Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies since 1927
by Cardinal Pietro Parolin*
Vatican City (Agenzia Fides) - We publish Cardinal Pietro Parolin's preface to the book by the missionary and priest Antonio Sergianni, "The journey of the Gospel in China. In the footsteps of Father Matteo Ricci" (published by "La conchiglia di Santiago", San Miniato, Pisa). The book is a precious and passionate testimony to the adventure of Christianity in China, which was also born out of personal encounters with Chinese bishops, priests, and Catholic laity.
Father Sergianni (84), a spiritual son of Father Divo Barsotti, entered the Pontifical Institute for Foreign Missions (PIME) as a young man and was ordained a priest in 1965. From 1980 to 2003, he served as a missionary in Taiwan, visiting several provinces of mainland China for long periods. He then worked for the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples, now the Dicastery for Evangelization, where he was responsible for the affairs of the Catholic Church in China.
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There are many ways to look at China. And for a Christian, it is legitimate to look at China "in the light of the Word of God." Thus writes Father Antonio Sergianni, priest and missionary, at the beginning of this book, hinting at the source of the unique and incomparable power that permeates its pages.
Faith in Jesus Christ, as the Orthodox theologian Olivier Clément used to say, 'is not an anxious pietism of life.' Nor is it an idealism dedicated to imagining and building alternative worlds. Just as it recognizes that the Kingdom of God 'is not of this world, whose form is passing' (Paul VI, Credo of the People of God), faith in Jesus Christ can, almost as a 'side effect,' out of grace and humility, also make our view of worldly affairs clearer and more penetrating. It can lead us to realistically grasp dynamics ignored by geopolitical analyses, factors disregarded by economic interpretations, which usually do not take into account the expectations of greatness and goodness that mysteriously vibrate in the history and life of peoples.
Dynamics and factors that today seem even more hidden and distant due to the global flow of media and communication in which we are all involved.
With his faithful gaze, Father Antonio captures the human greatness of the Chinese people's and Chinese civilization's journey through time, helping us grasp it in all its breadth. A dizzying greatness, a kind of mystery of History, with a continuity spanning more than a thousand years, which seems to cross and overcome the caesuras between historical epochs. A human entity without equal in its writing and forms of social organization, which has always assigned its authorities the task of mediating and ensuring the balance between human society and the natural order. This is a reality that inherited from the Confucian tradition the conviction of its universal mission, of the centrality and attraction of its civilization, and which now appears with renewed prominence on the world stage, arousing diverse reactions ranging from admiration to anxiety, from hostility to sympathy.
With the gaze of faith, Father Sergianni in his book glimpses a possible overlap between the Chinese reality, which pervades history as an unprecedented mystery, and another reality linked to a mystery of a different kind: the mystery that came into the world with the birth of Christ and gave birth to a people who pervade history until the end of time.
With the gaze of faith, Father Antonio traces all the historical periods that have marked the encounter between the proclamation of Christ and China, from the arrival of the monks of the ancient Church of the East on Chinese soil in the first centuries of Christianity to the present day. With historical clarity and, at the same time, moving compassion, the author traces the golden thread of the encounters between the "mystery" of China and the Christian mystery that have so often occurred during this long adventure. This golden thread mysteriously interweaves failures and new beginnings, missed opportunities and new beginnings, tribulations and moments of grace. Each passage seems like a deposit and promise of something great that will soon unfold. Already now, and yet not yet.
In the final stretch of the journey of the last decades, the gaze of faith with which Father Sergianni looks at history, at China, and at faith in China, becomes above all the gaze of a witness. One can say that the power, the intimate strength of this book, comes from the fact that it is, first and foremost, a testimony of Christian love. The pages in which he casually recounts his encounters and his long-standing bond with Chinese brothers and sisters in faith - bishops, priests, nuns, lay men and women - allow the reason and source of this love to shine through. Along his life's journey, his love for Christ was strengthened and embraced by encounters with Chinese Catholic brothers and sisters. His love for Jesus was grateful, even to the point of shedding tears, when he saw what Jesus himself was doing among them. Among people who performed simple tasks during the time of tribulation and carried bricks down the river for years. Like the priest who told him how he was mistreated because he did not know how to "clean the toilets," and how, precisely in such moments, he "felt the risen Jesus Christ at my side, a great peace, and the desire to sing."
Because of this vision of faith and his love for Chinese Catholics, Father Antonio also appropriately and objectively documents the concern of the Popes and the Apostolic See for the affairs of the Church in China. His account of the papal interventions regarding the proclamation of the Gospel in China, from Benedict XV to Pope Francis, testifies to the consistency of the criteria followed by the Bishops of Rome in various circumstances, who have always acted in fidelity to the apostolic nature of the Church, preserving the treasure of communion even in times of trial.
The documentation compiled by Father Sergianni in the appendix to this volume is a valuable and useful tool for all those who wish to retrace, in an objective yet passionate way, the most important stages of the unparalleled journey of the Chinese Catholic community in recent decades, beginning with the proclamation of the People's Republic of China.
With his book, Father Sergianni clarifies what Pope Francis said: Even in times of patience and trial, "the Lord in China has preserved the faith of the People of God on this journey." And today, Chinese Catholics, fully Catholic and fully Chinese, "in communion with the Bishop of Rome, are moving forward in the present age. In the context in which they live, they also bear witness to their faith through works of mercy and charity, and in their witness they make a genuine contribution to the harmony of social coexistence, to the building of our common home" (cf. video message to the International Conference for the 100th Anniversary of the Concilium Sinense, Rome, May 21, 2024).
In the daily life of the "small remnant" of Chinese Catholics, with all their human limitations and poverty, this encounter takes place between the mystery of Christ's efficacious grace and the historical events of Chinese reality, which Father Antonio describes in his book. From this interconnectedness, gifts can be released for all. This encounter, too, can mysteriously contribute to ensuring that the breath and longing for greatness of the Chinese people and all other peoples do not become closed in on themselves and fuel fears with endless wars, but are channeled toward paths of peace that promote encounters and paths of fraternity, of fraternal coexistence between different peoples.
For all these reasons, we must thank Father Sergianni for the gift of this book.
(Agenzia Fides, 12/4/2025)
*Vatican's Secretary of State
