ROME – Top Vatican officials reaffirmed at a high-profile conference in Rome this week that the Church does not pose a threat to China’s sovereignty and acknowledged that foreign missionaries made past “errors” in evangelisation, while also stressing the importance of unity with Rome.
Likewise, members of China’s state-backed Chinese Patriotic Catholic Association (CPCA) lamented what they said was a “colonialist” mentality among western foreign missionaries in the past who, they said, had a sense of “superiority” and attempted to erase Chinese culture, refusing to involve local clergy in leadership.
