Chinese added as ninth official language at papal general audiences

Dec 06, 2024

VATICAN: Chinese has been added as the ninth official language at papal general audiences, Pope Francis announced on November 27 during his general audience in St Peter’s Square.

“Next week, with Advent, the Chinese translation will also begin here publicly,” the Pope said at the time.

The addition marked a significant expansion of the languages used at the weekly papal events. Key portions of these gatherings — including Scripture readings, summaries of the Pope’s address, and greetings — have traditionally been delivered in eight languages: Italian, English, French, German, Spanish, Portuguese, Polish, and Arabic.

The translations make papal teachings accessible to pilgrims from around the world. They are typically delivered by staff members of the Vatican Secretariat of State or Vatican News.

Mandarin Chinese, considered the world’s most spoken language with nearly one billion speakers, joined this list. Varieties of Chinese — including Mandarin, Wu, Hakka, and others — are collectively used by more than 1.3 billion people worldwide.

The papal move to embrace Mandarin Chinese came at a complex moment in Vatican-China relations.
The Holy See had recently renewed its controversial agreement with Beijing on the appointment of bishops for another four years.

This renewal followed growing concerns about religious freedom in China, corroborated by recent reports. Some studies also indicated that the Christian population in China had stopped growing after decades of expansion in the 1980s and 1990s. --CNA