When Pope Francis arrived in the Democratic Republic of Congo on February 2, the sixth most populous Catholic nation in the world, the BBC Global News podcast reported that he greeted the joyous crowd—estimated at 1.5 million people—using a few words in Lingala, one of the country’s four indigenous languages. “The joy of meeting you is great. I have longed for this moment so much,” the pope said to a rousing response.
It is not the pope’s first time to reach out and engage people in their own vernacular. When visiting Canada in 2022, he spoke in three First Nations languages at a sacred pilgrimage site at Lac Ste. Anne.
The late Emeritus Pope Benedict XVI spoke seven languages, while Pope St. John Paul II was known to have been fluent in 12, and would greet the world a “Happy Easter” in 65 different languages.
This writer was blessed to have been at a Holy Thursday Mass at St. Peter’s Basilica in 1985 celebrated by Pope John Paul, and was pleasantly surprised and deeply moved to hear him greet the congregation in several languages, including my own. The impact of that small gesture cannot be emphasised enough, especially in the light of how the Church dialogues and grows through interactions with the “great multitude … from every nation, race, people, and tongue” [Revelation 7:9], in the course of its mission to “make disciples of all nations” [Matthew 28:19].
Father Matteo Ricci [1552-1610], the 17th-century Jesuit missionary to China, who was declared ‘venerable’ by Pope Francis on 17 December 2022, has been called a model and missionary of inculturation. He learned the Chinese language and customs, wore the clothes and immersed himself and the gospel in the culture in an effort to spread the Good News. America Magazine [10 May 2010] called his apostolate “an early instance of inculturation and an example of cross-cultural exchange” and a ministry of friendship.
Both Pope Benedict and Pope Francis have hailed Father Ricci for being able to proclaim the Gospel with clarity and prudence in dialogue with another culture.
Pope St. John Paul II felt that the dialogue of the Church and of cultures is of vital importance for the future of the Church and of the world [Faith and Inculturation, International Theological Commission, 1988].
Here in Hong Kong, there are many tongues and tribes in the Catholic Church—Chinese, Filipino, Indonesian, Indian, French, German, Japanese, Vietnamese, with some representation from the African continent, as well as other lands. Each has its own customs and cultural vernacular, but God in Christ, through the outpouring of the Holy Spirit can engage and unite us all—in all our disparateness—in his message of forgiveness and love, much as he did at Pentecost.
Let us do the same and engage in dialogue with others, making disciples of all nations. SE
