(21 May 2024)
RESTRICTION SUMMARY:
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Vatican City – 21 May 2024
1. Bishop of Shanghai Joseph Shen Bin talking to Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin
2. Shen Bin and Parolin with journalists
3. Parolin and Bin posing for pictures
4. Wide of audience
5. SOUNDBITE (Italian) Cardinal Pietro Parolin, Vatican Secretary of State:
"I cordially greet all those present, but especially His Excellency Monsignor Shen Bin. His presence, as Bishop of the diocese that hosted the first plenary council of the Church in China, gives particular significance to today’s event.”
6. Conference table with speakers
7. Shanghai Bishop Shen Bin
8. Close of Shen Bin
9. People listening to conference
10. Photojournalist taking pictures
11. Bishop Shen Bin talking
12. Mid of speakers
13. SOUNDBITE (Italian) Pope Francis:
"They (the participants to the first Chinese catholic synod) were almost all from distant countries, and before the Council, many of them were not yet ready to consider the opportunity to entrust the leadership of the dioceses to priests and bishops born in China. Then, gathered in the Council, they embarked on a true synodal journey and signed all the provisions that opened new paths so that the Church, even in China, Catholic China, could increasingly have a Chinese face.”
14. People listening
15. SOUNDBITE (Italian) Pope Francis:
"But the (1924’s) Council of Shanghai was not only useful to send to oblivion erroneous approaches that had prevailed in previous times.”
16. Audience looking at screen displaying Pope Francis
17. SOUNDBITE (Italian) Pope Francis:
"(but) The participants of the first Chinese Council looked to the future, and their future is our present.”
18. People listening to Pope Francis
19. Wide of audience applauding
20. Shen Bin and Parolin interviewed by journalist after conference
STORYLINE:
The Vatican made another big overture to China on Tuesday, reaffirming the Catholic Church poses no threat to Beijing’s sovereignty and admitting that Western missionaries had made “errors” in past centuries in their zeal to convert the Chinese faithful.
The Vatican hosted the head of China’s bishops conference for an unprecedented, high-level commemoration of a landmark 1924 meeting in Shanghai that affirmed the need for foreign missionaries in China to give way to local church leaders.
The presence of Shanghai Bishop Joseph Shen Bin alongside the Vatican Secretary of State, Cardinal Pietro Parolin, at the Pontifical Urbaniana University was in itself noteworthy.
It marked the first time in memory that a mainland bishop has been allowed by Beijing to participate in a public Vatican event as the keynote speaker.
It was also significant given the controversy over Shen’s 2023 appointment.
Pope Francis in July was forced to recognize China’s unilateral appointment of Shen as bishop of Shanghai.
The appointment seemingly violated the Holy See’s 2018 accord with Beijing over bishop appointments.
Francis opened the conference with a video message in which he made no mention of recent troubles but instead pointed to the 1924 meeting in Shanghai as a turning point for Vatican-China relations.
The first and only Chinese church council, he said, recognized that the church in China must “increasingly have a Chinese face.”
“But the Council of Shanghai did not only serve to forget the erroneous approaches that had prevailed in previous times,” Francis said.
“The participants of the first Chinese Council looked to the future. And their future is our present.”
Find out more about AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/HowWeWork
Twitter: https://twitter.com/AP_Archive
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/APArchives
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/APNews/
You can license this story through AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/metadata/youtube/5e8eaf2bfe924f70aba41c8f53ecb0ef
