Jesuits Produce TV Program Featuring Chinese Missionary

The recent broadcasting over state-run television of a documentary on a 17th-century German missioner has pleasantly surprised mainland Chinese Catholics.

The program was first telecast on March 22 evening on China Central Television (CCTV). It featured Jesuit Father Johann Adam Schall von Bell (1591-1666), who made important contributions to research in science and astronomy in China, and also evangelized on the mainland.

The 36-minute documentary also highlighted how he acted as a bridge in fostering greater understanding between Eastern and Western cultures.

The program, produced by the Jesuit-run Kuangchi Program Service in Taiwan and Jiangsu Broadcasting Corporation in Nanjing, mainland China, was replayed in the morning and afternoon of March 23.

News of the screening spread rapidly through Catholic websites, chat rooms and group e-mails and generated excitement among Chinese Catholics, according to sources. Some lay Catholics also watched it online from the CCTV website.
Link (here)

Johann Adam Schall von Bell

An especially prominent figure among the missionaries to China, b. of an important familyCologne in 1591; d. at Peking, 15 Aug., 1666. He studied at Rome, where he entered the Society of Jesus on 20 Oct., 1611. After his novitiate and some years devoted to philosophy and theology, he asked to be sent on the missions and in April, 1618, he set sail from Lisbon for China. When he reached Macao (1619) the Chinese Christian settlements were still deeply troubled by the war waged against them since 1615 by the high mandarin Kio Shin. Four of the chief missionaries, two of them from Peking, had been expelled and conducted to Macao; the others had only escaped the same fate through the devotion of some Christian mandarins who hid them in their houses. It was only in 1622, when the persecution began to relax, that Schall could penetrate to the interior.. (here)