Lin Xiao talked with Old Man Xiao for a while, and then returned to his home to rest-

He thought about the previous contact with the Holy See, and then thought about the relationship between Huaxia and the Holy See, and couldn't help but be interested, so he collected some relevant information on the Internet to see.

After taking a look at it like this, Lin Xiao found that he had indeed paid less attention to this aspect of the content before, so it was no wonder that Old Man Xiao wanted to talk to him about this issue.

Obviously, there is no intention at the top level to make more in-depth contacts with the Holy See, nor is it considering the establishment of formal diplomatic relations.

The unilateral enthusiasm of the Holy See is, in fact, nothing more than wishful thinking.

Speaking of grievances between the two countries, it can be traced back to the Yuan Dynasty, but the relationship between the two countries has not been smooth at that time, the Pope of Rome once sent envoys to the Mongol Empire, trying to persuade the Mongols to convert to Christianity, but the Mongols believed in immortality, and later became more interested in Taoism, and after the fall of the Yuan Dynasty, the relationship was interrupted for a while.

In the tenth year of the Ming Dynasty, Matteo Ricci, an Italian, was sent to China to study Chinese, and later he founded the first Catholic mission in China to introduce the Chinese people to scientific knowledge such as mathematics, geometry, and mechanics.

Matteo Ricci was a very studious foreigner, he studied the "Four Books" and "Five Classics" of China, studied the traditional Chinese culture in depth, wore Hanfu, proposed that missionaries should follow the customs of the locals, and used Chinese to hold religious ceremonies, which laid the foundation for the spread of Christianity in China.

Later, Matteo Ricci came to the capital in the north and presided over the construction of the Xuanwumen Cathedral, Ricci was a scholar and a pioneer of cultural exchanges between China and the West.

After the introduction of Catholicism to China, the so-called "liturgical controversy" arose, and the focus of the controversy was how to translate the title of "god" and how to treat the traditional customs of China.

On this issue, Matteo Ricci believes that in addition to "God", the title of "God" can also be called "heaven" or "God", and agrees that Chinese believers should retain the traditional custom of worshipping ancestors and worshipping holes.

Other Spanish missionaries, on the other hand, believed that ancestor worship and confession worship were idolatry, which violated the provisions of the Bible, and sent people to the Holy See to accuse the Jesuits headed by Matteo Ricci.

Later, the Qing Emperor Kangxi also intervened in the ceremonial dispute, declaring that worshipping ancestors and worshipping Confucius belonged to the traditional customs of China and did not belong to religious activities.

However, a few years later, Pope Clement XI openly issued a decree prohibiting Chinese believers from holding activities such as ancestor worship and Confucius worship, prohibiting the use of "God" and "heaven" as other names for "God", and sent special envoys to China for negotiations.

After his visit to China, the papal envoy Dora declared that his mission in China was to prohibit Chinese believers from worshipping their ancestors and worshipping Confucius.

When the Kangxi Emperor learned of this, he was furious and thought that this was a custom to interfere with China, and sent Duo Luo to Jinling for a temporary stay, and ordered the expulsion of missionaries who opposed the Chinese rites, and sent envoys to Rome to negotiate.

However, Dora ignored Kangxi's will and proclaimed the papal ban in Jinling.

Therefore, Kangxi ordered Duo Luo to be taken to Macao under house arrest and issued a decree, saying, "Tell all Westerners that from now on, if they do not follow the rules of Matteo Ricci and are not allowed to live in China, they will be expelled." ”

Later, Pope Clement XI reiterated the previous ban, and violators were punished as heretics.

Enraged, Kangxi ordered the arrest of the missionaries and the prohibition of missionaries.

Later, the Pope sent a delegation to Beijing to negotiate, but Kangxi refused to meet and reprimanded, saying, "Westerners do not understand the Chinese language, how to discuss the rights and wrongs of Chinese principles", "In the future, there is no need for Westerners to preach in China, and it is forbidden to do so." ”

So Kangxi ordered the expulsion, and the Pope was forced to give in, announcing the "Eight Permissions", agreeing to Chinese believers to hold non-religious traditional rituals.

Kangxi ordered that only missionaries who respected Chinese etiquette should be allowed to reside in China, and that public missionaries were forbidden.

It was not until 1939 that the Holy See lifted all bans on liturgies, putting an end to a controversy that had lasted for more than 300 years.

It can be seen from this that the so-called "liturgical controversy" was entirely caused by the ignorance of the Roman Pope about China.

Ten years later, when the new dynasty was founded, the Holy See refused to recognize and grossly interfered in the internal affairs of China, opposing the patriotic movement of Chinese Catholics, which was strongly condemned by the vast number of patriotic Catholics and determined to go for independence. Establish an independent way to run the church.

In recent years, however, the Holy See has expressed the hope of improving relations with China, but it still maintains "diplomatic relations" with Taiwan, and what is particularly serious is that in spite of the strong opposition of the Chinese side, it has named 120 foreign missionaries and their followers who have committed ugly crimes in China in modern history as "saints," which has aroused great indignation among the Chinese government.

