Ricci remembered by Irish Province

The Irish Province celebrated the life of Matteo Ricci this weekend, 8-10 May, marking the 400th anniversary of this extraordinary Jesuit missionary, with an international conference on Saturday and commemorative bi-lingual Mass on Sunday. Over 100 people were welcomed to the conference in Gonzaga by the Provincial, John Dardis SJ, who said that Ricci was an inspirational man for the many Jesuits missionaries since his death. He quoted  from Ricci’s book On Friendship: One hundred maxims for a Chinese Prince, saying that Ricci’s insight was truly relevant in these times. According to Ricci: “Proper friends do not always agree with their friends, nor do they always disagree with their friends, but rather agree with them when they are reasonable and disagree with them when they are unreasonable. Direct speech is therefore the only responsibility of friendship”.