Pope Leo XIV sends a video message to a conference in Rome exploring the face of the universal Church in China, and encourages Catholics to preserve unity in diversity, not uniformity.
By Devin Watkins
Pope Leo XIV sent a video message on Thursday to an international conference entitled “The Face of the Universal Church in China: 100 Years Since the Consecration of the First Chinese Bishops.”
Taking place in Rome, the conference was organized by the Dicastery for Evangelization – Section for First Evangelization, in collaboration with the Pontifical Urbaniana University.
In his message, the Pope recalled the first six Chinese Catholic Bishops consecrated in modern times, and their journey from Shanghai to Rome to receive episcopal ordination in St. Peter’s Basilica at the hands of Pope Pius XI on October 28, 1926.
“Their consecration was an event of great significance, not only for the journey of the Catholic Church in China but also for the universal Church,” he said.
Pope Leo pointed to Pope Benedict XV’s 1919 apostolic letter Maximum illud, which affirmed that the Church’s missionary work must not be confused with colonization or cultural imposition.
The Gospel, he said, grows wherever it is sown through the grace of God, not through human strategies.
“The Church, which is born of mission and the first proclamation of the Gospel,” he added, “is happy to take on the characteristics and nuances of the people and nations among whom she is called to bear witness to Christ in charity.”
At the first General Council of the Church in China—the Council of Shanghai in 1924—the Church expressed the urgent desire to entrust leadership of local communities to native-born Chinese priests and Bishops.
“It was necessary to initiate and foster that process in order to remain faithful to the very nature of the Church, whose unity is not uniformity but communion in diversity,” said Pope Leo.
The Catholic faith embraces the differences and—wherever possible—the characteristics of individuals and peoples in every culture, he noted, recalling that this aspect mirrors God’s way of calling each person with their unique qualities.
“The Church lives among the peoples with friendship and sympathy for their hopes and noble aspirations,” he said.
Recalling the missionary Bishop St. Toribio de Mogrovejo, Pope Leo said each Bishop receives and carries out the mission in communion with the Successor of Peter and other Bishops spread throughout the world.
He said the six Chinese Bishops consecrated in 1926 crossed the globe “to bear witness to the communion that blossoms from the faith of the Apostles,” in communion with the Bishop of Rome.
“It is a beautiful, gratuitous, and comforting sign; a liberating bond; a closeness that instills confidence; and above all, a manifestation of the mystery of the Mystical Body of Christ,” said Pope Leo.
He noted with Pope Benedict XVI and Pope Francis that the Catholic Church in China has never been deprived of the “ministry of legitimate shepherds who have preserved the apostolic succession intact.”
Pope Leo XIV concluded his video message by recalling the “joy and pride” which the consecration of the six Bishops kindled in Chinese Catholics, saying the event consigned “mistrust, suspicion, and hostility to oblivion.”
“Today, in a world torn apart by conflicts and overwhelmed by wars,” said the Pope, “the Bride of Christ continues that same mission, praying that, in the face of every threat, the Lord may preserve the treasure of ecclesial communion, a fruitful source of goodness and peace for all.”
