Jesuit and astronomer Ferdinand Verbiest was a star of the imperial court during the Ming Dynasty

People leaving a Catholic church after Sunday Mass in Dali town, a division in Dali City in China’s Yunnan province. Over the last five years the relationship has shifted between the Chinese Communist Party and the Vatican. Photograph: Noel Celis/AFP In a lecture theatre on the 36th floor of an office building in Beijing's Chaoyang district, a group of academics and interested amateurs from China, Europe and North America came together this week to remember one of the most remarkable men who ever lived. This was the Yale Center Beijing, an outpost of the university, and we were marking the…