Vatican diplomacy with the Chinese government is in danger of accepting Beijing’s supposed ‘mandate of heaven’.

China’s Church Divided: Bishop Louis Jin and the Post-Mao Catholic Revival
PAUL P. MARIANI

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The Jesuits have a distinguished history of contribution to missionary activity in China. It begins with Matteo Ricci in the sixteenth century, greatly admired at the Chinese court for his scholarship and the parallels he drew between Confucianism and Christianity. He converted several prominent Chinese officials to Catholicism. It is hardly surprising that he was also admired by Pope Francis, who would, it was widely believed, have liked to visit China, not least to celebrate Ricci’s life and perhaps even canonise his fellow Jesuit.

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