Vatican: First conference between Christians and Confucians announced by the Dicastery for Dialogue

The Dicastery for Interreligious Dialogue prepares the first formal conference between Christians and Confucians (CNA, July 28, 2026). An expected opening during the full FABC assembly.

The fact

Catholic News Agency (July 28, 2026) reports the announcement by the Dicastery for Interreligious Dialogue of a first international conference between Christians and Confucians. The convergence of this announcement with the 12th plenary assembly of the FABC in Jakarta (July 21-26, 2026) is explicit: Rome wants to join the intellectual worlds of Asia at the level of foundational wisdom, and no longer just at the level of religious institutions.

Our reading

The encounter between the Gospel and Confucianism is not new. Matteo Ricci, as early as the late 16th century, had taken Confucian virtue seriously to open the way for Christ. The Chinese Rites controversy, decided by Clement XI (bull Ex illa die, 1715) and then appeased by Pius XII (Plane compertum est, 1939), remains the painful memory of a poorly engaged dialogue. The decree Nostra Aetate (1965, n° 2) recognizes that in non-Christian religions "a ray of the Truth that enlightens all men often reflects." By authorizing this dialogue, Léon XIV neither relativizes the unique Savior Christ, whose Redemptoris Missio (John Paul II, 1990, n° 5) recalls that he is "the only mediator between God and men," nor the duty of proclamation. On the contrary, he assumes that a demanding dialogue on filial piety, social order, truth, and virtue is a possible path of evangelization.

To ponder

The Western faithful, often poorly informed about Confucianism, are invited to discover this tradition with precision, without confusion. This is also where the mission is at stake: reading the other to offer them Christ.