Tagle: The turning point Concilium Sinense for the Church in China, still relevant today

Vatican News

“At the Council of Shanghai, also thanks to the work of Celso Costantini, the communion between the Holy See and the Church in China has been manifested in its fruitful fruits, fruits of good for all the Chinese people,” said Cardinal Luis Antonio Joachim Tegel, Prefect of the Dicastery for the Promotion of the Gospel, in a video message sent to participants in the international conference ““The First Chinese Council (Shanghai Council): History and Importance” It was organized from June 26 to 29 in Macau by Saint Joseph University, marking the centenary of the first and so far only council of the Catholic Church in China (1924-2024).

Synodal experience

In the video – the agency relaunched it Fides – The cardinal quotes Pope Francis in the video message that opened the conference on the centenary of the Consilium Senense, organized in Rome on May 21 at the Pontifical Urbanana University. Tagle himself was one of the participants, along with Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin and the Bishop of Shanghai, Giuseppe Shen Bin. In the video message, Pope Francis said that the Fathers of the Senense Council “lived an authentic synodal experience and together made important decisions. The Holy Spirit brought them together, made harmony grow among them, and led them on paths that many had not imagined.” Among themselves, even overcoming confusion and resistance.

The Chinese Church is fully flourishing.

“The Council of Shanghai represents the realization of conciliarity, which is also proposed to us with such force in our time, thanks to the teaching of Pope Francis,” Cardinal Tagle adds in his message. “The Fathers who participated experienced that conciliarity is not a secondary dimension, but a constitutive and indispensable dimension in the life of the Church.”

Moreover, the Council “laid the foundations for the flourishing of a fully Chinese Catholic Church, led by the Chinese bishops. This goal, too, was guided not by human tactics or calculations, but by the mystery of the Church in her pilgrimage to the world.” The Cardinal stressed that the Consilium Sinens “is a turning point on the path of the Catholic Church in China,” which still maintains strong importance today.