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The paper offers a historical perspective on the division within the Roman Catholic Church in mainland China, focusing on the appointment of bishops, ...

Over the last two decades, the historiography that focused on the solutions for representation of the inquisitorial tribunals in their diverse peripheries paid special attention to the role played by the commissioners of the Holy Office. The commissioners nominated to operate in non-peninsular settings (particularly Brazil and the Estado da Índia) were the object of particular analysis. In these cases, historiography highlighted a wide array of faculties and capacities when compared to their homologues in the kingdom of Portugal, specially the ones operating in the district of the Inquisition of Goa. Here, commissioners even benefited from faculties to absolve some offences in foro conscientiæ and sometimes even judicially. This proposal undertakes to reflect what might have motivated such departure from the profile of the Portuguese commissioner; whether it was, according to some texts, the dimension of the Goa Inquisition’s district; whether, according to other sources, the qualities of the newly-converted population that was subjected to the jurisdiction of this tribunal. Finally, we will seek to determine the consequences of the attribution of a specific judicial space to the episcopate in dioceses with more dynamic missions for the diversity of the models of inquisitorial vigilance in the Estado da Índia.

As an essential member of the tangible cultural heritage, historic architectural heritage contains unique historical and social values. This paper describes the current state of conservation of historic buildings and the ways of conservation, revitalization and renewal by the Macao authorities, and draws on the Cathedral of the Merciful Jesus in Goa, India, and Coventry Cathedral in England, to provide suggestions for the conservation and restoration of the site of St. Paul’s College in Macao. St. Paul’s College is divided into three main parts: St. Paul’s Church, the Seminary, and the Fortress, for conservation, revitalization, and renewal. The current conservation and renewal measures of the site are still inadequate. By analyzing the conservation strategies and the current situation, St. Paul’s College needs the cooperation of the government and the public to value and improve the reuse value of the site and increase its visibility. At the same time, the use of rich restoration and renewal methods, combined with the current situation of society in the restoration and renewal of the site, can present valuable ideas.

Based on the original materials recorded by the missionaries of the Society of Foreign Missions of Paris operating in Vietnam from the second half of the 17th century to the late 18th century and the achievements of French and Vietnamese scholars, this article addresses the building of indigenous force of missionaries of the Society of Foreign Missions of Paris in Tonkin and Cochinchina (Vietnam) during this period. In particular, the author of this article focuses on comparing the results of training Vietnamese priest resources and building seminaries in the two above areas, and at the same time points out the reason for such difference. To complete the content of this article, the author combines two main research methods of historical science (historical method and logical method) with other research methods (systematic, statistical, differential analysis, synthetic, etc.), especially the comparative method. The research result presented in the article makes specific contributions to studying the history of Christianity in Vietnam and the Society of Foreign Missions of Paris in this country in the 17th and 18th centuries.

The study of Catholic churches in Macau is of significant importance for both architectural heritage conservation and the transmission of cultural values. As religious structures, these churches serve as tangible representations of religious ideology and spiritual essence, thereby embodying the core principles of cultural expression. This paper aims to critically examine the Catholic churches of Macau, exploring their intrinsic values through an architectural research framework that emphasizes three key morphological elements: spatial characteristics, stylistic features, and structural composition. By contextualizing the historical background and architectural attributes, this study sheds light on the multifaceted significance of Catholic church construction in modern Macau, while offering a comprehensive analysis of the intersection, fusion, and coexistence of Eastern and Western cultural influences in this unique locale. Through this investigation, the paper uncovers a range of compelling cultural phenomena, providing insights that may serve as valuable reference points for future practices in architectural heritage conservation in Macau.

