Hong Kong, Jesuit Stephen Chow is the new bishop

2021-05-20T23:50:37.572Z

The appointment of a Jesuit to lead a diocese as "sensitive" as that of Hong Kong is of high symbolic value: Jesuit Pope Francis, Jesuit Stephen Chow, the choice seems decidedly in line with the composed and measured diplomacy used by Bergoglio to open dialogue between the Vatican and China. Since the time of Matteo Ricci, five centuries ago, the company of Jesus has been pursuing a journey and a tradition in China that is interrupted and renewed continuously. Responsible for all Chinese Jesuits, not only in Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan but also throughout mainland China, Stephen Chow has never openly sided against Beijing during the protests in the former British colony. Sixty-one years old, from Hong Kong, graduate of the University of Minnesota in the USA in psychology, specializing in philosophy at the University of Dublin,then returned to the USA in 2000 for a doctorate at Harvard, Stephen Chow boasts a prestigious school curriculum, which combined with his skills as a prudent mediator, made him the most suitable person for the Vatican to cover the delicate position, a decision that is in any case arrived after long hesitations. Hong Kong has a population of 7.5 million; Chow will lead a diocese of 626,000 Catholics. The policy of rapprochement between the Vatican and China has been going on for many years but the negotiations have had a new impetus with Francis, whose name refers to Francis of Assisi, but also refers to Francis Xavier, the first Jesuit who arrived in Japan in 1549 and died prematurely on the way to Sancian, before he was able to touch Chinese soil.There was much talk of Francesco Saverio referring to Pope Bergoglio at the time of his appointment: on the one hand Francis, the saint who stripped himself of everything to be poor among the poor, on the other the Jesuit missionary precursor of Matteo Ricci, the priest of the Society of Jesus became the symbol of relations between Italy and China, remembered in the former celestial empire as a symbol of our country together with Marco Polo, historical-diplomatic links between two distant worlds. Matteo Ricci arrived in China in the 17th century to evangelize Emperor Wanli, as well as the elite of the Mandarins, the court literati of the Ming dynasty:to be more convincing he learned Chinese and studied by heart all the Confucian classics whose language he drew to legitimize the Christian scriptures although Matteo Ricci was appreciated above all for his intellectual contribution rather than for his strictly religious one: mathematics, astronomy, clocks, medicine , geography: the Jesuits brought to China a wide range of knowledge that aroused the curiosity of the emperor. Died in 1610 in Beijing, Li Matou, this is Matteo Ricci's Chinese name, was one of the few foreigners to have the opportunity to reside in China. Among his works in Mandarin, the moral treatises, such as that on friendship, the treatises on arithmetic, geometry and astronomy, various editions of the Globe. "I am happy that Father Stephen can continue to serve,and I wish him every blessing in this new ministry. "Thus Father Arturo Sosa, the Superior General of the Society of Jesus, commented on Pope Francis' decision to appoint Chow as the new bishop of Hong Kong. The choice of a Jesuit therefore seems fundamental to continue. the negotiations between the Vatican and China especially after the agreements signed with the Chinese government in 2018 and renewed in October 2020. In China there are over 12 million Catholics; there is a Patriotic church controlled by the party and an underground church, faithful to Rome. the 2020 agreement Beijing and the Vatican have come close to the thorniest element of the dispute between the two parties: the appointment of bishops: the Chinese government has promised to formally recognize the Pope's authority over the appointments,a turning point that seems to have led to a decisive opening compared to the past although the road is still dotted with obstacles.