Pope Francis has announced that starting December 4, speeches during Wednesday’s general audience will also include Mandarin Chinese.
Vatican News
“Next week, with the beginning of the season of Advent, the summary of the catechism of the general audience will also be translated into Chinese,” the Pope said on November 27.
The Pope made this announcement during his audience on Wednesday in St. Peter’s Basilica.
Starting December 4, the Pope’s greeting and a summary of his catechism will be read in French, English, German, Spanish, Portuguese, Arabic and Polish, as well as Mandarin Chinese.
The Pope’s concern for the Chinese people
The Pope’s decision to include the Mandarin Chinese language is an indication of how much care and concern he often expresses for the Chinese people.
In September 2018, in a message, he described China as “a land rich in great opportunities” and “the Chinese people as creators and custodians of an invaluable heritage of culture and knowledge, capable of achieving sophistication through adversity and the integration of diversity”. “which, not by chance, has confronted the Christian message since ancient times.”
Last year, at a Mass celebrated in Ulaanbaatar on September 3, 2023, during his pastoral visit to Mongolia, Pope Francis offered a “warm greeting to the Chinese people” and urged Chinese Catholics to “be good Christians and good citizens.” .
On several occasions the Pope has expressed his desire to visit China. Speaking to reporters on September 13, 2024, while flying back from Singapore to Rome, the Pope called the Chinese nation “a promise and a hope for the Church.”
historical facts
Today, the Vatican News website offers information in both traditional and simplified Chinese. Vatican Radio’s Chinese language program began in 1950.
Chinese texts first appeared in Losalvatore Romano in February 1981, when Pope John Paul II unexpectedly delivered part of his speech in that language in front of the Peace Memorial in Hiroshima.
In 2009, Chinese became one of the languages available on vatican.va, the official website of the Holy See. In addition, the bulletin of the Holy See’s Fidesz news agency has been published in simplified Chinese since 1998.
