Chinese Rites Controversy - Pope Pius XII's Decision

Pope Pius XII's Decision

The Rites controversy continued to hamper Church efforts to gain converts in China. In 1939, a few weeks after his election to the papacy, Pope Pius XII ordered the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples to relax certain aspects of Clement XI's and Benedict XIV's decrees. After the Apostolic Vicars had received guarantees from the Manchukuo Government that confirmed the mere "civil" characteristics of the so called "chinese rites", the Holy See released, on Dec. 8th 1939, a new decree, known as "Plane Compertum", stating that:

• Catholics are permitted to be present at ceremonies in honor of Confucius in Confucian temples or in schools;
• Erection of an image of Confucius or tablet with his name on is permitted in Catholic schools.
• Catholic magistrates and students are permitted to passively attend public ceremonies which have the appearance of superstition.
• It is licit and unobjectionable for head inclinations and other manifestations of civil observance before the deceased or their images.
• The oath on the Chinese rites, which was prescribed by Benedict XIV, is not fully in accord with recent regulations and is superfluous.

This meant that Chinese customs were no longer considered superstitious, but were an honourable way of esteeming one's relatives and therefore permitted by Catholic Christians. Confucianism was also thus recognized as a philosophy and an integral part of Chinese culture rather than as a heathen religion in conflict with Catholicism. Shortly afterwards, in 1943, the Government of China established diplomatic relations with the Vatican. The Papal decree changed the ecclesiastical situation in China in an almost revolutionary way. As the Church began to flourish, Pius XII established a local ecclesiastical hierarchy, and, in 1946, named Archbishop Thomas Tien Ken-sin (田耕莘) SVD, as the first Chinese national, to the Sacred College of Cardinals. and later appointed him to the See of Peking.