How will China’s weight influence the next Pope after Francisco’s opening to Asia?
Pope Francis’s body will be buried this Saturday in the Roman Basilica of Santa María Maior.
At that time, the remains of Jorge Mario Bergoglio will rest under the protection of a Marian image with a high spiritual value for Catholicism and great symbolic power for the Jesuits and for relations, also political, between the Catholic Church and Asia.
The icon of the Virgin of the Basilica of Santa Maria Maior and Asia
It is the Byzantine icon of the Virgin Salus Populi Romani, the Savior of the Roman people, the first representation of Maria officially authorized, by papal, which will be extended and reproduced.
The icon of the Virgin of the Basilica of Santa María Maior is also a symbol of the Catholic attempts of Evangelization of Asia.. In fact, it became the epic emblem of the great Jesuit trips to the Far East. To China.
In 1602, Father Matteo Ricci, a Jesuit missionary and Synologist, donated a copy of the Chinese emperor icon.
The search for a passage to the east for evangelization has been one of the great axes of the Pontificate of Bergoglio. It is even his political substance, according to many observers.
A decentralized conclave: for the first time, European cardinals are not the majority
Asia was contemplated with redistribution, “revolutionary” according to many ecclesiastical sectors, of the cardinals with the right of voting in the conclave, thus breaking an Eurocentric custom that attributed an overwhelming majority For the cardinals of the former continent, explained the theologian Gianni Criveller, a missionary for decades in the Chinese world and editor of the digital newspaper Asia News.
“Surprisingly, cities like Paris and Milan, and countries such as Austria and Ireland will not have a cardinal in the conclave. On the other hand, we will have the cardinals of Mongolia, where there are only about a thousand Catholics, by Myanmar and another from Thailand, countries with a large majority Buddhist,” said Criveler.
For the first time, Asia will be represented by 23 cardinal voters for a total of 135. China will have one, Bishop Stephen Chow Sau-Yan of Hong Kong.
The proportion of Asian voters is large compared to the expansion of Catholicism in the region. The only exception is the Philippines, a deeply Catholic country, with a religiosity inherited from the Spanish colonizers.
Without Asia and China, the Church runs the risk of being marginalized
Of the approximately one hundred million Catholics in the world, Asia represents ten percent. However, today it is a consolidated case of human and economic development and the policy of the Vatican cannot pretend that it does not exist.
Given the historically conquered role of Asia, the Bergoglio Papomacia believes that The presence in these regions, which are no longer remote, will soon be as essential as traditional rooting in EuropeIn America and Africa.
One of the reasons why Asia is also relevant to the Vatican in the time of Bergoglio is technology.
In fact, Francisco was the first pontiff to address a Summit of Ministers of the Economics of G7. It happened in Apulia, in June 2024, and went to talk about artificial intelligence.
The Gospel, a passport to the world
The ultimate goal of the geographical revolution of the voters of the Cardinals College “is the dissemination of the Gospel. It is not proselytizing, but simply the transmission of knowledge of the Gospel to other cultures, as the Jesuits did in the seventeenth century,” said Father Criveler.
ADVERTISINGA pastoral mission that seeks to eliminate the Church from the colonial past of the West: take the world to Rome, and not vice versa, certainly helped by its South American origin.
The evangelical aspect is not everything. According to Silvia Menegazzi, founder of the Center for Contemporary China Studies: “Pope Francis has a very precise vision of relations between the states. A vision that certainly has always been much more in accordance with the countries that we could call non -western, which we could call the global south. “The so -called Bric and, therefore, also China.
The Argentine pontiff made pastoral trips to the Middle East, South Korea, the Philippines, Myanmar, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Thailand, Japan, Kazajeo, Mongolia, Indonesia, Timor-Lete and Singapore. Despite political efforts, he could not visit the two Asian giants, India and China.
The Vatican and Beijing have no diplomatic relations. In fact, the Holy See recognizes Taiwan as the Republic of China. This is one of the reasons that explains the fact that Pope Francis did not make a pastoral journey, following in the footsteps of his Jesuit predecessors.
ADVERTISINGBeijing, however, expressed his condolences for Francis’s death and is considering sending a “high -level government delegation.”
The Catholic Church approach to Beijing
However, papal diplomacy achieved great political success with Beijing in 2018, the possibility of approved the appointment of Chinese Catholic bishops by the communist regime. Until then, the Chinese authorities unilaterally appointed local bishops, Eliminating great credibility to the Catholic Church in the Chinese world. As of 2018, the regime appoints the bishop, but the Vatican approves his appointment.
“This agreement is undoubtedly a real Vatican exercise Politik, in fact, as Quid Pro qo, the Pope could not visit Catholics in Hong Kong, Macao and especially in Taiwan,” says Father Criveler, and adds: “Francis never intervened in detail in the problems of human and religious rights in China and in the inquisitive and the Buddhists or the military budes Titists.
Paraphrasing, you could say that Beijing is worth a mass. “Although the Pope has often made great statements of esteem and love for Chinese people and culture,” concludes Gianni Criveller.
ADVERTISINGAccording to official numbers, provided by the regime, there are around ten million Catholics in China. But Catholic sources claim that these are only the faithful that belong to official religious structures. There are also Catholic unofficial organizations that the authorities do not recognize, as thirty bishops in every hundred, which are accepted by the Vatican.
“Compared to the predecessors, with Francisco, the relations between China and the Vatican improved. But not as the Vatican was expected. China remains, for the ancient tradition (and not only communist), the most atheist country in the world,” said Menegazzi, who concluded: “We will see how the successor will define his Asian policy.” Certainly, the relationship with China was more linked to Francisco’s person. Therefore, it will be necessary to evaluate more how the new pontiff will look at China than vice versa. “
Although the composition of the conclave is partially linked to the political and religious guidelines of the deceased Jorge Mario Bergoglio, it is not clear to what extent the political conditions of the world and Europe will allow the successor to complete the search for a turn towards the east initiated by Francisco.
“It is true that the late Pontiff attributed Great importance for international politics and relations. Only in this sense we had, like him, in the current times, only John Paul II, “said Father Criveler.
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