Fraternal visit and study trip in China
.jpg "Pastor Yu, pastor Guo Feng and pastor Abraham Chan")
Visits to several old Shanghai Protestant churches and participation in Protestant worship in the Community Church parish of the Anglican tradition, permitted br. Matteo to touch concretely the dynamic and plural life of the Protestant churches in China, their vitality and at the same time their fragility, among which is the drift of some liberal and charismatic tendencies. A particularly good meeting was that with a group of young people. Br. Matteo wrote:
“Pastor Guo Feng received me with great hospitality, which, a I soon found out, is based also on his knowing well the monastic life, loving the spiritual life, and supporting liturgical prayer. He did not hesitate to invite me the following week to an informal supper with some young people who share with him an ecumenical spiritual search. During and after the supper I was asked to describe our monastic life and I was once again struck by the profound curiosity and spiritual search of these young people, whom I asked to share a little their stories of faith. Some came from a solidly Christian family tradition, some felt an interior call to approach closer to the church that before they had known only superficially, some have come to the faith by following an artistic and musical path…”.
In the last days of his stay br. Matteo was able to visit also the nearby dioceses of Suzhou and Hangzhou. The latter is a city of old Christian presence: evangelization here goes back to the missionary labors of the Italian Jesuit Martino Martini (1614–1661), whose tomb is still preserved there and who built the cathedral in 1659. The hospitality of father Paul Zheng Jiamao and of father Francis Li Weiping permitted br. Matteo to acquaint himself with the life of this local Church, confided to the care of a vey small number of priests and sisters under the guidance of the elderly bishop Matthew Cao Xiangde, whom br. Matteo assured of our prayerful support for his episcopal ministry.