This is a biography of Cardinal John Tong of Hong Kong, which charts his experiences through the Second World War, his time as a seminarian in Macau, and his studies in Rome during the Second Vatican Council (1962-65), which represented a pivotal moment in modern Catholic Church history

Scholarly analyses of the Misericórdias first appeared at the end of the nineteenth century, but it was Charles Boxer who first examined them on a par with the other institutions of local power that he judged to be fundamental in the Portuguese Empire, the Câmaras (municipal councils). Boxer considered both institutions to be the keys for understanding the local dynamics of power and government. As mentioned in the introduction to the present volume, he drew primarily on printed sources to present a comparative overview of local institutions in four cities of the Portuguese empire: Macau, Goa, Bahia, and Luanda. ough his analysis centered on the role played by the Câmaras in imperial administration, Boxer considered the Misericórdias as their twin.1 More recently, in the 1990s, scholars have analyzed the Misericórdias at the level of the Portuguese empire. ese examinations stressed the differences among the confraternities found across the empire, while recognizing their common religious and administrative principles.2 As should be expected, local conditions provide much of the explanation for this diversity. Important factors included the ethnic makeup of the population, the ways in which the Portuguese related to the indigenous or imported populations, and the organization of the local economy. Significantly, however, a given area’s relationship with the metropolis affected the different procedures and social habits of its local Misericórdia. And as the essay by J.S.A. Elisonas in this volume reveals, this Portuguese model of charity was not limited by the bounds of empire and left its mark on forms of confraternal piety in cities such as Nagasaki and Kyoto.

The levels of civic engagement in terms of social services and civic activism in the Catholic churches of Hong Kong, Macau, Taipei, and Shanghai are very different. While the former three churches have a higher level of social services, Shanghai does not. Hong Kong has a higher level of civic activism than the other three dioceses. This paper explains the similarities and differences among these cities by using an analytical model of political, cultural, and individual opportunity structures. Our findings and analysis are derived from a collaborative research project on the Catholic Church’s civic engagement in the four cities using both quantitative and qualitative research methods. In a time of rapid political, economic, and social transformation in China, religion is beginning to play an increasingly important role. Our study sheds light on what roles Catholicism or other religions might play in this process, and it has important implications for church-state relations in greater China.

For three centuries, the former Portuguese colony of Macau served as the gateway into mainland China and the locale for the development of an Asian Catholic culture that encompassed distinctive musical practices and styles. Macau and Catholic Music Across the Sino-Western Divide draws extensively upon historical documents in Chinese and Portuguese for a polylingual approach to Catholic sacred music. Jen-yen Chen follows this music from the sixteenth century through the twentieth by reading literary accounts of sound, primary source documents, and musical notation to examine the impacts of linguistic, political, and cultural divides and the ways sounds have traveled across these divides. Chen covers Chinese responses to Western sounds in Macau and southern China, illuminating the strategies for the use of sounds and musicking adopted by Jesuit missionaries; and the complexities of identity formation negotiated by Macau Catholics who confront exceptionalist historical discourses of Chinese or Portuguese “greatness.” Drawing from sound studies and musicological methods, Chen argues that Chinese descriptions of Catholic sounds in Macau, including the ringing of church bells, the playing of the organ, and choral singing, illuminate spatial, sonic, and ideological mobilities that reconfigure Chinese and European identities. Macau and Catholic Music Across the Sino-Western Divide also extends to contemporary times to explore how present day members of Macau’s Catholic community position themselves in relation to the historical narratives often told about their city, cultivating a rich individuality of identity that refuses conformity to fixed notions of Asianness or Westernness.

This article treats the familiar triad “Gold, God, and Glory” as a heuristic to track how commercial, missionary, and reputational aims were configure...

D. Sinibaldo de Mas o ministro espanhol que inventou o iberismo e que queria comprar Macau para vender à China

In the mid 19th century the Spanish diplomat Sinibaldo de Más, after spending a period in the territory of Macao where he formulated his theories about the Iberian Peninsula, wrote a book which is considered to be a decisive contribution for the diffusion of the Iberian issue. This work that supported a peaceful union between Portugal and Spain under a common monarchy, was published five times in Spain and three times in Portugal. Latino Coelho and Carlos José Caldeira played an important role in the co-ordination of the Portuguese editions of the Ibéria, as well as in the organisation of other activities promoting the association of the two Iberian States, events in which Sinibaldo de Más was also involved.

