The Vatican intervened in the matter on numerous occasions in the 17th and 18th centuries with Clement XI and Benedict XIV both banning Chinese rites. Two centuries later, Pius XII issued a decree in 1939 allowing Chinese Catholics to observe ancestral rites.
“In Taiwan, the Catholic community is tiny. It’s a minority community, but I always say that they are few, but very ripe because they are well determined and their Christian identity is very strong,” Kubuya said.
African priests witnessing to the Gospel in Asia
As a Xaverian missionary priest, Kubuya is aware that he is part of the continuation of the Church’s missionary legacy in Asia.
The Xaverian order was founded by St. Guido Maria Conforti, a 19th-century Italian missionary who was inspired to carry on the missionary work of St. Francis Xavier, the 16th-Jesuit missionary in Asia who died before realizing his dream of evangelizing China.
Kubuya recalls that he was one of 12 Congolese priests serving as missionaries in Taiwan before he was called upon to serve in the Roman Curia.
In Taiwan, “the idea that many Buddhists, Taoists, Confucians have is they think that Christian priests, missionaries are all foreigners, meaning Westerners, Americans, or Europeans, so by seeing us from Africa, they started understanding that actually the Church is very complex, is rich, and does not exclude. This was my experience,” he said.
“I think that our presence [in Asia] displays the catholicity of the Church, that the Church will work beyond colors, beyond languages,” he said. “That the Catholic Church is universal because we are coming from everywhere.”
Vatican’s ongoing dialogue with Taoism
The dialogue on Confucianism in New Taipei City, titled “Christians Fostering Dialogue with Confucians: Guidelines and Prospects,” was one of two workshops in Asia sponsored by the Vatican’s Dicastery for Interreligious Dialogue this week.
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A second event on dialogue with Taoism is taking place in Hong Kong March 11–13, organized by the Vatican dicastery and titled “Cultivating a Harmonious Society through Interreligious Dialogue.”
Taoism is different from Confucianism in that it involves the worship of deities. The Vatican’s Taoism colloquium in Hong Kong focused on the themes of “Christian and Taoist Scriptural Foundations for Cultivating a Harmonious Society,” “Cultivating Harmony Through Worship and Liturgy,” “Tao/the Way and De/Virtue in Dialogue and Practice,” “Holiness in Taoism and Christianity,” and “Transmitting Religious Beliefs and Values in a Globalized World.”
Cardinal Stephen Chow, the bishop of Hong Kong, told Vatican News that he hopes the recognition of a shared spirit of service between Christianity and Taoism will help “the value and meaning of religion [to be] better appreciated in China.”
“The vision of the Taoist religion is to foster a movement of the world toward peace and unity, where humanity and the Way — we would say the ‘Logos’ — are connected,” the Jesuit cardinal said.
Christianity and Taoism “share the values of mercy, simplicity, and not striving for worldly achievements,” Chow said.
Courtney Mares is a Rome Correspondent for Catholic News Agency. A graduate of Harvard University, she has reported from news bureaus on three continents and was awarded the Gardner Fellowship for her work with North Korean refugees.
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