Later, although Paul II delivered a written speech at the seminar on Matteo Ricci, expressing a certain degree of apology for the historical and recent mistakes made by the Holy See towards the Catholic Church in China, he did not make a clear apology for the serious harm caused to China by the "canonization" incident.

The successor Pope Benedict XVI has repeatedly hinted that he wants to improve relations with China, but the Chinese government's position on the desire to improve relations with the Holy See is consistent, and it is impossible to change its position so easily, so the matter has always been in a stalemate.

After Lin Xiao saw this situation, he was a little enlightened.

In fact, everyone knows that in this matter, the attitude of the Chinese government is of course the most important, but the Western forces hope to interfere in China's internal affairs through the religious influence of the Holy See, but this is the biggest obstacle.

Religion is almost the oldest social phenomenon that has accompanied the birth of mankind, and almost all human cultures throughout the ages have been related to religion to a greater or lesser extent.

Thousands of years of human history have been ever-changing, and religion still lingers, which shows the strength of its vitality.

Religion persuades people to be kind and does revered charity, but religion is also in the name of God, aiding and abetting and abetting aggression, religion not only establishes education, advocates science, promotes literature and art, but also imprisons people's minds, destroys and suppresses scientific inventions and creations, such as the trial of Galileo, the burning of Bruno, etc., and all kinds of evil deeds are countless.

It can be said that religion is a double-edged sword, and politics can be used interchangeably, not only to rejuvenate the country and maintain long-term peace and stability, but also to stir up storms and stir up political frenzy, wars, and disasters.

For this kind of Holy See, which has no good reputation in history, the Chinese government obviously cannot rest assured.

If you let them in, and as a result, they make waves and make the whole of China a miasma, wouldn't that mean that you have found trouble and come to the door?

From the overall consideration, rejecting the olive branch extended by the Holy See is obviously the best choice, and Lin Xiao also deeply agrees with this.

"If nothing else, who let them have a criminal record!" Lin Xiao muttered to himself.

Another point is naturally very important, Chinese people are typical pragmatists, praying to God and worshiping Buddha should also have benefits, if there is no benefit, why should we believe in you?

Didn't you say that God is omnipotent? Yes, let me get rich first, I can say anything, and there is no problem in offering you fresh pig's head every day.

As for the nonsense of saying that the soul is redeemed after death or something, it is obviously not a little sincere, and it is not easy to live when it is alive, who will think about what happens after death? The devil cares about that!

In fact, the religious belief of the Han people in ancient China was very low, and the teaching of worshiping ghosts and gods and staying away has long been deeply rooted in the hearts of the people.

There is a joke that Westerners make a wish to God, and of course they have to thank God for their fulfillment, and if they don't realize it, they need to be more pious because of God's test for you, and they need to be more pious, while Chinese people pray for God and worship Buddha but talk about business, make a wish first, and then offer tribute when the wish is fulfilled, which is called vow, if it is not realized, then do not give a single tribute, and jump to scold "This god is not spiritual at all, go, everyone go to the temple over there, the god is more spiritual."

The Chinese people rate the gods with the spirit and the unspirited, and treat religion with complete pragmatism, so some Western sinologists say that the Chinese people have no religious beliefs at all.

In fact, when discussing faith, it is better not to judge faith by the concept of Westerners, the West is generally a Christian country, so Westerners believe that only their religious beliefs are the only faith, and that not believing in God is equal to being a heretic, and not believing in their religion is equal to having no faith.

But the Chinese people are different and believe in their own history and culture.

There has never been a situation in China where divine power is greater than monarchical power, and that is because the monarchy and divine power of Huaxia are under the influence of traditional culture.

Culture, there is the concept of respecting heaven and earth, self-cultivation and family, moral supremacy, filial piety to parents, and governing the country and the world.

If the emperor violates the traditional culture, such as performing ****, then the imperial power will be deprived by God, at this time it is not illegal to kill the emperor, and it will not be accused of killing the king, so Mencius said, "I have heard of a husband, but I have not heard of killing the king."

Moreover, the immortals in traditional Chinese culture are all people who have made outstanding contributions, and there is no moral stain.

Lao Tzu became a saint because their morality and thoughts surpassed ordinary people, and Guan Gong became a martial saint because of his loyalty.

If an immortal does not do good things, or even begins to do evil, then he is not an immortal and should be severely punished.

In the West, you can do evil in the name of God, killing a heretic can be called a holy war, and if you kill too much, you can be named a holy knight, but in China, this kind of god doing evil is no longer a god, and it must be punished.

In fact, the local sects in China are not willing to be the third child, they also have the idea of provoking the monarchy, but Qin Shi Huang pit 200 warlocks, and later there are also three martial arts to destroy the Buddha, and the religion has been repaired, so it is honest.

But in Europe, perhaps their own culture developed too late, too slowly, too weak to withstand later religious domination, so medieval Europe was the darkest.

Now the Holy See actually wants to move the things that harmed the Europeans to China again, and the brains of the top brass of the Chinese government have not burned out, of course it is impossible to agree to them doing this, and it is not impossible to come if you want to, you have to do things according to our rules.

Of course, if the Holy See wants to come to China, it is not at ease, so it is naturally impossible to agree to the rules of China.

To put it bluntly, the two sides are not on the same channel at all, how can they talk?