Verbiest Foundation Leuven
Founded by CICM in 1983 to promote dialogue and exchange with China
After 1949 all foreign missionaries – among them 254 CICM (Scheut) fathers – were no longer allowed to spread the gospel in China and were requested to leave the country. CICM was particularly affected by this decision because Founder Theophile Verbist had determined in article Nr 1 of their Constitutions that they should spread the gospel “by preference among the Chinese People”. How would they in the future remain faithful to that important Mission? CICM spent twenty years actively searching for a fitting response to their unexpected exclusion from the People's Republic of China. Creative CICM initiatives were the first stepping stones towards a new relationship with China. That was followed by a historical stepping stone offered by the People's Republic of China itself.
In September 1974, in Leuven, the Catholic "Pro Mundi Vita" based in Brussels and the "World Lutheran Conference" of Geneva held an International China Consultation in Leuven, attracting one hundred participants from all continents. China veterans Bishop Carlo Van Melckebeke CICM and Fr. Dries Van Coillie CICM were important speakers. The aim of the conference was to explore how to “Seek the Common Ground” with China through communication. This historical Leuven China meeting was followed by similar meetings in Rome, Paris, Bruges and others. Each meeting was a stepping stone towards dialogue.
In 1975 CICM appointed a “China Study Team” of three (Dries Van Coillie, Joseph Spae, Jeroom Heyndrickx), to attend all China conferences while keeping the CICM General Government informed on what was possible for dialogue. A CICM China Desk was established for the same purpose in Hong Kong in 1976 after the death of Chinese leader Mao Zedong.
Deng Xiaoping, China's new strongman after Mao, in 1978 launched China's Open-Door Policy. After having isolated itself from the world for thirty years, China suddenly opened up for cooperation and exchange in all fields with countries of the world, including exchanges in the fields of philosophy, culture, religion. That was the historical breakthrough which CICM needed for initiating dialogue.
China's new Open-Door Policy motivated CICM to organize a China Meeting in Hong Kong where 12 CICM China missionaries met to listen to Catholic and Protestant China experts who shared their views on dialogue with China. Some were optimistic, others hesitant or negative about building up a new relationship with PR China. The CICM confreres exchanged views among them. Their conclusions were positive and optimistic. They submitted an extensive 36-page report to the CICM General Government (GG) recommending that CICM should work on a positive response to China's new policies.
This resulted in May 1983 in the decision by the CICM GG, during an Extended China Meeting in Rome with delegates from all CICM regions and a large delegation from the Chinese Province as well as China experts from other congregations, to set up the “Ferdinand Verbiest Foundation” (VF). By then the direction of KU Leuven had already expressed its interest in joining this embryonic initiative for exchange, cooperation and dialogue with the Church and with academic institutions in China. Leuven became the home of the VF. “China” was understood to include PR-China and communities with Chinese culture and Chinese people (Taiwan, Hong Kong, S-E Asia).
After the Rome China Meeting in 1983, the CICM Superior General tasked the Chinese Province to take charge of the direction of VF. The Province accepted thereby ensuring the continuation of the CICM Priority Option for China. For 24 years VF was a Church-directed foundation sponsored and directed by the CICM Chinese Province. In 2004 CICM decided to withdraw from the management of the VF; VF became an autonomous foundation, inspired by CICM and by the spirit of Founder Verbist. As such, and after the CICM GG approved its final version of the Post-Vatican II Constitutions in 1987, VF remains concerned with the evangelization of the Chinese people. More broadly it pursues dialogue and exchange with China in research, formation and cultural exchange.
Some administrative developments later -- such as adapting to new requirements of Belgian corporate law in 2018 -- in 2026 the VF under its current management continues to work for the goals of the original VF Mission Statement, and sustains an active dialogue with China through an annual programme of research, formation, and exchange activities.