a complete agreement if China is willing". Pittau added that possible solutions for "existing technical problems" have already been examined and that "there are solutions possible even for the problem regarding appointment of bishops". From Pittau's remark that "there are no insurmountable obstacles that force us to remain separated", it was clear that the Vatican is also ready to close down its embassy in Taiwan.

The Milan-based Italy-China Institute organised the international symposium on Ricci. Its honorary president is Italy's ex-Premier Giulio Andreotti, an assiduous champion of closer ties with China. His role in reviving China's relations with the West after the strains caused by the Tiananmen incidents has been acknowledged by the Chinese government. Andreotti declared he was "very happy and moved' by the Pope's apology to China.

Asked whether the current international situation could encourage contact between the Vatican and China, Andreotti replied in the affirmative. "It may seem paradoxical," he said, "but at the international level, September 11 is producing effects quite the opposite of what the terrorists were perhaps hoping for."

Andreotti's reflection leads back to the explanation, and the timing, of the Pope's apology contained in the message itself. "The present moment of profound disquiet in the international community calls for a fervent commitment on the part of everyone to creating and developing ties of understanding, friendship and solidarity among peoples." This leads back to a few days before this message and to the coastal city of Shanghai, where the Presidents of the U.S., Russia and China, among other leaders, came together during the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) conference to inaugurate an unprecedented alliance against terrorism (see separate story). "The Pope, by his gesture, seeks to widen the international alliance and China has declared its willingness to improve relations with the Vatican, which is a new development, of course, provided its conditions are met," Lina Tamburrino, for many years correspondent in China for the daily L'Unita, told this correspondent. "China's economic weight was beyond doubt and it appears as a beacon of security in the darkness of uncertainty that seems to have fallen over the world economy. However, Shanghai marks the coronation of China as a world power, because the war against terrorism has gained China recognition on the political sphere."