Matteo Ricci, S.J.  An Apologist For Dialogue  During the 2008
Summer Olympics in Beijing, a booklet describing the exploits of
a 16th-century Italian named Matteo Ricci was made widely
available to foreign visitors. Ricci was credited with
diplomatic efforts in China, along with "entering the palace
four times a year to repair chime clocks" (Zhang Xiping,
Following the Footsteps of Matteo Ricci in China, trans. by Ding
Deshu and Ye Jinping, 20).  Fr. Paul Serruys, C.I.C.M., lived as
a missionary in China and studied under the famed Jesuit
intellectual, Fr. Teilhard de Chardin, (1881-1955). Fr. Serruys
used to wonder: "I’m not sure if Ricci made the Chinese
Catholic, or if the Chinese made Ricci more Chinese." I attended
a theological forum where one speaker praised Ricci because he
"lived as a Chinese, not trying to change China’s culture or
force the Chinese to follow Christ."  These observations all
emphasize Ricci’s secular accomplishments. But Matteo Ricci was
a Jesuit missionary. What role did Christian