Parolin presents in Rome the latest work on Cardinal Costantini and China
On Thursday 20 June 2024, at 17.00, in the Aula Magna of the Pontifical Urban University in Rome (via Urbano VIII, 16), Cardinal Secretary of State Pietro Parolin will present the book Il Cardinale Celso Costantini e la Cina – Costruttore di un ponte tra Oriente e Occidente (“Cardinal Celso Costantini and China – Builder of a bridge between East and West”), edited by Msgr. Bruno Fabio Pighin, historian of the postulation of the cause for beatification and canonization of Cardinal Costantini, and published by Marcianum Press. Along with the cardinal, the speakers will be Archbishop Fortunatus Nwachukwu, Secretary of the Section for First Evangelization and the new particular Churches of the Dicastery for Evangelization, and Bishop Juan Ignacio Arrieta, Secretary of the Dicastery for Legislative Texts. The initial greetings will be from Bishop Giuseppe Pellegrini of Concordia-Pordenone, the home diocese of Cardinal Costantini, and Professor Vincenzo Buonomo, Rector of the Pontifical Urban University.
The work comes to light in the centenary year of the Shanghai Concilium sinense, strongly desired and realized by the then Apostolic Delegate Costantini, who in the space of just two years would already reap its promising fruits, bringing to Pius XI the first six indigenous prelates to receive episcopal consecration from him. A brilliant interpreter of the Maximum illud, he was committed to Christian inculturation in the great Asian country, following in the footsteps of the great thirteenth-century chancellor, the Franciscan Odorico da Pordenone. He greatly developed dialogue with the Chinese government of the time to the point of establishing full diplomatic relations with the Holy See. He founded the first Chinese religious institute, the Congregation of the Disciples of the Lord, now spread in different parts of Asia, and collaborated in the foundation and development of the Fu Jen Catholic University.
Upon returning to Italy, he was secretary of Propaganda Fide and rector of the Urban College. After February 1944, and for a further four months, he decided to host Alcide De Gasperi in Palazzo di Propaganda, on the advice of the then-substitute of the Secretariat of State, Giovanni Battista Montini, the future Saint Paul VI. Pius XII created him a cardinal in the consistory of 12 January 1953, together with the then-Patriarch of Venice, Angelo Giuseppe Roncalli, future Saint John XXIII. It is documented that Cardinal Costantini was a promotor of the convocation of Vatican Council II: his is a dossier reserved for Pius XII, dated 15 February 1939, and gathered under the title The Council. On the Convenience of Convoking an Ecumenical Council.
Accreditation procedure
Journalists and media operators who wish to attend must apply, no less than 24 hours before the event, via the Holy See Press Office online accreditation system, at press.vatican.va/accreditamenti.
