Pope Affirms Matteo Ricci's Love for Chinese

(March 10, 2010) Father Matteo Ricci always had a profound love for the Church and for the Chinese people, Pope Benedict XVI affirmed. The Pope stated this in a telegram sent to participants in an international congress on "Science, Reason, Faith: The Genius of Father Matteo Ricci," held in Macerata on the 400th anniversary of the death of the Italian Jesuit missionary. In the message, signed by Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, the Pontiff's secretary of state, the Holy Father expressed his "heartfelt appreciation for the significant manifestation geared toward making known the extraordinary cultural and scientific work of Father Matteo Ricci, noble son of this land." The telegram, which was read to the participants during the three days of study that ended on Saturday, acknowledged the missionary's "profound love for the Church and zeal for the evangelization of the Chinese people." In a letter sent last May to Bishop Claudio Giuliodori of Macerata, at the start of the preparations for Ricci's 4th centenary, the Pontiff stressed the "innovative and peculiar capacity "of the Jesuit, by which he sought "harmony between the noble and ancient Chinese civilization and the novelty of Christianity." The Pope highlighted the "pastoral strategy" of the Jesuit, who was in China for 28 years, and the "profound love he had for the Chinese, for their history, their culture and religious tradition," which made "his apostolate original, and we could say, prophetic." Father Ricci's scientific knowledge also aroused great admiration. He took to China Western mathematics and geometry, as well as the great contributions of the Renaissance in the fields of geography, cartography and astronomy.