A gift from Chinese Catholics, the statues of Father Matteo Ricci and Paolo Xu Guangqi were placed today in the niches of the facade of the Macerata cathedral and blessed by Cardinal Pietro Parolin
Today, 9 May, in Macerata is a great day: after many years and many efforts, two statues depicting Father Matteo Ricci and Paolo Xu Guangqi have in fact been placed in the niches of the facade of the restored cathedral of San Giovanni and have been blessed by Cardinal Pietro Parolin. The gift of the two statues by Chinese Catholics to the homeland of Father Matteo Ricci is a remarkable gesture with many meanings. That of Ricci and Xu Guangqi, the statesman turned Catholic, known as Doctor Paolo, is a story of friendship. A much-needed friendship today between the proclamation of the Gospel and the Chinese people.
The first idea of the gift of statues dates back to 2011: after a conference in Naples dedicated to Xu Guangqi, the enterprising culture councilor of the city of Shanghai Song Haojie visited Macerata, suggesting an exchange between Shanghai, the birthplace of Xu Guangqi and Macerata, birthplace of Matteo Ricci.
Don Giovanni Battista Sun, director of the Li Madou Study Center (the Chinese name for Ricci) in Macerata immediately set about implementing the project. In 2014 and 2015 a bust of Ricci left Macerata for Shanghai, and in 2015 a bust of Xu from Shanghai arrived in Macerata.
But the enthusiastic Don Giovanni Battista Sun did not stop. To realize the idea of placing two statues on the facade of San Giovanni he involved numerous Catholic communities in China, starting from Beijing (where Ricci is buried) and Shanghai as well as communities in the province of Shanxi. The large white marble statues were made under the guidance of the Catholic sculptor Su Jianqiao at a company in Quyang (Hebei province).
In involving the Catholics of Shanghai, Dr. Rachel Zhu Xiaohong was instrumental, whom Bishop Aloysius Jin had once appointed to lead the commission for the beatification of Xu Guangqi. The creation of the statue, the first in which Xu is portrayed in full, required extensive research into the dress of the mandarins of the time.
The cathedral of San Giovanni stands in the old Jesuit college (now the Mozzi-Borgetti library) where little Matteo studied. It has been brought back to its former glory after years of closure for restoration. The inclusion of the two statues unveiled and blessed by Cardinal Parolin adds further fascination to this center of faith and cultural life of the Marche city.
On the afternoon of 8 May, two speakers – including Father Federico Lombardi, a Jesuit, former director of the Vatican press office from 2006 to 2016 – presented the figures of the two great protagonists of the Catholic mission in the city to the public gathered in the cathedral of San Giovanni China. The missionary father Matteo Ricci was the first to introduce the Gospel to this country, at the end of the 1500s, through the paths of friendship, accommodation, cultural dialogue and scientific exchange. But Ricci, underlined Father Lombardi, was above all a Jesuit missionary, full of faith in Providence and of extraordinary determination in carrying out his mission.
Paolo Xu Guangqi was instead a very important scientist and statesman of the late Ming period and, at the same time, Ricci’s best collaborator, disciple and friend. The friendship between these two great men was truly fundamental to the advancement of the gospel in China. And it is still today an extraordinary light for the Catholic mission in China.