Juan Bautista Morales (; in

Écija Écija () is a city and municipality of Spain belonging to the province of Seville, in the autonomous community of Andalusia. It is in the countryside, 85 km east of the city of Seville. According to the 2008 census, Écija had a total popula ...

– 17 September 1664 in Funing) was a Spanish Dominican

missionary A missionary is a member of a Religious denomination, religious group who is sent into an area in order to promote its faith or provide services to people, such as education, literacy, social justice, health care, and economic development.Thoma ...

in China.

Life

He entered the Order of St. Dominic at a very early age, and after devoting some years to missionary work in the

Philippine Islands The Philippines, officially the Republic of the Philippines, is an Archipelagic state, archipelagic country in Southeast Asia. Located in the western Pacific Ocean, it consists of List of islands of the Philippines, 7,641 islands, with a tot ...

, accompanied in 1633 a band of Dominican missionaries to China, taking up their work in the province of

Fujian Fujian is a provinces of China, province in East China, southeastern China. Fujian is bordered by Zhejiang to the north, Jiangxi to the west, Guangdong to the south, and the Taiwan Strait to the east. Its capital is Fuzhou and its largest prefe ...

. Here he took an active part in the Chinese Rites controversy, between the

Jesuits The Society of Jesus (; abbreviation: S.J. or SJ), also known as the Jesuit Order or the Jesuits ( ; ), is a religious order (Catholic), religious order of clerics regular of pontifical right for men in the Catholic Church headquartered in Rom ...

on the one side and the Dominicans and

Franciscans The Franciscans are a group of related organizations in the Catholic Church, founded or inspired by the Italian saint Francis of Assisi. They include three independent religious orders for men (the Order of Friars Minor being the largest conte ...

on the other. The latter maintained that the Jesuits, to make converts, tolerated to a certain extent the cult of

Confucius Confucius (; pinyin: ; ; ), born Kong Qiu (), was a Chinese philosopher of the Spring and Autumn period who is traditionally considered the paragon of Chinese sages. Much of the shared cultural heritage of the Sinosphere originates in the phil ...

and of ancestors. They despatched Morales to Rome in 1643, and on 12 September 1645, obtained from

Pope Innocent X Pope Innocent X (6 May 1574 – 7 January 1655), born Giovanni Battista Pamphilj (or Pamphili), was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 15 September 1644 to his death, in January 1655. Born in Rome of a family fro ...

a decision condemning the methods of the Jesuits. The latter also appealed to Rome, and obtained from

Pope Alexander VII Pope Alexander VII (; 13 February 159922 May 1667), born Fabio Chigi, was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 7 April 1655 to his death, in May 1667. He began his career as a vice- papal legate, and he held various d ...

a contradictory decree. In 1661 Morales again called the attention of the Holy See to the matter, and in 1669, five years after the death of Morales,

Pope Clement IX Pope Clement IX (; ; 28 January 1600 – 9 December 1669), born Giulio Rospigliosi, was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 20 June 1667 to his death in December 1669. Giulio Rospigliosi was born into the noble Ro ...

issued a new decree deciding against the Jesuits. About the same time the Dominicans discovered an enemy in their own ranks in the person of the Chinese friar,

Luo Wenzao Luo Wenzao (; also spelled Luo Wenzhao ( zh, c=炤, labels=no), Wenzao Lo, Luo Wencao, and variations of Gregorio Lopez in Western sources. (27 February 1691) was the first person of Chinese people, Chinese ethnicity to be appointed as a Bis ...

, Bishop of Basilea, who sent to the Holy See a memorandum favourable to the Jesuits. While in Italy he recruited

Vittorio Riccio Vittorio or Victorio Riccio or Ricci (18 January 1621 – 17 February 1685) was an Italian Dominican missionary, scholar and diplomat in the Philippines and south-east China, later named the first Prefect Apostolic of Terra Australis. Biograph ...

, who would conduct extensive missionary work in Manila and south-east China.

Works

Among the works of Morales are: * (Rome, 1645) * * *

References

;Attribution * The entry cites: **QUETIF and

Jacques Échard Jacques Échard (22 September 1644, in Rouen Rouen (, ; or ) is a city on the River Seine, in northwestern France. It is in the prefecture of Regions of France, region of Normandy (administrative region), Normandy and the Departments of Fr ...

, , II, 611, **TOURON, Hommes illust. de l'ordre S. Dominique, V. 627, 628, 630; **HUC, Le Christianisme en Chine, III (Paris, 1857). 11–19. {{DEFAULTSORT:Morales, Juan Bautista 1597 births 1664 deaths People from Écija Spanish Dominicans Spanish Roman Catholic missionaries Spanish missionaries in China Roman Catholic missionaries in China Dominican missionaries