Dans le fief de Shimabara, l’évangélisation connaît le succès à la suite de la conversion de son seigneur (daimyo), Arima Harunobu (1561?-1612), en 1580. Cependant, entre 1612 et 1615, les premières arrestations et exécutions de catholiques ordonnées par le successeur de Harunobu, Arima Naozumi (1586-1641), et les autorités de Nagasaki ébranlent les chrétiens. Après dix années de (relatif ) répit, Matsukura Shigemasa (1574-1630), le seigneur du fief depuis 1616, orchestre une nouvelle vague de répression visant à saper l’organisation religieuse des villages en coupant leurs liens avec le clergé et en soumettant les figures laïques locales. Entre 1625 et 1630, plus de soixante-dix fidèles perdent la vie, et pratiquement la totalité de la population est contrainte de renier formellement le christianisme. Cette période de cinq années est très bien documentée grâce aux sources missionnaires et à des chroniques japonaises régionales. Or, les recherches précédentes ont généralement négligé ces documents ou les ont étudiés séparément. Cet article montre que leur examen comparatif rend possible l’étude, à micro-échelle, de la logique répressive, de l’équilibre des forces dans les villages, de l’ambivalence des chrétiens face à la clandestinité et de l’apostolat des derniers missionnaires. En d’autres termes, ces témoignages nous permettent de réévaluer selon différents points de vue l’expérience de ces communautés durant la période d’interdiction, quelques années avant la révolte de Shimabara-Amakusa (1637-1638).

The Apologia, written by Valignano between 1597 and 1598, documenting the confrontation between Jesuits and Franciscans, develops some arguments associated with the rights of the Iberian crowns in East Asia. According to the Franciscan argument, the right to the Castilian Padroado in Japan stemmed from the legitimacy of the Castilian Crown in legislating on religious matters, which ran counter to the papal breve Ex pastoralis officio (1585) of Gregory XIII. For Valignano, the Holy See could never abdicate the right to legislate on evangelical issues. The legitimacy of the papal letter of Gregory XIII was much broader, insofar as the Church found the most adequate way of establishing itself in Japan through the exclusive Jesuit presence. In this way, the analysis of the debate over Portuguese-Castilian rights in East Asia, in the context of rivalry between religious orders, will always have to take into consideration two different concepts of the Church and evangelisation.

Diego de Pantoja vivió en Pekín de 1601 a 1617, pero falleció en Macao al año siguiente debido a la primera expulsión de los jesuitas de China. Su vida tiene los perfiles de una inesperada síntesis cultural capaz de iluminar hoy día el diálogo intercultural. En 2018 diversas autoridades e instituciones iberoamericanas y chinas, en el 400 aniversario de su fallecimiento, celebraron 2018 Año Diego de Pantoja , para conmemorar a aquél que no solo fue el más estrecho colaborador de Matteo Ricci en Pekín en lo referente a la política de adaptación , sino también el garante de que esa feliz estrategia de inculturación no declinase al morir el maestro en 1610. Pantoja tiene una parte esencial en los méritos de aquellos sabios venidos de Occidente y en la huella tan profunda que dejaron hasta hoy en China.

The Jesuit Diego de Pantoja can be considered a two-way bridge between China and the West. The Chinese, Portuguese and Spanish languages in which he wrote the texts preserved today bear witness to this. A Jesuit in the first stage of evangelization in China, together with Mateo Ricci, SJ, his letters—the subject of our study—bear witness to his interest in realistically presenting the daily and cultural life of China in the West as opposed to the stereotypes that circulated at the time. In turn, he became an ambassador of European culture and science to the Wanli Emperor and his mandarins in the Forbidden City in Beijing.  His missionary and scientific work in the Central Empire has made him in the 21st century a point of reference for the relations of the Papacy and the West with China.