by Gianni Criveller

He was the most fervent opponent to Confucian and ancient Chinese Rites, influencing even Pope Benedict XIV, who banned them in 1742. In 1939, the Holy See overturned the previous sentence, giving its approval. Despite this "failure," Carlo Orazi was a great sinologist, giving Rome and Europe an opportunity to know China better. He translated the Nestorian Stele from Xi'an, the first Christian document from China (8th century).

Hong Kong (AsiaNews) - A conference will be held on 26-27 October in Castorano (Ascoli Piceno, Italy) on Carlo Orazi da Castorano. It will bring together some of the most important international scholars who have studied the Franciscan missionary and topics related to him. They include Francesco D'Arelli (Rome), Claudia von Collani (Wsteürzburg), Giacomo Di Fiore (Naples), Matteo Nicolini Zani (Bose), Michela Catto (Paris), Paolo Aranha (London), Clara Yu Dong (in charge of the Chinese section at the Vatican Apostolic Library, Rome) and Rosina Li Hui (Beijing/Rome).  For more information about the conference and participants, visit www.padrecarlodacastorano.net. Fr Gianni Criveller, PIME, president of the historical commission for the beatification of Matteo Ricci, chairs the conference. AsiaNews asked him to outline who the missionary was.

Over time, a certain damnatio memoriae has descended upon the name and work of Fr Carlo Orazi's, a Franciscan missionary sent to China by the Sacred Congregation for the Propagation of the Faith (Propaganda Fide), the only authority he recognised.

Carlo da Castorano played a key role in what became known as the "Chinese rites controversy." He staunchly supported banning them for anyone who converted to Christianity, a position the Holy See eventually adopted.

Still, Carlo was a great sinologist who was instrumental in setting up the Chinese section at the Vatican Apostolic Library. Therefore, it is important to rescue this important scholar from the historiographic obscurity imposed on him and study the contribution he made to the Catholic mission in China.

Born in Castorano (Ascoli Piceno, Italy) in 1673, Carlo Orazi went to China as missionary in 1700, spending 32 years as vicar to the Diocese of Beijing.

During the "Chinese rites controversy", he played a major role that deeply marked the Church's mission in China and relations between Beijing and the Holy See.

In China, Carlo da Castorano represented Rome's positions, against the rites, and was tasked with publishing the condemnation of the Rites issued by Clement XI in 1704 and 1715.

The "Chinese Rites" issue goes back to Matteo Ricci. According to the Jesuit missionary, rites venerating Confucius and ancestors, which every good Chinese had to perform, were "civil rites," not idolatry. For this reason, they could be carried out after conversion to the Christian faith.

For Franciscans and Dominicans, perhaps because they were more in contact with popular religions, such rites were "idolatrous" and had to be banned for converts.

For more than a century, the affair dragged on with the distressing result that interest in Christianity fell among intellectuals and in the imperial court.

In Rome after 1733, Fr Carlo presented 37 memorials to the Holy See, in which he called on the Church to end the controversy over Chinese Rites by condemning all accommodations made in China. In the end, he got what he wanted.

Benedict XIV ended the controversy in 1742 issuing the papal bull Ex quo singulari, which formally banned the Rites and the Jesuit practice of accommodation.

The pontifical document was deeply influenced by Carlo Orazi, who was staunchly opposed to the Rites and to accommodation. Given his long stay in the country, he was considered an expert on things Chinese by the consultors and cardinals charged with the issue.

Carlo Orazi saw his views prevail in the most solemn way possible. However, after the Condemnation of the Rites was published in Rome (1742), the pope ordered him to retire to private life in Castorano with the obligation of no longer sending memorials or speaking about the matter.

As we know, the Holy See changed its position vis-à-vis the old and complicated controversy. In 1939, it overturned its previous decisions, and accepted the rightfulness of the Rites, as Matteo Ricci had originally claimed.

Despite his views on the Rites, Carlo Orazi was an eminent sinologist, author a Chinese grammar and of the first Latin-Chinese-Italian dictionary, a tool useful to missionaries and traders alike.

Parva Elucubratio, a work written for Benedict XIV, is a critical synthesis of Chinese works, both classical and by missionaries. He translated the Nestorian Stele from Xi'an, the first Christian document in Chinese, which shows that the first missionaries from the Syriac Church reached the great Asian country in 625.

Carlo Orazi wrote many works, and brought many Chinese texts to Rome, now in the Vatican Apostolic Library, which describe China's civilisation and the state of the Catholic mission.

For his endeavour, Propaganda Fide granted him and his family a "benefit" for the duration of his life. He passed away in Castorano in 1755.

• china
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• carlo
• orazi
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• castorano
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