by Rev. Rob Carbonneau, CP, Ph.D.
The life of Xu Guangxi reminds us how our Lenten encounters offer us the opportunity to increase our respect for people we meet, intellectual discovery, and offering support for greater religious understanding and harmony.
Xu Guangqi first met a Catholic missionary in Guangdong, China in 1596. In 1600, he traveled to Nanjing to visit Jesuit Matteo Ricci (1552-1610). Xu was baptized at Catholic in 1603, taking the Christian name Paul. Xu Guangxi passed the Chinese Civil Service Exam in 1604. Thereafter discussions he had with Ricci led him to translated into Chinese texts on astronomy, hydraulics, and geometry. As a result of their personal heartfelt friendship, Xu Guangxi wrote a statement in support of the Jesuit missionaries in 1616. Guangxi's statement prompts consideration of how all of us might find harmonious paths and relationships with each other in 2025.
According to one source the statement reads: “(Catholic missionaries) are the disciples of the holy sage, their way is right, discipline strict, knowledge vast, understanding deep, hearts pure, opinion firm, and in their country they excel above most people.” He further argued that Christianity was a positive influence on China, and not incompatible with loyalty to the emperor and the ideals of Confucianism.” To learn more about Xu Guangxi, go to this article from China Heritage Quarterly.
Father Rob served as Executive Director of the U.S.-China Catholic Association from 2014—2017. At the Ricci Institute, he is historian and curator of the Passionist China Collection (PCC), an archive of over 10,000 photos and 60,000 documents, photographs, reports, films, and correspondence that reveal the twentieth century Passionist-based mission in Hunan, China.
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