Vatican City (Agenzia Fides) – The Letter which Cardinal Ivan Dias, Prefect of the Congregation for the Evangelisation of Peoples, has addressed to the bishops and priests of mainland China, stems from deep affection for that Church which can be rightly proud of her heroic witness through five decades of so much suffering and tribulation.

From this little gem three motives emerge.

The first “a word of encouragement for the clergy engaged in arduous pastoral ministry”. This is acknowledgement of the social, material and spiritual challenges facing ministers in the exercise of the pastoral mission. As a model they are offered Saint Jean Marie Vianney who, despite scarcity of structures, the perversity of his times and the poverty of his person, was able to imitate and indeed identify himself with Jesus Christ, the Supreme Shepherd of our souls. The priest, the Cardinal recalls, must be a man of God and a man for others. The two dimensions are interdependent and indispensable.

The second motive is a call not so much for unity, but rather for the re-composition of the unity of the Catholic Church in China, for which, the Cardinal recalls, so many have worked, so long with tact and passion and now progress achieved is emerging. He acknowledges with satisfaction “efforts, past and ongoing”. However, quoting words of the Holy Father's homily on the solemnity of the Apostles, Saints Peter and Paul, (29 June 2010), he reiterates that any form of division in the ecclesial Community is a sin, and that unity demands radical discipleship of Christ who prayed to the Father, that all may be one.

The third motive is a confident looking to the future of this matter, which, without a doubt, God guides in his providential love. Just as the past generations were intrepid witnesses to Christ and to the unity of the Church, so too the Christian communities of today, are called to bear witness to the Gospel of Jesus Christ and to proclaim it to the multitudes who hunger and thirst for God. In the heart of Most Holy Mary, Our Lady Help of Christians, may they find the strength and the model for achieving this mission.
(Agenzia Fides 29/07/2010)