Global Chinese Catholicism webinar

Monday, 4th April 10,30-12am (Paris time)

The Ancestors’ Rites in the Taiwanese Catholic Church

Dr. Marco Lazzarotti

My work examines the effect of Catholicism on the tradition of ancestor rites in Taiwan. Catholic people in Taiwan live in a completely non Catholic environment. Often only one member of the family is Catholic, while the rest still performs the practices of the popular religion. This encounter and the cohabitation of two religions in Taiwan is considered as new symbolic system (Catholic) that merges into a pre-existent one: in a specific local context, to the pre-existent symbolic system (the Chinese one) are added new symbols (Catholics), which are translated and interpreted by the local people through the symbols already existent. I will argue that the very specific place where this encounter takes place is the person. . I will argue that this process follows dialogical patterns, and that it builds up a particular phenomenon that I defined as cultural dialogue.

Dr. Marco Lazzarotti is a Junior Fellow at the International Consortium for Research in the Humanities "Fate, Freedom and Prognostication. Strategies for Coping with the Future in East Asia and Europe." Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg. In 2018, he obtained a PhD in Anthropology at the Heidelberg University. He lived for many years in Taiwan where he obtained a Masters in Anthropology. His research touches aspects linked to the effect of Catholicism on the tradition of ancestor rites in Taiwan, to Inter-religious and inter-cultural dialogue and to the Modernization of Funeral Rites in Taiwan. He is currently living in Heppenheim (Germany) with his wife and their son. He can be contacted at through his webpage www.marcolazzarotti.altervista.org

Discussant:

Fr. Paulin Batairwa Kubuya, Professor of Religious Studies at Fu Jen Catholic University, Taiwan, and Executive Secretary of Taiwan Regional Bishops’ Conference - Commissions for Interreligious Dialogue and Ecumenism, is since 2019 Undersecretary of the Pontifical Council Dicastery of Interreligious Dialogue.

Here is the Zoom link: