2 Updates -Please click the blue address link.

 

1. Taoists and Christians to hold dialogue event in Hong Kong 

9th March 2024

https://www.vaticannews.va/en/vatican-city/news/2024-03/dicastery-interreligious-dialogue-taoists-christians-hong-kong.html

 

 

2. Catholics and Confucians have ‘so much to learn from each other’   

8th March 2024

 

 

END

 

 

5 Updates -Please click the blue address link.

 

1. Cardinal Tagle celebrates Lunar New Year with Chinese in Rome

12th February 2024

https://www.vaticannews.va/en/vatican-city/news/2024-02/cardinal-tagle-celebrates-lunar-new-year-with-chinese-in-rome.html

 

 

2. Pope Francis encourages Italy-China cultural dialogue

2nd February 2024

https://www.vaticannews.va/en/church/news/2024-02/pope-francis-national-federation-italy-china-audience.html

 

 

3. China: Consecration of the new bishop of Shaowu 

31st January 2024

https://www.vaticannews.va/en/pope/news/2024-01/china-consecration-new-bishop-shaowu-minbei-fujian.html

 

 

4. Bishop consecrated for new diocese of Weifang, China

29th January 2024

https://www.vaticannews.va/en/vatican-city/news/2024-01/bishop-consecrated-for-new-diocese-of-weifang-china.html

 

 

5. Suppression of the apostolic prefecture of Yiduxian and erection of the diocese of Weifang

29th January 2024

https://www.fides.org/en/news/74662-ASIA_CHINA_Suppression_of_the_apostolic_prefecture_of_Yiduxian_and_erection_of_the_diocese_of_Weifang

 

 

END

 

 

3 Updates -Please click the blue address link.

 

1. ASIA/CINA - Father Flavio Belluomini, Archivist of the Dicastery for Evangelization, speaks at the Chinese Social Sciences Forum - 2023 Religious Studies

26th September 2023

http://www.fides.org/en/news/74230-ASIA_CINA_Father_Flavio_Belluomini_Archivist_of_the_Dicastery_for_Evangelization_speaks_at_the_Chinese_Social_Sciences_Forum_2023_Religious_Studies

 

 

2. VATICAN/CHINA - Two bishops from mainland China at the Synod of Bishops

21st September 2023

http://www.fides.org/en/news/74217-VATICAN_CHINA_Two_bishops_from_mainland_China_at_the_Synod_of_Bishops

 

 

3. Cardinal Zuppi meets with Chinese official to discuss peace in Ukraine

15th September 2023

https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/255384/cardinal-zuppi-meets-with-chinese-official-to-discuss-peace-in-ukraine

 

 

 

END

 

4 Updates -Please click the blue address link.

 

1. Pope Francis urges Chinese Catholics to be ‘good citizens’

3 September 2023

https://www.vaticannews.va/en/pope/news/2023-09/pope-francis-mongolia-china-greetings-mass.html

 

2. Pope in Ulaanbaator: May heaven dispels the clouds of war

2 September 2023

https://www.asianews.it/news-en/Pope-in-Ulaanbaator:-May-heaven-dispels-the-clouds-of-war-59072.html

 

3. China and Russia, Mongolia’s cumbersome, yet unavoidable neighbours

1 September 2023

https://www.asianews.it/news-en/China-and-Russia,-Mongolia’s-cumbersome,-yet-unavoidable-neighbours-59068.html

 

4. What Pope Francis' trip to Mongolia could mean for Vatican relations with Russia & China

27 August 2023

https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/255199/what-pope-francis-trip-to-mongolia-could-mean-for-vatican-relations-with-russia-and-china

 

 

END

 

 

 

4 Updates -Please click the blue address link.

1 Update -Please click the blue address link.

 

Pope at Audience: Matteo Ricci's love for Chinese people, a source of inspiration

24th May 2023

https://www.vaticannews.va/en/pope/news/2023-05/pope-at-audience-st-francis-xavier211.html

 

 

End

 

 

1 Update -Please click the blue address link.

 

Catholics In China Welcome, Follow Papal Teachings, Cardinal Says

16th May 2023

https://thetablet.org/catholics-in-china-welcome-follow-papal-teachings-cardinal-says/

 

 

End

 

 

 

 

3 Updates - Please click the blue address link.

 

1. Pope Francis confirms trip to Mongolia in September.

14th April 2023

https://www.ncronline.org/vatican/vatican-news/pope-francis-confirms-trip-mongolia-september

 

2. No statement from the Vatican after Shanghai gets a new bishop.

4th April 2023

https://www.asianews.it/news-en/No-statement-from-the-Vatican-after-Shanghai-gets-a-new-bishop-58119.html

 

3. Chinese Bishop Shen Bin transferred to Shanghai, Holy See learns of move from media.

4th April 2023

https://www.vaticannews.va/en/vatican-city/news/2023-04/chinese-bishop-shen-bin-transferred-to-shanghai.html

 

END

 

 

 

 

 

2 Updates

 

1.Vatican-China deal ‘not the best deal possible,’ top Holy See diplomat says.

2. China deal not best possible, says Vatican official.

 

1.

Vatican-China deal ‘not the best deal possible,’ top Holy See diplomat says.

 

15th March 2023

 

Story: Courtney Mares – Rome Correspondent for Catholic News Agency.

 

A top Vatican official says the Vatican-China agreement on the appointment of bishops in the communist country is “not the best deal possible” because of the other party.

Monsignor Paul Gallagher, Vatican Secretary for Relations with States, in an interview with US-based EWTN journalist Colm Flynn, said the deal “could work better” and added that negotiations are on to improve the deal.

The Vatican-China agreement was first signed in 2018 for two years but renewed twice in 2020 and 2022, each time for two years.

The deal was the result of negotiations over a period of about 30 years and “a long process under three pontificates, and most of the agreement was already agreed and accepted by the Holy See and by the Chinese authorities already in the time of Pope Benedict,” the English prelate said.

The Vatican and China severed formal diplomatic ties in 1949 after the communists seized power. Since then, the appointment of Catholic bishops became a bone of contention between China and the Vatican.

The troubles intensified after the Chinese Communist Party created the Chinese Catholic Patriotic Association, a state-sanctioned body to oversee Catholic Church in China, in 1957.

The association started appointing bishops without the Vatican mandate. The clergy who refused to abide by the state rules and orders continued to face harassment, forced disappearance, and house arrest.

Millions of Catholics refused to join the “patriotic church” and remained loyal to the pope despite various levels of state persecution. They came to be known as the “underground church.”

Gallagher said before the deal was signed there was unease within the Vatican, but the deal moved ahead.

“As Cardinal Parolin has said on numerous occasions, it wasn't really a great time to sign the deal, for various reasons. It was always going to be difficult; it was always going to be used by the Chinese party to bring greater pressure on the Catholic community, particularly on the so-called underground church,” he said.

Despite the challenges, improvement in the deal is “a work in process” and the Vatican remains “committed to carrying forward that dialogue,” he said.  

Over the years, “a greater understanding” has grown up between the two parties and they are trying to “maximize” it, he said, adding that due to Chinese domestic politics, the deal can achieve fruits “quite slowly.”

However, the Chinese government, Catholic Church in China, and the Vatican are not looking for short-term goals in “months or even years,” he pointed out.

“And we hope that, in time, the relations between the Catholic Church in China will be much more normal, much more fluid, much more fruitful,” he added.

The deal, Church officials say, aims to unite an estimated 10 million Catholics in China, who stand divided into two churches. Since the deal, neither the Vatican nor China has appointed bishops without the agreement of the other side.

However, only six bishops have been appointed since 2018 and the Vatican recognized several bishops “illicitly” ordained by China. Reports say more than 40 dioceses in China continue without bishops.

Observers say, in the long run, the Vatican aims to re-establish formal diplomatic ties with China.

The deal, whose provisions were never made public, faced strong opposition from Church leaders and Chinese Catholics who termed it “a betrayal” of underground Catholics. Some critics say the deal ignored their sufferings to be loyal to the Vatican.

Human rights groups alleged that deal forced the Vatican to be silent on China’s serious human rights violations of ethnic and religious groups such as Christians, and Uyghur Muslims, besides the heavy-handed crackdown on the democracy movement in Hong Kong in recent years.

Rights groups and media reports say the Chinese regime has weaponized the deal to force Catholic clergy and laypeople to join the official church and continued to terrorize Catholics with an aim to dismantle the underground church.

END

 

 

 

2 Updates

 

1.Digital gift a small reminder of big thaw in China-Vatican relations.

2.Pope: Critics help us grow, but I want them to say it to my face.

 

 

1.

Digital gift a small reminder of big thaw in China-Vatican relations. 

11th February 2023

By Crux Staff

ROME – At the same time relations between the United States and China are once again mired in recrimination, this time over a destroyed balloon the US describes as an espionage device and China as a meteorological instrument, there was another small reminder the ties between Rome and Beijing seem to be warming.

This past Wednesday, at the conclusion of his weekly General Audience in St. Peter’s Square, Pope Francis briefly met Xiao Wunan, a Chinese entrepreneur seen as close to China’s President Xi Jinping and a frequent envoy on behalf of Beijing to Italy.

The ostensible purpose of the brief encounter was for Wunan to present the pontiff with the very first of 12,000 digital pieces of art depicting the mantle worn by Pope John Paul II, now St. John Paul, for the opening of the Great Jubilee Year on Christmas Eve in 2000.

Designed using computer generated imagery, the artwork is considered an NFT, or “non-fungible token,” meaning a unique piece of digital property. It’s based on a design by Stefano Zannella of X Regio, a tailor company that’s produced vestments for popes since 1997.

Twenty-three years ago, the mantle’s dramatic colors and futuristic design left quite an impression. Archbishop Piero Marini, then the pope’s Master of Ceremonies, once quipped that “no one remembers what he said that night, but everyone remembers how he was dressed.”

Wunan appended a letter to the digital gift.

“China is a great country, and Catholicism has a long history in China,” Wunan wrote.

“I have many friends who believe in Catholicism, and even though I’m a Buddhist, I’ve often gone to Chinese Catholic churches. In recent years, we know clearly that under your guidance, relations between China and the Vatican have improved.”

Wunan, an executive of the Asia Pacific Cooperation Foundation, also praised Francis’s role as a peacemaker.

“We vividly hope to be able to contribute to the resolution of conflicts,” he said, expressing “gratitude and respect for your strong support and your blessings in this work of world peace.”

Wunan, 59, is a former official of the Chinese government who’s played an important role as an informal go-between for China and Italy. He played a role in promoting the 2015 “Milan World Expo” in China, and also helped broker economic agreements between Italy and China.

In 2018, Pope Francis signed a controversial deal with China over the appointment of Catholic bishops in the country, essentially giving the government a formal role in selecting candidates. Originally conceived as a two-year deal, the provision agreement was renewed in 2020 and again in 2022.

Vatican spokespersons have touted the agreement as essential to overcoming the historic rift between an official Catholic church in China recognized by the state, and an underground church that refuses to accept Communist control. Critics complain that the deal amounts to capitulation to the government, and also assert that after it was signed repression of Christians in China actually became more intense.

In November 2022, the Vatican accused Beijing of violating the terms of the agreement by installing a bishop in a diocese not recognized by Rome. A statement at the time asserted that the appointment of Bishop Giovanni Peng Weizhao in Jiangxi did not “conform to the spirit of dialogue” of the 2018 agreement.

Despite such hiccups, most observers believe that Vatican-China relations under Pope Francis are strong and improving, bucking the general trend of hostility between Beijing and Western governments.

2.

Pope: Critics help us grow, but I want them to say it to my face.

25th January 2023

Vatican News: www.vaticannews.va/en

By Salvatore Cernuzio

 

Extract from a long interview

Continued dialogue with China “essential”

The Pope went on to discuss several other issues, including the diplomatic work carried out by the Holy See. In this regard, he spoke directly on the issue of relations with China, stating once again, “We have to walk patiently.” Regarding possible openings, Pope Francis said, “We are taking steps,” while noting that Chinese authorities “are sometimes a bit closed, sometimes not.” He repeated once again, “The essential thing is that dialogue not be interrupted.”

Pope Francis also commented on Chinese Cardinal Joseph Zen, who he described as “fascinating.” The Holy Father received Cardinal Zen recently, on January 6, at the Vatican. Cardinal Zen, the Pope noted, is now doing pastoral work in prison – “and he is in prison all day. He is friends with the communist guards and the prisoners. Everyone welcomes him. He is a man of great sympathy.” Cardinal Zen “is brave,” but also “a tender soul” the Pope said, recalling that the Cardinal “wept like a child” in front of the statue of Our Lady of Sheshan that he saw in the papal apartments in Casa Santa Marta.

 

END

 

 

 

 

6 Updates

 

1.Holy See-China: Provisional Agreement on nomination of Bishops renewed for second time.

2. Cardinal Tagle: the reasons why the Holy See renews the provisional Agreement with the government of Beijing on the appointment of Chinese Catholic Bishops.

3. Parolin: ‘An Agreement on aspects essential to daily life of Church in China’.

4. Celso Costantini's “prophecy”, 100 years after his arrival in Beijing.

5. Vatican renews agreement with China.

6. The Holy See: "surprise and regret" over installation of Chinese Bishop.

 

1.

Holy See-China: Provisional Agreement on nomination of Bishops renewed for second time.

2. Cardinal Tagle: the reasons why the Holy See renews the provisional Agreement with the government of Beijing on the appointment of Chinese Catholic Bishops.

 

Provisional Agreement for the Appointment of Bishops occupies a limited but significant
part.
The ultimate goal of this journey is for the 'little flock' of Chinese Catholics to advance in the possibility of living serenely and freely their Christian life, which is made up of the proclamation of the Gospel, solid formation, joyful celebration of the Eucharist, as well as an industrious witness of charity, in order to be close to those who struggle the most to cope with life, as was the case during the difficult time of the pandemic.

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

 

4. 

Celso Costantini's “prophecy”, 100 years after his arrival in Beijing.

8th November 2022

Agenzia Fides - www.fides.org

ASIA/CHINA

Pordenone (Agenzia Fides) - One hundred years ago, Cardinal Celso Costantini, from the Friuli region of northern Italy, arrived in Beijing after a long journey, sent to China by Pope Pius XI as the first Apostolic Delegate. A mission kept secret until his arrival in Hong Kong, to save it from the sabotage of the European powers.

"Especially in towards the Chinese - Costantini later wrote in his memoirs, recalling his arrival - I found it prudent in no way to arouse the suspicion that the Catholic religion appeared to be under the protection of the European nations or worse, as a political instrument to be put at its service. From the very beginning, I wanted to exercise my freedom of action in the field of religious interests and refused to be accompanied to the local authorities by representatives of foreign nations. I should have been in China gives the appearance of being subordinate to these representatives".

Exactly one hundred years after the arrival of Celso Costantini in Beijing, in a video produced by Teresa Tseng Kuang yi for Fides (see link), is interviewed by Father Bruno Fabio Pighin, professor at the Faculty of Canon Law St. Pius X in Venice and Episcopal Delegate for the cause of canonization of Costantini himself.

Cardinal Celso Costantini (1876-1958), pioneer of the Vatican dialogue with Beijing, was the first Apostolic Delegate to China from 1922 to 1933. In those years, Costantini managed to convoke the first council of the Catholic Church in China (Shanghai 1924) and set in motion the process of ecclesiastical "decolonization", fighting the stubborn vestiges of the protectorate and all forms of Catholic presence in China continued to impose European traits on the Far East, eventually portraying them as the religious correlate of Western expansion in those countries. Thanks also to the commitment of Costantini, on October 28, 1926 the first 6 Chinese bishops ordained in modern times were consecrated by Pope Pius XI in St. Peter's Basilica in the Vatican. In 1927, Costantini also promoted the founding of the Congregatio Discipulorum Domini (CDD), China's first ecclesiastical religious institute. With his support, the first Catholic university in China, Fu Ren University, was founded, which is now based in Taiwan.

The Apostolic Delegation in Beijing was raised to the rank of nunciature only after the war, in 1946. In the same year, Pius XII established the Chinese episcopal hierarchy, recognizing its responsibility and autonomy of government from Western institutions. These results were also obtained thanks to the patient and far-sighted work of Celso Costantini, who had continued to support the flourishing of the native Catholic Church in China, even from Rome, where in 1935 he had become secretary of the Congregation de Propaganda Fide.

Costantini held the office of Secretary of the Missionary Dicastery until 1953. Pope Pius XII created him Cardinal in the Consistory of January 12, 1953. He died in Rome on October 17, 1958. In September 2016 (see Fides, 6/10/2016) the Bishops' Conference of the Italian region of Triveneto announced that it had issued a positive opinion "at the beginning of the process of beatification of Cardinal Celso Costantini (1876-1958), a figure of considerable missionary enthusiasm and pastoral charity as well as evangelizer of China originally from the Diocese of Concordia-Pordenone". 

LINK
Interview with Msgr. Bruno Fabio Pighin -> https://youtu.be/Z4WLC1uGat0

_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

5. 

Vatican renews agreement with China

24th October 2022

 

UCA News - www.ucanews.com

The 'provisional agreement,' forged in 2018 and renewed in 2020, has been extended for another two years

Saying it is committed to "respectful dialogue" with China's communist government and to "fostering the mission of the Catholic Church and the good of the Chinese people," the Vatican announced it has renewed its agreement with China on the appointment of bishops.

The "provisional agreement," forged in 2018 and renewed in 2020, has been extended for another two years, the Vatican announced Oct. 22.

The text of the agreement has never been made public, but Vatican officials said it outlines procedures for ensuring Catholic bishops are elected by the Catholic community in China and approved by the pope before their ordinations and installations.

In the past four years, only six bishops have been named and installed under the terms of the agreement.

Cardinal Pietro Parolin, Vatican secretary of state, interviewed by Vatican News Oct. 22, noted that the achievements of the agreement also included the lifting of the ex-communications or irregular status of seven bishops who had been ordained with government approval, but not the Vatican's consent and, he said, "the first six 'clandestine' bishops have also succeeded in being registered and thus have had their position made official, being recognized as bishops by public institutions."

Many dioceses are still without bishops or have very elderly bishops, he said, but the process is continuing.

However, Cardinal Parolin also acknowledged that "there are dioceses in which, despite all efforts and goodwill, no fruitful dialogue exists with local authorities."

The agreement is still "provisional" because "we are still in the experimentation phase," the cardinal said. "As is always the case, such difficult and delicate situations require adequate time for implementation in order to then be able to verify the effectiveness of the result and identify possible improvements."

"Pope Francis -- with determination and patient foresight -- has decided to continue along this path, not under the illusion of finding perfection in human rules, but in the concrete hope of being able to assure Chinese Catholic communities, even in such a complex context, of the guidance of pastors who are worthy and suitable for the task entrusted to them," Cardinal Parolin said.

The cardinal reaffirmed what Pope Francis and Vatican officials have said all along: giving up full control over the choice of bishops is not what the Vatican would have hoped for, but it seemed to be a good first step toward ensuring greater freedom and security for the Catholic community in China.

The deal, however, has been criticized by several prominent figures, including by Cardinal Joseph Zen Ze-kiun, retired archbishop of Hong Kong, who said the agreement would "kill" the unofficial or underground church in China, whose leaders refuse to register with the state-run Chinese Catholic Patriotic Association.

Cardinal Parolin told Vatican News that the agreement is not primarily about diplomatic relations with China. Rather, he said, "it mainly concerns aspects that are essential to the daily life of the church in China. I am thinking, for example, of the validity of the sacraments celebrated and the certainty for millions of Chinese faithful that they will be able to live out their faith in full Catholic communion, without thereby being suspected of not being loyal citizens to their country."

Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle, whose maternal grandfather was Chinese, told Fides, the news agency of the Dicastery for Evangelization, that in China "historical events had led to painful wounds within the church, to the point of casting a shadow of suspicion on the sacramental life itself. So, there were things at stake that touch the intimate nature of the church and her mission of salvation."

The agreement attempts "to safeguard the valid apostolic succession and the sacramental nature of the Catholic Church in China," Cardinal Tagle said. "This can reassure, comfort and enliven baptized Catholics in China."

As a byproduct of its dialogue with the Chinese government, he said, "one of the wishes of the Holy See has always been to foster reconciliation, and to see the lacerations and contrasts opened within the church by the tribulations it has gone through, healed. Certain wounds need time and God's consolation in order to be healed."

The Vatican is not naive, he said. "The Holy See has never spoken of the agreement as the solution of all problems. It has always been perceived and affirmed that the path is long, it can be tiring and that the agreement itself could cause misunderstandings and disorientation."

In addition, the Vatican would not and does not ignore or minimize the suffering and the different reactions of Chinese Catholics to the agreement, he said. The joy of some and the perplexity of others "is part of the process. But one always has to dirty one's hands with the reality of things as they are."

"Many signs attest that many Chinese Catholics have grasped the inspiration followed by the Holy See in the ongoing process," he said. "They are grateful and comforted for a process that confirms before all their full communion with the pope and the universal church."

____________________________________________________________________

6. 

The Holy See: "surprise and regret" over installation of Chinese Bishop.

Agenzia Fides - www.fides.org

VATICAN - The Holy See: "surprise and regret" over installation of Chinese Bishop which did not take place in conformity with the Provisional Agreement

Vatican City (Agenzia Fides) - The Holy See took note "with surprise and regret" of the news of the “installation ceremony” that took place on November 24, in Nanchang of "His Exc. Msgr. Giovanni Peng Weizhao, Bishop of Yujiang (Jiangxi Province) as ‘Auxiliary Bishop of Jiangxi’, a diocese not recognized by the Holy See".

"This event", reads the statement of the Holy See released today, November 26, "has not taken place in conformity with the spirit of dialogue that exists between the Vatican parties and the Chinese parties and what was stipulated in the Provisional Agreement on the Appointment of Bishops of 22 September 2018. Furthermore - the text of the statement continues - "the civil recognition of Bishop Peng was preceded, according to the news received, by prolonged and intense pressure by the local Authorities".

The Holy See - the statement concludes - "hopes that similar episodes will not be repeated, and awaits appropriate communications on the matter from the Authorities and reaffirms its full willingness to continue the respectful dialogue concerning all the issues of common interest".

 

 

END

 

 

5 Updates

 

1.Vatican silence on Cardinal Zen’s trial is disconcerting.

2.The China-Holy See Agreement and the treasure of faith.

3. Vatican-China dialogue continues, says pope.

4. President Xi to cross paths with the Pope in Kazakhstan.

5. Is the Vatican-China bishops deal working?

 

 

 

 

1.

Vatican silence on Cardinal Zen’s trial is disconcerting.

29th September 2022

 

UCA News - www.ucanews.com

End result of deal with China may not be worth the moral sacrifices being made now.

Cardinal Joseph Zen is on trial at a sensitive time when the Vatican is trying to renew its controversial secret agreement on the appointment of bishops with Beijing next month.

Shanghai-born Cardinal Zen has been critical of the Vatican-China deal, first inked in 2018, calling it a “sell-out” of China’s underground Catholics, who have faced persecution for remaining loyal to Rome.

His sympathy has been with those Catholics who stood against the Communist Party-sanctioned Catholic Patriotic Association in China for more than six decades.

Cardinal Zen, the retired bishop of Hong Kong, was arrested with five others in May. They were accused of failing to apply for local society registration for the Humanitarian Relief Fund, which provided aid to pro-democracy protesters in 2019.

The 90-year-old cardinal arrived at the court in West Kowloon on Sept. 26 using a walking stick.

However, the trial has been adjourned until Oct 26 after defense lawyers this week reportedly tried to counter police witnesses called by the prosecution, significantly delaying the process.

Those accused with Zen, one of Asia’s highest-ranking Catholic clerics, are lawyer Margaret Ng, singer-activist Denise Ho, cultural studies scholar Hui Po-keung, activist Sze Ching-wee, and ex-legislator Cyd Ho.

“Cardinal Zen is a ‘man of God’; at times intemperate, but submissive to the love of Christ"

All the defendants have pleaded not guilty and the controversial fund was dissolved in October 2021. But the prosecution said that the fund used part of its resources for political activities and non-charity events.

Cardinal Zen and others were earlier charged with colluding with foreign forces, but that charge was dropped. Instead, they are being prosecuted for the lesser offense of failing to properly register their fund as a society.

If convicted, they face a fine of up to HK$10,000 (US$1,275). The trial is expected to end in early November. China has charged the cardinal under less stringent laws so as not to upset the Vatican and the secret pact is set to be renewed in October.

Cardinal Zen, a vocal critic of China, opposed the National Security Law, introduced to suppress the pro-democracy protests and took part in the protests in 2019, 2014 and 2003. His arrest and the trial have attracted criticism from the world Christian community, though the Vatican has been muted in its response.

But some senior Church men have spoken in support of Cardinal Zen.

Cardinal Fernando Filoni, former prefect of the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples, wrote in support of Zen on Sept 23.

“Cardinal Zen is a ‘man of God’; at times intemperate, but submissive to the love of Christ, who wanted him to be his priest, deeply in love, like Don Bosco, with youth,” Filoni wrote.

Bishop Thomas Tobin of Providence, Rhode Island, made an appeal on Sept 19 as Cardinal Zen’s trial was scheduled to begin. Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone of San Francisco shared his prayer for Zen on Sept 26.

Bishop Athanasius Schneider, an auxiliary bishop of Maria Santissima in Astana, Kazakhstan, also offered his prayers on Sept 26.

“Zen is a symbol and he was arrested on a pretext, he did nothing"

On Sept 1, Cardinal Gerhard Ludwig Muller, former prefect of the Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, shared his disappointment that Cardinal Zen was not present at the meeting of the College of Cardinals in August.

“Zen is a symbol and he was arrested on a pretext, he did nothing, he is an influential, courageous, and much-feared figure by the government,” he said.

Cardinal Charles Bo of Yangon, President of the Federation of Asian Bishops’ Conferences (FABC), offered his support shortly after Zen’s arrest in May.

“My brother Cardinal, His Eminence Joseph Zen, was arrested and faces charges simply because he served as a trustee of a fund which provided legal aid to activists facing court cases,” Cardinal Bo wrote in a statement.

Human rights advocate David Alton, Baron Alton of Liverpool, tweeted on Sept 26 that China has set up the “same old kangaroo courts,” to crush Cardinal Zen and others.

Pope Francis, however, has declined to comment on Cardinal Zen’s prosecution. Church observers link the Vatican silence to the dialogue it continues with Beijing aimed at renewing the China-Vatican deal, which will lapse if not renewed in October.

"The arrest and delayed trial of Cardinal Zen is all part of a scheme engineered to arm-twist Vatican negotiators"

The original pact was inked as an experiment in October 2018, for a two-year period, and it was extended in October 2020 for another two years.

Many suspect the timing of the arrest and delayed trial of Cardinal Zen is all part of a scheme engineered to arm-twist Vatican negotiators as the Vatican seems to be bent on continuing to have a say in the appointment of bishops.

Since many Catholics are uneasy about Rome’s overtures to Beijing and point to the past to stress that deals with the Chinese communists are as good as not having deals. Chinese Communists follow their own path of action, irrespective of international conventions and diplomatic agreements.

Despite Cardinal Zen's warning that the pact will pave the way for China to hijack the Catholic Church, the Vatican has been focusing on the positive results of the pact, which has helped 12 million Catholics in China to come together as one Catholic Church. The Vatican claimed that with the deal “all the Chinese Catholic bishops in China today are in full and public communion with the Bishop of Rome.”

For the Holy See, a nascent unified Church in China — ending the division underground Church and the state-run Church — is important. But the question remains: if all the Chinese Catholic Church becomes one unified Church, will it ever be out of the control of the Chinese communists?

Will the end result of the deal be worth the moral sacrifices the Vatican is making now?

*The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official editorial position of UCA News.

____________________________________________________________________________

2.

The China-Holy See Agreement and the treasure of faith.

22nd September 2022

Agenzia Fides - www.fides.org

By: Gianni Valente

Rome (Agenzia Fides) - Just four years ago, on September 22, 2018, representatives of the Holy See and the government of the People's Republic of China signed the Provisional Agreement on the appointment of Chinese Catholic bishops in Beijing. The Agreement provided for a period of application ad experimentum of two years. In October 2020, the validity of the agreement was extended for another two years.Today, as the deadline for the first extension nears, public statements by Pope Francis and Cardinal Secretary of State Pietro Parolin have hinted at a positive intention on the part of the Holy See to continue the process of negotiation, as well as the request to see the agreement implemented in due time and to discuss the margins of progressive improvement, with the sole aim of entrusting the pastoral office to worthy and suitable bishops.

To grasp the reasons of the Pope’s approach, as well as that of his collaborators, it is enough to keep in mind the recent history of Catholicism in China and recognize what has been been compass that has guided the steps of the Holy See during decades dealing with the affairs of Chinese Catholics.

Since the signing of the agreement, illegitimate episcopal ordinations have no longer occurred in China, those celebrated without papal consent, which had caused painful lacerations among Chinese Catholics since the late 1950s.

In the last four years, six new Catholic episcopal ordinations have taken place in China, with procedures that also involve the issue of the Papal bull of appointment. At the same time, six so-called “clandestine” bishops, consecrated in the past without following the protocols imposed by the Chinese apparatus, also requested and obtained public recognition of their role by the political authorities in Beijing. Small numbers, considering the number of Catholic dioceses in China that are vacant or headed by very elderly bishops. But all the Chinese Catholic bishops in China today are in full and public communion with the bishop of Rome.

The one currently in force with the Chinese authorities is not comparable to the models of agreement reached by the Holy See with other governments (the lastest being the one signed with Kazakhstan on the occasion of Pope Francis' recent apostolic visit to the Central Asian country) to ensure legal recognition and spaces of agility to Church institutions and pastoral agents in the different national contexts.

The Agreement on the appointment of Chinese bishops touches the deepest fibers of the apostolic nature of the Church and the very dynamism of her sacramental life. The issue addressed in the Agreement concerns the faith of Chinese Catholics, and the suffering caused by the ecclesial lacerations which, in recent decades, have divided clergy and laity, communities and families themselves. The content of the agreement concerns the memory of the martyrs and the validity of the sacraments celebrated in parishes, chapels and homes in the People's Republic of China. Goods that belong to a different order from those that are usually affected by the agreements signed by the Holy See with governments and sovereign entities.

The sacramentality and apostolicity of the Church recognized, preserved and lived in the pastoral framework of the ecclesial life of each Chinese parish, and the full communion of all bishops with the Bishop of Rome cannot be described as "disappointing" from the point of view of the Holy See, especially if one bears in mind at least a little of the history from which one comes.

In the dominant representations of the relations between China and the Vatican, the factors that pushed the Holy See to follow the path it has taken, and the criteria that have guided it in its choices on questions so vital to the sensus Ecclesiae of Chinese Catholics, are generally suppressed and hidden.

Those who qualify the Agreement as an operation with mediocre results, or even an error to be regretted, must not only remove the references to the sacramental dynamics which sustain the Church, but also hide everything that has happened to Chinese Catholicism in the last seventy years.

There have been seasons when, in the official media of the Chinese apparatus, the Bishops and the Vatican were generally defined as the "watchdogs" of Western imperialism. Today, even in the phase of growing international tension between the People's Republic and Western geopolitical subjects, no one in China thinks of insulting the Pope and the Catholic Church as agents of hostile forces.

As international tensions and power clashes escalate, it is also worthwhile to look with faith at the delicate and providential condition in which the small flock of Chinese Catholics find themselves. It is precisely in this condition, shared with their compatriots, that they can experience the adventure of confession of faith in Christ in today's China as it is, without privileges, without being pointed at and perceived as a foreign body, as exotic guests or representatives of distant cultures.

Chinese Catholics, like all Chinese citizens, live within the context of the provisions issued by the Chinese civil authorities. As baptized, they follow the faith of the apostles, of which communion with the bishop of Rome, guarantor of the unity of the Church, is an integral part. Their condition can lead to fatigue, disappointment, suffering. But by remaining immanent in this condition leaves the door open to witnessing, to the possibility of confessing faith in Christ, of walking each day in his company in the China of today, such as it is, performing the ordinary gestures linked to the mission of salvation entrusted by Jesus to His own: proclamation of the Gospel, catechism, administration of the sacraments, works of charity for brothers and sisters in need. Acts and words of this current of Christian experience free from all suspicion, which animates the daily life of so many Chinese Catholic communities, and which is also told by so many pieces of news by Fides.

In the happy and troubled events that have marked the last seventy years of Chinese Catholicism, the decisive factor was precisely the faith of the Apostles in which bishops, priests and lay people of that Church were in any case kept. Not out of heroism or stubborn voluntarism, but out of a gift of grace. The last Successors of Peter themselves experienced and attested that their communion with the Catholic Church in China was not to be restored with instruments of juridical supremacy, simply because such communion was already in place, based on the sharing of the same Catholic faith. It is the only treasure to be relied upon, even in the most enigmatic and controversial events of the present time.

___________________________________________________________________

3.

Vatican-China dialogue continues, says pope.

19th September 2022

 

UCA News - www.ucanews.com
 

Bilateral commission's work to renew agreement on the appointment of bishops is moving slowly, he says.

 

A Vatican-China bilateral commission is continuing dialogue with China, Pope Francis said about joint work to renew an agreement on the appointment of bishops in the communist country.

 

"There is a Vatican-China bilateral commission, which is slowly moving forward. Because the Chinese pace is slow," Pope told journalists on Sept 16 while flying back to the Vatican after a three-day trip to Kazakhstan.

The two-year agreement, first signed in September 1998 on an experimental basis, was renewed for another two years in October 2020 and expires in the next month.

The deal, the content of which has not been published, reportedly allows the Vatican to approve or reject bishops selected by the communist regime.

"It takes a century to understand China,” Pope Francis told journalists on board his flight in response to a question about the commission’s slow progress.

"They have an eternity to advance. They are a people of infinite patience," he said adding that the path to mutual understanding involves discussions with Beijing.

It will lead to the complete demolition of the underground Church"

"It is not easy to understand the Chinese mentality, but it must be respected," he said.

Vatican officials — primarily from the Secretariat of State and the Dicastery for the Evangelization of Peoples — visited China between Aug 28 and Sept 2, according to a report in the Italian newspaper Avvenire.

They met Bishop Melchiore Shi Hongzhen, a 92-year-old member of the underground Church, ordained without the approval of Beijing.

The Vatican is pushing for the unification of the Church in China, amalgamating the underground and the state-controlled Church, a move resisted by underground Church leaders and its supporters like retired Cardinal Zen of Hong Kong.

With the Vatican-China agreement, the Vatican encourages the underground Church’s clergy and laity to join the mainstream Catholic Church.

But underground Church leaders say the agreement has led to their further suppression by the Chinese regime, and it will lead to the complete demolition of the underground Church.

Cardinal Zen, who often speaks out against Beijing’s rights violations in Hong Kong and China is scheduled to appear in a Hong Kong court on Sept. 19, for being part of a trust accused of illegally funding the medical and legal expenses of pro-democracy activists in Hong Kong.

When asked about Cardinal Zen, Pope Francis cautiously acknowledged that the 90-year-old Salesian prelate was to appear in court this week.

The cardinal was arrested in Hong Kong by the Chinese regime in May and released shortly after following a global outcry.

"Cardinal Zen is an elder who is going to be tried these days, isn't he?... He says what he feels, knowing that in China there are limitations [to religious freedom]," the pope said without further comment.

Vatican watchers say the pope’s reluctance to speak out against the harassment of Cardinal Zen and rights violations in Hong Kong and China is so as not to jeopardize the prospect of establishing a working relationship with China.

___________________________________________________________________________

4. 

President Xi to cross paths with the Pope in Kazakhstan.

14th September 2022

The Age

By: Huizhong Wu

Taipei: Chinese President Xi Jinping’s first trip overseas since the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic will overlap with a visit by Pope Francis to Kazakhstan, although the Vatican says there are no plans for them to meet.

 

Xi’s state visit on Wednesday comes just weeks ahead of an all-important political meeting in China where he is expected to take a third term as he cements his grip on power. The Pope is in Kazakhstan until Thursday for a state visit and an interfaith congress of world religious leaders.

Buy this Book. Please click below:

https://store.ucanews.com/campaign/special09/vatican_china_bishops_deal.html?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=UCAN+Store+08+Oct+2022+Special+Campaign&cmid=3a38b157-fa8b-4c6c-b818-28560806091f

 

 

END

 

 

VATICAN-CHINA UPDATES

August 2022

 

2 Updates

 

1.Sino-Vatican Diplomatic Relations. The Vatican Relations with both Sides of the Strait (1912-1978)

2. Pope hopes Provisional Agreement with China will be renewed.

 

 

1.

Sino-Vatican Diplomatic Relations. The Vatican Relations with both Sides of the Strait (1912-1978)

 

we are pleased to inform you the arrival of our newest addition to our series "Louvain Chinese Studies":

 

By: Alexandre Tsung-ming Chen

 

The relations between the Vatican and the two regimes each on one side of the Taiwan Strait evolve through ups and downs in close connection with geopolitical and ecclesial developments in the region. The changing relations not only triggered concern from all related parties but also prompted numerous debates in the international media. The growing attention paid to this issue from different individuals, institutions, and governments indicate that the ebb and flow of the relations among the trio actors - PRC, ROC, and the Vatican -
have overflown beyond the spiritual sphere and well into the political and diplomatic domains. This situation, resultant from the nature and application of the Holy See’s diplomacy, remains an underexplored subject due to past approaches being often single- dimensioned which shied away from international politics.

 

Integrating the perspective of international politics and the spiritual concerns of the Church, this study focuses on the Sino-Vatican relations from 1912, the year the Republic was founded, through 1978, the year the pontificate of John-Paul I ended. In order to present a fuller and more comprehensive picture than previous studies of how the Vatican and the “Chinese” governments interacted with one another at different stages of this period as well as how other concerned governments and people reacted to contemporary developments,
the author combed through official archives in various places, including the Vatican, Taiwan, France, and Belgium, and collected a plethora of material in multiple languages, including Chinese, English, French, Italian, and Latin, that would shed light on the Vatican’s foreign policy. The book aims to analyze the Vatican’s position toward the divided rule in the land called China during that period by highlighting the important topics through accessible vocabulary and unpretentious arguments in hope that it can be of interest both to the general public and scholars in other fields. This study is a rare achievement in Chinese Catholic Studies in that it has combined a global perspective and a microscopic view in investigating the complex dynamic between the Vatican and the different “Chinese” governments, thereby parsing many hitherto underexplored knotty issues.

For further enquiries, ordering information and a full list of our publications, please visit:

www.kuleuven.be/verbiest
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

2. 

Pope hopes Provisional Agreement with China will be renewed

 

Vatican News
www.vaticannews.va

 

Pope hopes Provisional Agreement with China will be renewed 

VATICAN-CHINA UPDATES

March 2022

 

1Update

 

1.Vatican scoffs at Taiwan, Hong Kong pullout rumors

 

11th February 2022

 

UCA News - www.ucanews.com

Vatican scoffs at Taiwan, Hong Kong pullout rumors

Denies transfer of heads of missions is a precursor to establishing diplomatic ties with Beijing

By: Christopher Joseph

The Vatican has dismissed suggestions in the media that it recently pulled its representatives out of Hong Kong and Taiwan as part of Holy See preparations for establishing diplomatic ties with China.

Monsignor Javier Herrera Corona, the Holy See's representative in Hong Kong, dismissed the explanation as mere speculation.

It was announced by the Vatican on Feb. 5 that he was being reassigned as apostolic nuncio to Congo.

That news came five days after the Vatican announced the transfer of its Taiwan representative Monsignor Araldo Catalan to Rwanda.

“These are regular transfers,” Monsignor Javier told UCA News on Feb. 8.

Reading more meaning into them is “purely media speculation without any basis,” he added.

The transfer “was expected … because I have completed six years,” Monsignor Javier said adding the same was true of the mission in Taiwan.

“The mission in Hong Kong is not closed. Taiwan is also not folding,” the Vatican diplomat said. New heads of these missions can be “expected within three months,” he said.

Observers say the Holy See’s diplomatic links with Taiwan continue to be a hindrance to the Vatican establishing formal diplomatic relations with China.

Beijing considers Taiwan as a breakaway province, not as an independent nation.

What is officially known as the Apostolic Nunciature to China is the Holy See’s diplomatic mission to Taiwan, officially called the Republic of China. In other words, the Vatican cannot maintain a mission in Taiwan if it wants to open one on the Chinese mainland.

In the past year, China has also tightened its grip over Hong Kong, crushing a pro-democracy movement there with a sweeping new security law that criminalized all activities that challenge Chinese rule on the island.

China now considers Hong Kong fully as part of its territory. Under the changed circumstances a Holy See Mission in Hong Kong would be superfluous if one comes up in the communist-ruled People’s Republic of China.

'Last of the least objective'

Monsignor Javier categorically “ruled out” that the transfers have anything to do with Vatican activities in China.

Establishing a diplomatic mission in China would be “the last of the least objectives” of the Holy See, said the monsignor.

Speculation about a Vatican mission in China also stems from a two-year experimental agreement China and the Vatican signed in September 2018.

The agreement allowed the Vatican and China to jointly appoint Catholic bishops in the communist country. It was renewed for another two years and expires this October.

Some suspect a Vatican mission in China could be the natural progression of the agreement, whose contents have not been officially published.

The Vatican’s objective in this agreement with China “is not diplomatic … It is pastoral,” Monsignor Javier said.

He said the Vatican wants to “normalize the situation” of the Church in China so that “it can offer pastoral care to” Catholics there.

An estimated 10 million Catholics in China have been split into two camps — one accepting state-appointed bishops and the other accepting only Vatican-appointed bishops. The latter is known as the underground church.

Since the agreement was signed the Vatican has worked to regularize the appointment of bishops and encouraged those in the underground church to join the camp functioning under state-appointed bishops.

However, the division continues with several underground groups refusing to join the main church, although there are no “dogmatic differences” between them.

Monsignor Javier said what blocks Catholics in the underground church is a psychological barrier resulting from being suddenly asked to change their five-decades-old perception of the state-run Church.

Since 1951 when China-Vatican diplomatic ties were broken, orthodox Chinese Catholics have viewed it sinful to be part of a church, which is controlled by appointees of the communist government.

The change came suddenly. It is hard for Chinese Catholics to accept that the Vatican and the communist government are collaborating in appointing bishops, Monsignor Javier said.

“Then there is also no positive action” from the government to encourage Catholics to leave the underground church, the Vatican official said.

Ever since the Sino-Vatican agreement was signed, underground Catholic leaders have complained about the government destroying their churches, arresting and intimidating them, and forcing their priests to join the state-recognized church.

However, the underground church is “becoming thinner and thinner” the Monsignor said.

 

End

 

 

VATICAN-CHINA UPDATES

February 2022

 

2 Updates

 

1. CHINA - Pope Francis: may the Beijing Olympics "bring about a more fraternal world".

2. Book on the election of Pope Francis now in Chinese.

 

 

 

1. 

CHINA - Pope Francis: may the Beijing Olympics "bring about a more fraternal world".

 

2nd February 2022

Agenzia Fides - www.fides.org

ASIA/CHINA - Pope Francis: may the Beijing Olympics "bring about a more fraternal world"

Vatican City (Agenzia Fides) - The Pope prays and hopes that the Beijing Olympics "will bring about a more fraternal world": this is what he said at the end of the General Audience held today in St. Peter's Square.

These are the words of Pope Francis: "The Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games are about to open in Beijing, on 4 February and 4 March respectively. I warmly greet all participants. I wish the organizers every success and the athletes the very best. Sport, with its universal language, can build bridges of friendship and solidarity between individuals and peoples of all cultures and religions. I therefore appreciate the fact that to the historic Olympic motto “Citius, Altius, Fortius” — that is, “faster, higher, stronger” — the International Olympic Committee has added the word “communiter”, that is, “together”: so that the Olympic Games may bring about a more fraternal world" .

The Pope then addressed "a special thought" and embrace to the whole Paralympic world: "We will win the most important medal together, if the example of athletes with disabilities helps everyone to overcome prejudices and fears and to make our communities more welcoming and inclusive.
This is the real gold medal. I also follow with attention and emotion the personal stories of refugee athletes. May their testimonies help to encourage civil societies to open up with ever greater confidence to all, leaving no one behind. I wish the great Olympic and Paralympic family a unique experience of human brotherhood and peace: blessed are the peacemakers! (Mt 5.9)".

The Pope's wishes were welcomed with favor, with devotion and with gratitude by Chinese Catholics. (NZ)

_______________________________________________________________

 

2. 

Book on the election of Pope Francis now in Chinese.

 

My book "The Election of Pope Francis: An Inside Account of the Conclave that Changed History" (Orbis Books). has now been published in Chinese in Hong Kong.

 

End

 

 

 

VATICAN-CHINA UPDATES

January 2022

 

2 Updates

 

1. Pope Francis' action-packed agenda for 2022

 including China.

2. Pope blesses Macau Catholic university on

silver jubilee.

 

 

 

1. 

 

Pope Francis' action-packed agenda for 2022 including China.

 

VATICAN-CHINA UPDATES

November 2021

 

1 Update

 

1. The Vatican-China pact and Taiwan's diplomatic isolation.

 

11th November 2021

 

UCA News - www.ucanews.com

The Vatican-China pact and Taiwan's diplomatic isolation

Diplomatic circles see the newfound love between Rome and Beijing as a hint of a shift in relations

By: Ben Joseph

As Beijing continues to put pressure on Taiwan to reunify with mainland China, tension is mounting in the region. This challenges the Vatican’s bilateral relations with Taiwan and with communist China, where it has been working out an operational understanding without having any formal diplomatic ties.

Of the 15 nations that recognize Taiwan, the Vatican is the most crucial as it remains the only European land to have such a link with the self-ruled island. The Holy See and China's communist government have inched closer with the 2018 pact on appointing bishops. Their bonhomie has Taiwan worried. Is China planning a bloodless coup across the Taiwan Strait?

Though Pope Francis described the secret deal at the time as “not political but pastoral,” for Taiwan the not-yet-published Vatican-China pact goes much beyond the appointment of bishops. Taiwan sees it as a path for the Vatican to have diplomatic ties with China, which refuses to have ties with countries recognizing Taiwan.

The stakes are very high for the Vatican in mainland China. With the secret pact, it got breathing space and managed to get a say in the affairs of the 12 million Catholics among the Asian country's 1.4 billion people after five decades.

Now the national church in China and its bishops are considered in communion with the Catholic Church — no mean achievement going by Vatican norms.

It was not a cakewalk for the Chinese national church before the pact. Catholics were divided into the patriotic church and the underground church, which refuses to accept the leadership of the state.

The bishops of the Vatican-appointed underground church and their followers were persecuted for their faith and allegiance to the pope. They were spied on, their churches were destroyed and priests were placed under house arrest, beaten and made to disappear.

Though communists suppressed all unfriendly institutions and beliefs to the godless doctrine after coming to power in 1949, the regime failed miserably when it came to the Catholic Church. The underground church managed to thrive in the communist country with tacit support from the Vatican.

Relations have improved considerably between the two since 2018 after the Chinese government recognized some of the bishops of the underground church and began appointing new bishops in consultation with the Vatican. Neither the Vatican nor China has appointed any bishop independently in the past three years.

Diplomatic circles see the newfound love between the Vatican and Beijing as a hint of possible substantial shift that may see the Vatican establishing a permanent diplomatic mission in Beijing.

The Chinese government has been successful in steadily reducing the list of nations that formally recognize Taiwan from 32 in 2000 to 15 at the end of 2020. Most of them withdrew from the alliance after Chinese diplomatic and economic outreach widened in the last two decades.

As the second-largest economy in the world and Asia’s sole superpower, China is happy to use to a growing array of carrots and sticks to erode Taiwan’s diplomatic alliances. The Solomon Islands shifted its recognition in 2019 to China with its prime minister stating that the country prefers a communist China over an "uncertain" Taiwan. Its government expressed interest in joining the Belt and Road Initiative, touted to be the world’s largest infrastructure project spearheaded by China and costing up to US$8 trillion.

The Vatican stretched its systems beyond limits to have the historic pact, which reportedly agrees that the state-controlled church grooms and handpicks new bishop nominees but appoints them only if the Vatican approves. It is something not envisaged in the Church’s canon law.

The two-year pact started ad experimentum was renewed by both parties in October 2020 for another two years. On its part, China gained more international prestige with the renewal.

Reports show many dioceses in China are without bishops and the Vatican wants the election, nomination and appointment of bishops and consolidation of their diocesan territories completed before October 2022, when the experimental period ends.

Nine out of 15 nations that recognize Taiwan also house a significant Catholic population, and an estimated 12 million Catholics on the Chinese mainland add to the 1.3 billion Catholic population worldwide.

The Vatican is Taiwan’s only remaining diplomatic partner in Europe, giving it vital access and influence. Despite not being a member of the EU, the Vatican is integrated with the pan-European trade bloc politically and culturally.

Bereft of formal recognition from other nations, Taiwan would be left with little diplomatic ammunition and options to generate external resistance to take on the China narrative that "reunification is an internal matter."

China views any foreign intervention in Taiwan as interference in its domestic affairs. Unification of Taiwan has remained a priority for China, which has trained and equipped its People’s Liberation Army to act on potential reunification scenarios.

After the recent crackdown in Hong Kong and Beijing’s apparent dislike for the "one country, two systems" framework, the possibility of reunifying Taiwan is increasingly in the pipeline.

The Vatican was tight-lipped when a sweeping security law was imposed in Hong Kong by China in June 2020 by side-stepping Hong Kong’s own legislature. The move was seen as a blow to the "one country, two systems" norm signed between Britain and China while handing over the territory in 1997. Maybe the Vatican-China pact applies to Hong Kong as well.

Among Taiwan’s vital friends, the US, which is required by law to provide Taiwan with the means to defend itself, continues to block Beijing’s decades-old nationalist expansion project. However, the US also follows a policy of "strategic ambiguity" on whether it would come to Taiwan’s rescue in the event of a Chinese takeover.

As military options for unification are fraught with danger of global scale, China may explore the possibility of staging a bloodless coup, hoping the Vatican will back it.

The Vatican has not said anything so far on the increasing tension between Taiwan and China. Does the secret Vatican-China pact apply to Taiwan as well?

* The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official editorial position of UCA News.

 

End

 

 

 

VATICAN-CHINA UPDATES

October 2021

 

2 Updates

 

1. Vatican should talk to China — but not at any price

2. Pope wants to continue dialogue with China despite challenges.

 

 

 

1. 

Vatican should talk to China — but not at any price

 

3rd September 2021

UCA News - www.ucanews.com

Rights & Wrongs - by Benedict Rogers

Vatican should talk to China — but not at any price

Any dialogue with Beijing must include a robust focus on human rights and a fierce defense of religious freedom and human dignity


Pope Francis’ commitment to continued dialogue with China, expressed in an interview broadcast on Sept. 1, is in many ways right and admirable. The spirit of dialogue, of constant striving to seek reconciliation and peace, no matter how challenging and arduous the path, is and always has been part of the spirit of the Catholic Church.

When Pope Francis says that “China is not easy, but I am convinced that we should not give up dialogue. You can be deceived in dialogue, you can make mistakes, all that ... but it is the way. Closed-mindedness is never the way,” I wholeheartedly agree. I never want to be closed-minded. That is the characteristic of our interlocutors in the Beijing regime and their appeasers.

The question for me is never whether to try to talk with the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) regime. A government — however brutal, repressive, aggressive and criminal in its conduct — that rules 1.4 billion people and is one of the world’s two major economic, political and military powers is not one we can simply ignore or isolate. Even in the worst days of the Cold War, after all, we still talked to the Soviet Union.

The question is not whether to talk but about the nature of the dialogue. What are the topics of conversation? What are the objectives? And on whose terms is the dialogue held?

Dialogue for the sake of conversation serves no ethical, moral or practical purpose. Dialogue that is one way, or in which we are silent about our grave concerns about injustice, or where we end up kowtowing, appeasing or unwittingly complicit with evil, is immoral.

So, it depends on what kind of dialogue we seek. It also depends on what timeframe is envisaged.

It would be foolhardy to impose some artificial dates, but at the same time if it is left perpetually open-ended, then the chances are it’s a propaganda coup for Beijing and an immoral sellout for Rome. Those involved in shaping the dialogue need to ask themselves: what are the red lines and the deadlines?

Let’s come back to the heart of the issue: dialogue about what, with whom and on what terms?

My biggest concern about the Vatican’s approach to the Chinese regime so far is that it appears to have secured the pope’s silence, at least in public, on some of the gravest injustices of our time.

Almost every Sunday when Pope Francis prays the Angelus from his window overlooking St Peter’s Square, he speaks about and prays for at least one area of conflict, injustice, persecution and repression in the world or another — the Middle East, the Rohingya, Yemen — and rightly so.

Yet not once has he mentioned the Uyghurs, arguably facing the world’s most contemporary genocide, or the dramatic dismantling of Hong Kong’s freedoms, or Tibet, or the persecution of Falun Gong and the barbaric practice of forced organ harvesting, found by an independent tribunal two years ago to be crimes against humanity, or the intense persecution of Christians in China, the most severe crackdown on the faith since the Cultural Revolution.

Apart from a very brief, cursory reference to the Uyghurs in his beautiful book Let Us Dream, Pope Francis has not mentioned the mass atrocities in China’s Xinjiang region — a million — perhaps three million — Uyghurs in concentration camps, many more subjected to slave labor, forced sterilization, forced abortions, sexual violence and religious persecution. And Rome stays silent?

The previous and current US administrations, as well as the parliaments of the United Kingdom, Canada, the Czech Republic, the Netherlands, Belgium and Lithuania, have called it a genocide, yet the pope says nothing. How come?

In contrast to all his predecessors, Pope Francis has not met the Dalai Lama. He reportedly declined a request by Hong Kong’s courageous and outspoken 89-year-old bishop emeritus, Cardinal Joseph Zen, for a half-hour meeting on his last visit to Rome. And to my knowledge he has not yet met any Uyghurs.

If dialogue with the regime in Beijing is to have any value, it must be about these grave concerns: genocide, crimes against humanity, religious freedom and human dignity. If the price for discussing these issues behind closed doors is silence on the part of the Holy Father in public, in my view that’s too high a price, especially if the timeframe is open-ended.

For a limited period, public silence may be acceptable if it is to allow for behind-the-scenes robust dialogue to take effect. But that cannot be indefinite, for we know from decades of experience that quiet private diplomacy with the Chinese regime by itself yields no results.

Of equal importance, dialogue with the regime should not preclude dialogue with the peoples of China. If the Vatican’s dialogue with the CCP is to be well informed, the pope should at the same time meet with representatives of those the CCP is persecuting so brutally: starting with the Dalai Lama, Cardinal Zen and a Uyghur delegation, and continuing to regular meetings with exiled Chinese Christians, Tibetans, Uyghurs and Hong Kongers. If Beijing says the price for continued dialogue is exclusivity, then again, that’s too high a price.

I love Pope Francis and deeply appreciate his emphasis on mercy that has been such a prevailing theme in his papacy. But his expressed admiration for Cardinal Agostino Casaroli, one of the architects of Rome’s “Ostpolitik” approach to the Soviet Union and a pioneer of engagement with Beijing, is alarming.

A better example of dialogue, I would venture to suggest, would be that of Pope St. John Paul II’s approach to the Soviets, which, combined with that of US President Ronald Reagan and British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, did more to end the Cold War and bring freedom and human dignity to the peoples of Eastern Europe than anything Ostpolitik ever achieved.

They turbocharged the Helsinki Process approach established in 1975, which put human rights and security as twin priorities at the very center of dialogue, coupled with a position of strength morally, militarily and diplomatically.

If there’s to be any continued dialogue with Beijing — which I hope there will be — it must be with a robust focus on human rights, a fierce defense of religious freedom and human dignity, a moral outrage at mass atrocities, a constant voice of protest at the closure of one of Asia’s freest societies, Hong Kong, and an insistence that talks, worthwhile though they may be, cannot come at any price and must not be drawn out in perpetuity without any meaningful results.

Being prepared to talk with an oppressor is a worthy quality. But being prepared to walk away for the right reasons at the right time must also be part of the equation. And for the Church, justice, human rights and human dignity must always trump mere dialogue. Dialogue between the Church and China must be rooted in the example of Moses saying to Pharaoh, “Let my people go,” not Neville Chamberlain’s “peace for our time” declaration after meeting Adolf Hitler.

* Benedict Rogers is a human rights activist and writer. He is the co-founder and chief executive of Hong Kong Watch, senior analyst for East Asia at the international human rights organisation CSW, co-founder and deputy chair of the UK Conservative Party Human Rights Commission, a member of the advisory group of the Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China (IPAC) and a board member of the Stop Uyghur Genocide Campaign. He is the author of six books, and his faith journey is told in his book “From Burma to Rome: A Journey into the Catholic Church” (Gracewing, 2015). The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official editorial position of UCA News.

__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

 

2.

Pope wants to continue dialogue with China despite challenges

2nd September 2021

 

UCA News - www.ucanews.com

Pope wants to continue dialogue with China despite challenges

Pope Francis describes Cardinal Agostino Casaroli, former Vatican secretary of state, as an inspirational figure

UCA News reporter

Pope Francis has defended the Vatican’s controversial deal with communist China as the progress of dialogue, saying the Church should move forward despite the chances of being deceived and making mistakes.

He was speaking in a rare 90-minute interview with COPE, the radio network owned by the Spanish bishops' conference, broadcast Sept. 1.

“China is not easy, but I am convinced that we should not give up dialogue. You can be deceived in dialogue, you can make mistakes, all that ... but it is the way. Closed-mindedness is never the way,” Pope Francis said.

The Vatican faced fierce criticism from underground Catholics in China, diplomats and church leaders when it signed the deal on bishop appointments in September 2018 for two years. Despite critics accusing the Vatican of surrendering itself to the Chinese government, the deal was renewed in 2020.

“Even when I was a layman and priest, I loved to show the way to the bishop; it is a temptation that I would even say is licit if it is done with goodwill,” Pope Francis said when asked if the moral authority of the Vatican suffered when it entered into an agreement with China..

The experimental deal reportedly agrees on a procedure for Catholic communities in China to choose their bishops, with the pope approving them before their ordinations and installations.

The appointment of bishops was a major hurdle in Vatican-China relations for decades. While the Vatican insisted on appointing bishops as the Church’s prerogative, the Chinese government saw it as interference by a foreign power in its internal affairs.

The deal, church observers say, ends a stalemate and could help to end the division in the Chinese Church, which started when China began appointing bishops on its own without papal approval.

Catholics following Vatican-appointed bishops were seen independently from those under state-run dioceses, resulting in two parallel churches.

Since 2018, at least five bishops have been appointed under the terms of the agreement, while the Vatican has recognized at least seven China-appointed bishops, including a bishop who died in 2018.

“What has been achieved so far in China was at least dialogue ... some concrete things like the appointment of new bishops, slowly ... But these are also steps that can be questionable and the results on one side or the other,” Pope Francis said.

He said a “key figure” who inspired him over China was Cardinal Agostino Casaroli, the Vatican secretary of state in the 1980s who attempted to re-establish links with the Chinese government.

The pope recalled that Cardinal Casaroli “was the man John XXIII commissioned to build bridges with Central Europe.”

“Sometimes having to talk in the open air or with the faucet open in difficult moments. Slowly, slowly, slowly, he [Cardinal Casaroli] was achieving reserves of diplomatic relations which in the end meant appointing new bishops and taking care of God’s faithful people,” he said.

“Today, somehow, we have to follow these paths of dialogue step by step in most conflict situations.”

He also said his experience “in dialogue with Islam, for example, with the Grand Imam al-Tayyeb was very positive in this, and I am very grateful to him.”

“But dialogue, always dialogue, or to be willing to dialogue. There is a very nice thing,” he said.

 

End

 

 

 

VATICAN-CHINA UPDATES

August 2021

 

1 Update

 

1. Pope prays for victims of devastating floods in China

 

27th July 2021

 

UCA News - www.ucanews.com

 

China's provincial government has updated its estimated death toll to 63, with five people missing

By: Carol Glatz, Catholic News Service

After record rainfall in central China left dozens dead and forced more than one million people to relocate, Pope Francis prayed for all those affected by the disaster.

After praying the Angelus with visitors in St. Peter's Square on July 25, the pope commented on the torrential rains that triggered flash floods in the city of Zhengzhou and in Henan province.

"I pray for the victims and their families and express my closeness and solidarity with all those who are suffering due to this calamity," he said.

China's provincial government updated its estimated death toll on July 25 to 63 people, with five people still missing. Almost 9,000 homes had collapsed and more than 1.1 million people had been relocated after record rains started falling on July 20.

While the rains have stopped, some neighborhoods were still flooded and others were cut off from roads, requiring aid and supplies to be brought in by helicopter. Emergency workers were trying to close breaches along the river and gaps in the flood dikes while residents continued to clear away mud and debris, according to the Associated Press.

In Henan province, authorities are gradually clearing and reopening roads blocked with vehicles and debris.

Millions have been affected by the floods, with some trapped without fresh food or water for days and others lifted to safety in excavator buckets.

Henan emergency response official Li Changxun warned that the province would need to undertake large-scale cleaning and disinfecting to "ensure the disaster is not followed by an epidemic."

Photos published by state media and government social media accounts showed rescue workers continuing to shovel mud and remove uprooted trees across the province.

Torrential downpours dumped a year's rain in just three days on the hardest-hit city of Zhengzhou, where at least a dozen people died inside a subway train during rush hour after floodwater trapped passengers in their carriages.

China has suffered an annual flood season for millennia, but the record rainfall in Henan has prompted questions about how China's cities could be better prepared for freak weather events, which experts say are happening with increased frequency and intensity due to climate change.

Henan province is striated by rivers, dams and reservoirs, many constructed decades ago to manage the flow of floodwater and irrigate the agricultural region, but rapid urban sprawl has strained existing drainage systems.

 

 

End

 

 

 

VATICAN-CHINA UPDATES

July 2021

 

1 Update

 

1. Pope Francis meets with Secretary of State Antony Blinken

 

28th June 2021

America Magazine

Pope Francis meets with Secretary of State Antony Blinken
to discuss ‘hot button issues’ like the Middle East, the Holy Land and China

By: Gerard O’Connell

Pope Francis received the U.S. Secretary of State, Antony John Blinken, in a private audience in the library of the Apostolic Palace this morning, June 28, “for around 40 minutes in a cordial climate,” the Vatican stated afterwards.

Before the papal audience, Mr. Blinken had a 45-minute conversation with Cardinal Pietro Parolin, the Vatican secretary of state, and with Archbishop Paul Gallagher, the secretary for relations with states. Informed Vatican sources told America that during the meeting they “touched on all the hot button issues, including the situation in the Middle East, the Holy Land and China.” The time for their meeting was limited because of the tight schedule of all the participants involved, including the pope, a source said.

The U.S. State Department issued a statement on the secretary’s trip to Europe, which ends on June 29, that said he would meet with senior Holy See officials “to underscore our shared commitment to freedom of religion or faith and tackling the climate crisis.”

After the meeting, Ned Price, a State Department spokesperson, said that Syria, Lebanon, Venezuela, Tigray, immigration and refugees were also discussed.

The Vatican issued a statement after Mr. Blinken’s visit but shared little information about the content of those conversations in the Apostolic Palace, except to say that during the conversation “Pope Francis recalled the visit he made [to the United States] in 2015 and expressed his affection for and attention to the people of the United States of America.”

Mr. Blinken is the second top official of the Biden administration to be received in private audience by Pope Francis this year. The first was the U.S. special envoy for climate, John Kerry, on May 15.

The visits of the two members of the U.S. administration to the pope are seen in Rome as the lead-up to the much-anticipated visit of President Biden, the second Catholic president of the United States, with Pope Francis. That visit is expected at the end of October, when the U.S. president visits Rome for the important meeting of the heads of the G20 states. The G20 summit brings together leaders of the world’s 20 chief economic powers. Mr. Biden and Pope Francis may also meet in Glasgow at the opening session of Cop26, the U.N-sponsored conference on climate change, in early November.

Pope Francis and Mr. Biden have already met three times—in 2013, 2015 and 2016—when Mr. Biden was vice president, and the chemistry between the two appears to be good. The relations between the Holy See and the Biden administration are much more positive and friendlier than with the previous U.S. administration.

The Holy See has welcomed the positive approach of the United States to many of the issues that are close to the pope’s heart, including climate change, concern for peace in the Middle East and in the Holy Land in particular and the need to combat Covid-19 and address the immigration question.

Top Vatican officials (who did not want to be named) have told America they do not share the apparent desire of some members of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops to consider denying Communion to President Biden and other Catholic politicians over the abortion question, as was evident from the letter sent by Cardinal Luis Ladaria to Archbishop José Gomez of Los Angeles, president of the U.S.C.C.B., shortly before the bishops’ virtual meeting this month.

Before his meeting with the pope, Mr. Blinken was given a private, early morning tour of the Apostolic Palace and the Sistine Chapel, where Francis was elected pope in the conclave of March 13, 2013.

Mr. Blinken came to Rome after visiting France and Germany and before traveling to southern Italy for a meeting with the foreign ministers of the G20 states at Matera and Bari.

The members of the G20 are: Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Republic of Korea, Mexico, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Turkey, the United Kingdom, the United States, and the European Union. This time, however, in the clearest sign of rising geo-political tensions, China and Russia decided not to send their foreign ministers in person to the meeting, but they will participate virtually.

On the previous day in Rome, June 27, Mr. Blinken met the Israeli foreign minister, Yair Lapid. It was the first top-level meeting between a representative of the new Israeli coalition government and the Biden administration and came at a time when discussions are underway in Vienna over the possibility of the United States rejoining the Iran nuclear treaty.

During his visit in Paris, Mr Blinken had expressed his hope of seeing the emergence of “conditions which may allow the relaunching of a peace process and the establishment of two states, Israel and Palestine.” He said: “I think the conditions are not there. We have to work on it. And that’s what we will do.” At the same time, he emphasized the importance of avoiding provocations in the Holy Land that could revive violence in the coming weeks and months.

After his visit to the Vatican, Mr. Blinken was scheduled to co-chair a meeting of the International Coalition against the Islamic State. The group was created in 2014 and involves over 80 countries, led by the United States. ISIS remains active in Syria and Iraq.

The State Department’s statement said that Mr. Blinken would also participate in a discussion of the crisis in Syria, focusing on humanitarian needs. He will also have bilateral meetings with President Sergio Mattarella of Italy and Foreign Minister Di Maio to underscore the important role of the U.S.-Italy partnership in addressing key global priorities.

In Bari and Matera, the secretary of state will attend the G20 foreign ministers’ meeting “to reinforce the U.S. commitment to multilateralism and discuss continued cooperation in combating the Covid-19 pandemic, addressing the climate crisis, and building back better with our global partners, with a focus on Africa.”

* Gerard O’Connell is America’s Vatican correspondent.
@gerryorome

 

End

 

 

 

VATICAN-CHINA UPDATES

May 2021

 

2 Updates

 

1. Pope calls on Catholics to accompany Church in China with fervent prayer.

2. Fined for hosting underground bishop's mass. The Sino-Vatican Agreement betrayed.

 

 

1.

Pope calls on Catholics to accompany Church in China with fervent prayer.

 

Vatican News
www.vaticannews.va

 

At the Regina Coeli on Sunday, Pope Francis invites the faithful throughout the world to accompany Chinese Catholics in prayer as they prepare to celebrate the feast of Our Lady Help of Christians, their national patron.

By: Christopher Wells

“Tomorrow, the Catholic faithful in China celebrate the feast of Our Lady Help of Christians, the celestial patron of their great country,” Pope Francis noted in remarks following the Regina Coeli on Sunday.

The Holy Father recalled the great devotion of Chinese Catholics to “the Mother of the Lord [and] of the Church” at her sanctuary of Sheshan in Shanghai. Under the title of Our Lady of Sheshan, she “is assiduously invoked by Christian families in the trials and hopes of daily life.”

He added, “How good and how necessary it is that the members of a family and of a Christian community are ever more united in love and in faith! In this way, parents and children, grandparents and grandchildren, pastors and faithful can follow the example of the first disciples who, on the solemnity of Pentecost, were united in prayer with Mary as they awaited the Holy Spirit.”

The Pope invited all the faithful to accompany the Christian faithful in China, “dearest brothers and sisters, whom I hold in the depth of my heart,” with “fervent prayer.”

He prayed that the Holy Spirit, “the protagonist of the Church's mission in the world, guide them and help them to be bearers of the happy message, witnesses of goodness and charity, and builders of justice and peace in their country.”

A Day of Prayer for the Church in China

In 2007, Benedict XVI encouraged Catholics of the whole world to mark the Feast of Mary Help of Christians – May 24 – as a Day of Prayer for the Church in China. In a Letter to the Chinese faithful, he encouraged Chinese Catholics to the celebrate the day “by renewing your communion of faith in Jesus our Lord and of faithfulness to the Pope, and by praying that the unity among you may become ever deeper and more visible.”

On that same day, he said, “the Catholics of the whole world – in particular those who are of Chinese origin – will demonstrate their fraternal solidarity and solicitude for you, asking the Lord of history for the gift of perseverance in witness, in the certainty that your sufferings past and present for the Holy Name of Jesus and your intrepid loyalty to his Vicar on earth will be rewarded, even if at times everything can seem a failure.”

The Closeness of the Universal Church

Last year, marking the Day of Prayer for the Church in China, Pope Francis assured Chinese Catholics that “the universal Church, of which you are an integral part, shares your hopes and supports you in your trials. She accompanies you with prayer for a new outpouring of the Holy Spirit, so that the light and beauty of the Gospel might shine in you as the power of God for the salvation of those who believe.”

On that occasion, Pope Francis prayed that the Chinese faithful “might be strong in faith and steadfast in fraternal union, joyful witnesses, promoters of charity and hope, and good citizens.”

Agreement on the appointment of Bishops

In October of 2022, the Holy See and China’s communist government renewed a Provisional Agreement concerning the appointment of Bishops for the Church in China. The agreement is aimed primarily at “sustaining and promoting the proclamation of the Gospel in that land, restoring the full and visible unity of the Church,” according to L’Osservatore Romano, the daily newspaper of Vatican City State.

A statement from the Holy See Press Office announcing the extension of the deal said, “The Holy See considers the initial application of the Agreement – which is of great ecclesial and pastoral value – to have been positive, thanks to good communication and cooperation between the Parties on the matters agreed upon, and intends to pursue an open and constructive dialogue for the benefit of the life of the Catholic Church and the good of Chinese people.”

_______________________________________________________________

 

2.

 

Fined for hosting underground bishop's mass. The Sino-Vatican Agreement betrayed

 

27th April 2021    

AsiaNews - www.asianews.it

 

By: Bernardo Cervellera

A Catholic from Zhejiang is fined for hosting Msgr. Shao Zhumin in his private chapel. The prelate, recognized by the Holy See, but not by the Party, is branded as an emissary of a "foreign institution". All attempts by the Party to eliminate pastors and unofficial communities, tearing up the premises of the Agreement between China and the Holy See.

Rome (AsiaNews) – An increasing number of unofficial bishops in China are being prevented from carrying out their ministry. Placed under house arrest or detained in other locations, isolated, fined or encumbered in their daily lives render any gathering between the bishops and their priests or faithful increasingly impossible.

The fact risks undermining the Sino-Vatican Agreement which, dealing only with the nominations of new bishops, left open the entire issue of unofficial prelates, recognized by the Holy See, but not by the Party.

Instead, since the provisional agreement was signed and renewed, there have been increasingly blatant and aggressive interventions against underground bishops and their ministry as if to eliminate them, betraying the premise of the stand-by provided for in the agreement.

The latest such incident occurred in Wangli (Cangnan County, Zhejiang). The area is within the diocese of Wenzhou, whose bishop - recognized by the Pope, but not by the Party - is Msgr. Peter Shao Zhumin.

In Zhejiang, where the percentage of Christians exceeds 10%, some families have built private chapels on their property. On March 16, Mr. Huang Ruixun, 56, offered his chapel to Msgr. Shao Zhumin and about twenty faithful. As a result, he was sentenced to a fine of 200 thousand yuan (about 25510 euros). The charge: Mr. Huang hosted Msgr. Shao "for illegal religious activities, also providing him with lunch, a rest room, etc.".

The complaint by the county religious affairs office reminds us that "facilitating illegal religious activities" is against the new regulations on religious activities. The new regulations, launched a few months before the Agreement, in February 2018, in fact require that "regular" religious activities can only take place in places registered with the government.

The fact that the chapel offered by Mr. Huang is the equivalent of a private dwelling and as such has all the regular permits to be used as a private chapel. This has led many Chinese faithful to question whether praying in groups at home – which has become the norm during the pandemic - is an "illegal religious activity" that must be fined.

The charge also exposes another violation: "As the organizer of illegal activities was ordained by a foreign institution, this goes against the principle of independence, autonomy and self-administration of the Church in China".

This is the crux of the matter: Msgr. Shao Zhumin was nominated a bishop by the Pope ("foreign institution") and does not adhere to the principles of "independence, autonomy and self-management" of the Church in China, which according to the Party are necessary elements to carry out his ministry.

The new "Administrative measures for religious personnel" will be in force from 1 May. These require that every bishop or priest (or other religious figure in other faiths) respond to these criteria: "Love the motherland, support the leadership of the Communist Party of China, support the socialist system, abide by the Constitution, laws, regulations and rules, practice the core values ??of socialism, adhere to the principle of independence and autonomous management of religion, and adhere to China's religious policy, maintaining unity national unity, ethnic unity, religious harmony and social stability "(art.3).

Bishop Shao Zhumin is one of the sweetest and meekest people you could wish to know. His failure to adhere to the principle of "independence, autonomy and self-management" is not a "terrorist" choice, but a Christian one, because he thinks that his ministry is always dependent on the Pope's Pietrine ministry.

Moreover, it is very curious that in the case of Msgr. Shao Zhumin, this bond with the pontiff is seen as a relationship with "a foreign institution". Instead, in the case of a new appointment of bishops wanted by the Party, the Pope's "last word" (as Francis himself said) is welcome and even (probably) explicitly stated in the Agreement.

In any case, the fine for offering hospitality in one's own home, "also providing lunch, a rest room, etc." appears to be a violation of the Chinese Constitution which preaches the right of every citizen to religious freedom.

As mentioned above, the continuous obstacles that are imposed on unofficial bishops are in fact a betrayal of the Agreement which provided for a status quo, until the issue is addressed by the Holy See and the Chinese government.

Instead, there are bishops under house arrest, such as Msgr. Jia Zhiguo, bishops who have been cut off from water, electricity and gas, such as Msgr. Guo Xijin, and now bishops who cannot be hosted by their faithful, such as Msgr. Shao Zhumin.

Then, there is another serious aspect for which the Agreement risks being betrayed.

In the past, official and unofficial bishops met together and the underground communities were offered the use of churches for celebrations. With the new regulations and above all with the new measures, this hospitality becomes risky and "illegal": it creates a greater division between official and underground communities, making the reconciliation, so desired by Pope Francis, even more distant.

 

End

 

 

 

 

VATICAN-CHINA UPDATE

April 2021

 

1 Update

 

Pope Francis spoke out against oppression in Myanmar. Why is he silent on China and Hong Kong?
 

 

America Magazine

 

By: Gerard O’Connell
                                                                                            23rd March 2021

On Feb. 14, 2020, Archbishop Paul R. Gallagher met his Chinese counterpart, China’s foreign minister, Wang Yi, in what was the highest-level meeting between the two sides since the Communists came to power in China on Oct. 1, 1949. America asked in an interview if he has perceived a warming of relations between China and the Holy See in recent years, particularly since the signing of the provisional agreement in September 2018.

“I think what we feel is that there is greater understanding and more openness to talking about the issues,” the archbishop said. “Obviously, China is an immense country and has a huge population and a corresponding governmental structure, so we—the Holy See—actually negotiate with a very, very small group of people from that structure. So it is quite difficult to understand what the impact is of what they take back to Beijing or what we bring to Beijing.”

Since it seems that Chinese officials tend to follow a certain protocol in arranging meetings at different levels in the hierarchical structure, I asked Archbishop Gallagher if there are any plans for him or Cardinal Pietro Parolin, the secretary of state, to go to Beijing, or for Chinese government officials at the same diplomatic level to come to Rome.

“No, at this stage there is no plan,” he said.

As the archbishop knows, there has been criticism of the Vatican for not speaking out against China’s restrictions on religious freedom and its repression of the Uighurs in Xinjiang Province as well as the democracy movement in Hong Kong. While Pope Francis mentioned the persecution of the Uighurs once in his book Let Us Dream, published Dec. 1, 2020, the Vatican has remained silent on the situation of this majority-Muslim ethnic minority and on the repression in Hong Kong.

“I think you will find it true that the Holy See does not have a policy, a diplomatic policy, of denunciation almost anywhere in the world,” Archbishop Gallagher responded, “and there are human rights abuses in many, many countries.”

He went on to explain the Holy See’s stance. He said:

"We believe in trying to work with the Chinese. Our objective in the [provisional] agreement [of September 2018] is to resolve the difficulties we have in the appointment of bishops, and that is all it is about. We do, in our bilateral contacts with them, consistently try to argue for normalization of relations between the Catholic Church and the Chinese authorities, but we realize that this is a very long-term objective. But the question of the nomination of bishops has been and remains a big priority."

The Church in Hong Kong

Asked about the Vatican’s silence on Hong Kong, the archbishop asserted that “in Hong Kong, obviously, the Catholic community in itself is significantly divided on the policy. There are, you might say, Beijing loyalists on one side and then there are people who would like greater freedom and greater exceptions for Hong Kong. We try to work with the local church and do what we can in that way.”

“Again, I don’t think that ‘grandstanding’ statements can be terribly effective,” he added. “I think you have to ask what effect [a statement] is going to have? Is it going to produce a positive change, or does it make the situation more complicated for the local church and for relations with the Holy See? At the moment, we feel that’s the right approach.”

On Jan. 3, 2019, Michael Yeung Ming-cheung, the eighth bishop of Hong Kong, died. Since then, there has been a long delay in appointing his successor. Asked to explain the reason for this, the Vatican archbishop said: “Well, I can say that the Holy See is anxious to appoint a bishop for Hong Kong, but it has proven to be one of those processes which is complex and presents difficulties. It’s a bit going back to the classic paradigm of this pontificate; there are certain knots that have to be unraveled, and that’s not going to be easy.”

He said he did not know if an appointment was on the horizon, as the responsibility for this is with another Vatican office, the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples.

Democracy in Myanmar

Unlike in the cases of Hong Kong and the Uighurs, Pope Francis has spoken out strongly on the repression of democracy in Myanmar, which he visited in November 2017. About Myanmar, the Vatican archbishop said: “I don’t think the coup will be reversed. Unfortunately, the policy of the generals will prevail in suppressing opposition to what they have done. Sadly, that’s how I see it.”

He drew attention to “the context in which it is all taking place” and added that this is “a region of other authoritarian governments as well, so it is not as if they are getting denounced by their neighbors. I think that unfortunately the generals will not go back, and maybe international sanctions will have some impact but the generals have chosen their course, and I don’t think that will be changed.”

When asked whether or not the church supports democracy, the archbishop replied: “Well the Second Vatican Council, and indeed Pius XII years before the council, said democracy represents a form of government that very much corresponds to Gospel values. But obviously we do believe that democracy has different forms, and democracy has to be inculturated.”

“Yes, the church is supportive of democracy,” he added. “At the same time, however, the history of the Christian church has always been that we can live with many forms of government, and we have done so. Democracy is a relatively new child on the block. In some places it’s doing well but, as we’ve seen only recently, democracy is often challenged and threatened and is not appreciated by everybody. Now the church has to live with that reality. So, it’s not as if we put our faith in democracy alone. I think we have more [of] a vision of individual responsibility in terms of social action and commitment, and let the states determine the evolution of their own form of government.”

When asked about movements in countries like Myanmar and elsewhere where the people have expressed a strong desire for freedom, the Vatican archbishop said that “that’s obviously fundamental, and we would be very supportive of that. You have seen this in Myanmar where Cardinal Charles Bo and many of the clergy and religious are very much on the front line of what’s going on. We would be supportive of that.”

“What democracy actually means in a particular context, at a particular historical moment, is another question,” he added. “There’s no formula for democracy, I think. After all, democracy is not an ideal; it’s a political culture, and democracy gets into difficulties if that culture is very superficial because then it can easily be abused or rolled over. Whereas there are countries that have had several centuries of democratic rule where people’s instincts, whatever their political opinions might be, are fundamentally democratic, but that is not true for an awful lot of places.”

https://www.americamagazine.org/politics-society/2021/03/23/pope-francis-oppression-myanmar-china-hong-kong-240302

 

End

 

 

 

 

VATICAN-CHINA UPDATE

March 2021

 

1 Update

 

China's new measures on clergy ignore Vatican agreement

 

25th February 2021

 

UCA News - www.ucanews.com

China's new measures on clergy ignore Vatican agreement

New regulations ask Catholics to elect their bishops democratically and report to the state administration

UCA News reporter

The communist government in China has promulgated a new set of rules for religious clergy to be implemented in two months, but they ignore the Sino-Vatican agreement on bishop appointments by asking people to elect their bishops democratically.

The new Administrative Measures for Religious Clergy, set to come into effect from May 1, cover priests of all five authorized religions in China — Buddhism, Taoism, Catholicism, Protestantism and Islam.

The new measures, adapted from the 2018 Regulation on Religious Affairs, were promulgated on Jan. 8 as State Administration of Religious Affairs Order No. 15. An English translation of the original text in Chinese appears on bitterwinter.org, a website on religious liberty.

“Catholic bishops are approved and consecrated by the Bishops' Conference of the Catholic Church in China (BCCCC),” says article XVI of the order, which refuses to mention the 2018 Sino-Vatican agreement on bishop appointments, which was renewed for another two-year term in 2020.

The BCCCC, which is not recognized by the Holy See, and the Chinese Catholic Patriotic Association (CCPA), which directly works under the Chinese administration overseeing the state-approved Catholic Church, are given responsibility for reporting the election of bishops.

Within 20 days of the consecration of a bishop, the BCCCC and CCPA should report it to the State Administration of Religious Affairs, stipulates article XVI.

One of the documents to be submitted to the State Administration of Religious Affairs for the record of electing the bishop is “a statement issued by the Catholic community … on the democratic election of the bishop.”

The Catholic community electing a bishop could be of a province, autonomous region or municipality functioning directly under the central government, the article says.

The new regulations indirectly assert that the election of Catholic bishops will be done by the state-approved system under the Chinese Communist Party’s direction and the Vatican and Pope Francis will have no role in it.

It runs contrary to the laborious China-Vatican deal on appointment of Catholic bishops, signed in September 2018 after several years of negotiations. The still undisclosed deal aims to appoint bishops with the agreement of China and the Vatican.

It also aims to end the division in the Chinese Church between the state-approved church and the Vatican-recognized church. While state-appointed bishops lead state-approved church communities, Vatican-appointed bishops lead the other group, also known as the underground church.

Since the Sino-Vatican deal, the Vatican has approved seven Beijing-appointed bishops, while the state-sanctioned church has approved and installed at least five Vatican-appointed bishops.

But the new regulations aim to smother the underground church by criminalizing the existence of clergy outside the state-approved database of the clergy.

“Religious clergy should love the motherland, support the leadership of the Chinese Communist Party, support the socialist system, abide by the constitution, laws, regulations and rules, and practice the core values of socialism,” says article III of the regulations.

The clergy should also “adhere to the principle of independent and self-administered religion in China, adhere to the direction of the Sinicization of religion in China, operate to maintain national unity, national unity, religious harmony and social stability,” it says.

Hundreds of underground Catholic clergy have refused to register with the state-approved database because they are unwilling to obey atheistic dictates in the services of the Church.

However, under the new regulations, clergy who are not registered with the state could be arrested and jailed if they perform any clerical office, Catholic insiders say.

A church observer said the new regulations are a legal tool to intensify the crackdown on underground clergy and annihilate the underground church.

Mainland Catholic leaders have been skeptical about the Sino-Vatican deal ever since it was signed, pointing to Beijing’s lack of respect for international deals and conventions in pushing communist ideology in China.

 

End

 

 

 

VATICAN-CHINA UPDATE

January 2021

 

3 Updates

 

1. Pope Francis, for first time, says China’s Uygurs are ‘persecuted’.

2. China says pope's remarks about 'persecuted' Uighurs are groundless.

3. Vatican must keep up dialogue with China, says former ambassador

 

 

 

 

1.

 

    Pope Francis, for first time, says China’s Uygurs are ‘persecuted’.

 

                                    24th November 2020

 

South China Morning Post

 

Pope Francis, for first time, says China’s Uygurs are ‘persecuted’

 

* In new book, pontiff names Muslim minority in Xinjiang alongside the Rohingya and Yazidi, while also talking about persecuted Christians in Islamic countries

* Commentators have said the Vatican was reluctant to speak out on the Uygurs because it was in the process of renewing a controversial accord with Beijing

 

Reuters

 

In a new book, Pope Francis for the first time calls China’s Muslim Uygurs a “persecuted” people, something human rights activists have been urging him to do for years.

 

“I think often of persecuted peoples: the Rohingya, the poor Uygurs, the Yazidi,” he said in the wide-ranging Let Us Dream: the Path to a Better Future , a 150-page collaboration with his English-language biographer, Austen Ivereigh. It goes on sale on December 1.

 

The comments were made in a section where the pontiff also talks about persecuted Christians in Islamic countries.

 

While the Pope has spoken out before about the Rohingya who have fled Myanmar, and the killing of Yazidi by Islamic State in Iraq, it was the first time he mentioned the Uygurs.

 

Faith leaders, activist groups and governments have said crimes against humanity and genocide are taking place against Uygurs in China’s remote Xinjiang region, where more than 1 million people are held in camps.

 

Last month, during a conference at the Vatican, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo blasted China over its treatment of Uygurs.

 

Beijing has rejected the allegations as an attempt to discredit China, saying the camps are vocational education and training centres as part of counterterrorism and deradicalisation measures.

 

Many commentators have said the Vatican was reluctant to speak out on the Uygurs earlier because it was in the process of renewing a controversial accord with Beijing on the appointment of bishops. The accord, which Pompeo urged the Vatican to abandon, was renewed in September.

 

In the book, Francis also speaks of economic, social and political changes he says are needed to address inequalities after the coronavirus pandemic ends. ?

 

He says people who see wearing masks as an imposition by the state are “victims only in their imagination” and praises those who protested against the death of George Floyd in police custody for rallying around the “healthy indignation” that united them.

 

Francis also gives his clearest support to date in the book to universal basic income (UBI), a controversial policy espoused by some economists and sociologists in which governments give a fixed amount of money to each citizen with no conditions attached.

 

UBI was a cornerstone of the campaign of Andrew Yang last year during the Democratic presidential primaries in the United States.

 

“Recognising the value to society of the work of non-earners is a vital part of our rethinking in the post-Covid[-19] world. That’s why I believe it is time to explore concepts like the universal basic income (UBI),” he said.

 

“By providing a universal basic income, we can free and enable people to work for the community in a dignified way,” he said.

 

Francis again criticised trickle-down economics, the theory favoured by conservatives that tax breaks and other incentives for big business and the wealthy eventually will benefit the rest of society through investment and job creation.

 

He called it “the false assumption of the infamous trickle-down theory that a growing economy will make us all richer”.

_________________________________________________________________________________________________

2.

    China says pope's remarks about 'persecuted' Uighurs are                 groundless.         

                                    

 

NBC News

 

China says pope's remarks about 'persecuted' Uighurs are groundless

 

It was the first time the pontiff had called the Muslim minority a persecuted people, something human rights activists have been urging him to do.

Image: Uighur men leaving a mosque after prayers in Hotan in China's northwest Xinjiang region.

 

By: Reuters

 

The Chinese foreign ministry on Tuesday dismissed Pope Francis’s criticism of China's treatment of Muslim Uighurs as groundless.

 

In a new book “Let Us Dream: The Path to A Better Future,” Pope Francis said: “I think often of persecuted peoples: the Rohingya, the poor Uighurs, the Yazidi.”

 

It was the first time he had called China’s Uighurs a persecuted people, something human rights activists have been urging him to do for years.

 

Foreign ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian rejected his characterization of the Uighurs.

 

“The Chinese government has always protected the legal rights of ethnic minorities equally,” he told a media briefing.

 

People of all ethnicities in Xinjiang enjoy full protection of their subsistence rights, developmental rights and religious freedom, Zhao said.

 

“The remarks by Pope Francis are groundless,” he said.

 

While the pope has spoken out before about the Rohingya who have fled Myanmar and the killing of Yazidi by Islamic State in Iraq, it was the first time he mentioned the Uighurs.

 

Faith leaders, activist groups and governments have said crimes against humanity and genocide are taking place against Uighurs in China’s Xinjiang region, where more than 1 million people are held in camps.

 

Beijing has rejected the allegations as an attempt to discredit China, saying the camps are vocational education and training centres as part of counter-terrorism and deradicalisation measures.

 

Many commentators have said the Vatican was reluctant to speak out on the Uighurs earlier because it was in the process of renewing an accord with Beijing on the appointment of bishops. It was renewed in September.

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3.

    Vatican must keep up dialogue with China, says former ambassador

                                        

Vatican must keep up dialogue with China, says former ambassador

Annette Schavan, German ambassador to the Holy See from 2014-2018, says Pope Francis has sown important seeds that will take at least 20 years to bear fruit

 

By- Christa Pongratz-Lippitt | Germany

 

Germany's former ambassador to the Holy See, who now leads her country's talks with China, says the Vatican must keep up its own dialogue with the vast Communist nation even though desired results may not come until years later.

Annette Schavan, Germany's top envoy to the Holy See from 2014-2018, said Pope Francis is right to continue to reach out to China despite criticism he faces for doing so.

In a long interview with domradio.de, she recalled that Francis had made it clear from the very start of his pontificate that engagement with Asia would be one his major priorities.

"Lots of people at the time didn't immediately think of China, but China is in Asia and it is huge," said the 65-year-old former ambassador.

 

A Christian politician with experience in dealing with China

"The Vatican simply cannot remain indifferent to the fate of Christians there," said Schavan, a Christian Democrat politician who is known to be close to German Chancellor Angela Merkel.

Now co-chair of the German-Chinese Dialogue Forum, Schavan noted that the Holy See's interaction with China goes back to at least the year 2000 and the pontificate of John Paul II when Vatican diplomats began trying to nurture a "conversation thread" with the Communist country.

She said the first suggestions of an accord between the Holy See and China then came during the time of Benedict XVI.

"Now under Francis we have an agreement. And it will probably take another 20 years or longer before any further steps are taken," the former ambassador predicted.

The appointment of bishops was the central issue of the provisional two-year-old agreement in 2018, which was renewed a few months ago.

 

Appointment of bishops, not an issue unique to China

And Schavan said it was interesting that the first Chinese bishop has now been ordained under the rules of the renewed accord.

She said it was a not a novelty that authorities in Beijing would want to know who Rome was appointing as bishops in their country.

She pointed that that this was the case with many governments around the world. She noted that the Vatican even asks some for their approval when making episcopal appointments.

Schavan told domradio.de that it's important for the Vatican to continue its dialogue with the Chinese government because the Catholic Church has a great deal of experience in inculturation.

"It knows how to cope with completely different cultures," she pointed out.

 

"Fully Catholic and genuinely Chinese"

Paraphrasing the words of Archbishop Paul Gallagher, the Holy See's equivalent of foreign minister, she said the Church's mission in China is "to be fully Catholic and genuinely Chinese".

But the German politician and former ambassador said it was understandable that some people would object to the Vatican's 2018 agreement with the Communist regime.

"Anyone who is familiar with Christian persecution in China and with the exceedingly difficult situation today will ask themselves what about the Catholics in the underground Church in China who are being persecuted?" she admitted.

"But I still think it most important – precisely in such difficult situations – to keep the channels of communication open and to sound out what possibilities we have to convince China and its elites that religion is an important force in every society, regardless of its constitution," Schavan insisted.

Some religious in China have claimed that since the 2018 agreement, communist songs have replaced Church hymns at some Catholic services.

That's a price to pay for the agreement, others have suggested.

But Schavan said if such reports were true, this is "naturally" inacceptable. She called it an intrusion on the part of the Chinese communist party.

 

"Realize the global Church and world community will push back"

"The Church cannot and must not put up with such intrusive behavior," she emphasized.

"But I am pretty sure that the Holy See's diplomats, who always map out their strategies well-ahead of time, know about such intrusions and they are under discussion," Schavan said.

She argued that it's essential to speak out plainly in such cases.

In fact, she praised the pope for speaking clearly about the "persecuted Uyghurs" in his latest book, Let Us Dream.

The comments by Francis upset the Chinese leadership, but Schavan said addressing such thorny issues must be points contact for dialogue, adding that they should not be ignored or left off the table.

The former ambassador said the Communist Party must realize that when it persecutes religion and locks up believers, the global Church and the world community will push back.

She said the Vatican negotiates patiently behind closed doors, "not via the media or in the public square".

"The Holy See's is the oldest diplomacy we know," Schavan recalled.

 

Christa Pongratz-Lippitt writes from Vienna where she has spent many years as a reporter and commentator on Church affairs in the German-speaking world.

 

End

 

 

VATICAN-CHINA UPDATE

November 2020

 

4 Updates

 

1. The renewal of Sino-Vatican agreement and civil unions for homosexuals.

2. The China-Vatican Agreement has been extended.  Now, Rome is looking for more from Beijing.

3. Taiwan worries when Vatican agrees with China.

4. The Provisional Agreement an Act of Faith.

 

 

 

 

1. The renewal of Sino-Vatican agreement and civil unions for homosexuals

 

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2.

    The China-Vatican Agreement has been extended.  Now, Rome is looking for      more from Beijing         

                                                                                                                                               17th November 2020

 

America Magazine

 

The China-Vatican agreement has been extended.

Now, Rome is looking for more from Beijing

 

By: Gerard O’Connell

 

On Oct. 22, the Holy See and China announced that they had agreed to extend the provisional agreement on the appointment of bishops for another two years. At the end of this “for experiment” agreement—the expression used by the Vatican—the accord will either become definitive or another decision will have to be taken. Between now and then, however, the Vatican will want to see some concrete results.

 

Pope Francis, committed to the culture of dialogue and encounter and opposed to confrontation, gave the green light for the extension despite pressure to terminate the agreement. External pressure came from various political actors, including the United States as articulated by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, while internal pressure surfaced from sectors of the church, including cardinals such as Joseph Zen of Hong Kong and Gerhard Müller, former prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.

 

Sources close to the pope told America that Francis is aware of the criticisms of the Holy See’s approach to China and remains informed of the deeply troubling situation there as periodic crackdowns on religion and repression of human rights continue, but he is convinced that the path to change is through dialogue and the building of trust with the Chinese leadership, not through confrontation.

 

The text of the agreement, signed in September 2018 and extended in October, remains secret by mutual consent but, as Cardinal Pietro Parolin, Secretary of State, remarked, much of its content is known. Moreover, he added, Benedict XVI approved a draft of the agreement when he was pope.

 

An article published in L’Osservatore Romano on the day the extension was announced stated that “the primary objective” of the agreement regarding the appointment of bishops in China “is that of sustaining and promoting the proclamation of the Gospel in that land, restoring the full and visible unity of the Church.” It added that “the primary motivations” that guide the Holy See in its dialogue with the Chinese authorities “are fundamentally of an ecclesiological and pastoral nature” because the question of the appointment of bishops “is of vital importance for the life of the Church, both at the local as well as at the universal levels.”

 

It explained that the Second Vatican Council’s teaching “regarding the particular role of the Supreme Pontiff within the Episcopal College and in the appointment of bishops itself, inspired the negotiations” and “was a point of reference in the drafting of the text of the agreement.”

 

According to the article, this will ensure “little by little as things go forward, both the unity of faith and the communion among the bishops” and thus serve Catholic community in China. It highlighted the fact that because of the agreement, for the first time since 1958 when the first illicit ordinations took place in China, “all of the bishops in China are in communion with the Bishop of Rome” and “there will be no more illegitimate ordinations.”

 

From the Vatican’s perspective, the major achievement was the acceptance by Beijing that the Bishop of Rome, the pope, has the final say in the appointment of bishops in China. Chinese authorities had rejected this authority before as an interference in the internal affairs of the country. For its part Beijing got the Vatican to accept the process of “the democratic election” of candidates to be bishops, something not envisaged in canon law. For Francis, however, that concession was less of a problem, given his knowledge of the history of the involvement of Spanish and Portuguese monarchs in the appointment of bishops in Latin America in past centuries.

 

Speaking in Milan on the 150th anniversary of the arrival of the first Italian P.I.M.E. (Pontifical Institute of Foreign Missions) missionaries in Henan, China, Cardinal Parolin noted that “misunderstandings” had arisen about the agreement “because extraneous objectives or unrelated events regarding the life of the Catholic Church in China were attributed to the agreement and it was even connected to political issues that have nothing to do with the actual agreement which ‘exclusively concerns the appointment of bishops.’”

 

He reminded his audience that the agreement is not just “a point of arrival” after decades of negotiation; it is most importantly “a point of departure” for the church in China and Sino-Vatican relations.

 

Since the agreement’s signing, however, only two bishops have been appointed in China, and their nominations had already been agreed to by both sides long before. An informed source told America that other episcopal appointments are expected to be announced soon. Nevertheless, even taking account of the situation created by Covid-19, which started in China at the end of 2019 but now seems under control there, the delay in processing appointments caused some observers to question the political will of Beijing to implement its part of the agreement.

 

Since there are more than 40 dioceses in China that now require a new bishop, the Vatican will want to see the election and nomination of many of those bishops and their approval by the pope before October 2022 when the experimental period ends. That would be a first real verification of the provisional agreement and an important sign of Beijing’s good will.

 

The Rev. Gianni Criveller is a P.I.M.E. missionary and Chinese scholar who taught in China for 25 years before taking up his present post as dean of studies at the P.I.M.E. seminary in Monza, northern Italy.

 

Following the announcement of the Sino-Vatican decision to extend the agreement, he wrote in the magazine Mondo e Missione: “The agreement just renewed between the Holy See and China is not [a peace accord] between the two sides: it is not the end of the troubles for Catholics in China, nor does it sanction religious freedom in China. It is a compromise, strongly contested by many and celebrated with excessive enthusiasm by others. It is not a situation that is advantageous to everyone. I believe that the Vatican paid a higher price than Beijing. It is an agreement that perhaps the Holy See could not have renounced without causing further difficulties to Catholics in China.”

 

While supporting the Vatican’s decision and reporting that “Chinese Catholics respect and love the pope and, out of loyalty, accept the accord, even if they do not have to approve it,” he suggested that part of the “rather high price” paid by the Holy See has led to “a weakening of the prophetic role of the church” because it is not speaking out publicly on the sufferings of the various religious communities in China.

 

He referred not just to the sufferings of Christians but also Buddhists in Tibet and Muslims in Xinjiang, as well as the violation of human rights in Hong Kong and among Mongolians in the north of China. He thinks China has gained international prestige because of its relations with the Vatican and feels that the Holy See should now seek to obtain more concrete results of benefit to believers in China from its deal with Beijing.

 

Today, there are around 100 Catholic bishops in mainland China; many are very old, but all are now united with the pope because of the agreement. Some 30 of them belong to the underground church and refuse to join the Chinese Catholic Patriotic Association, so they are not recognized by the authorities in Beijing. The situation of these bishops has become more difficult since the agreement as, contrary to what Rome expected, Chinese authorities have used it to pressure underground bishops and priests to submit to the state’s religious policies.

 

While the agreement does not address their plight, the Vatican would want in the extension phase, as a matter of priority and urgency, to reach with Beijing a dignified resolution of their situation, one that would not require them to join the Patriotic Association. Before the signing of the 2018 agreement, Pope Francis showed magnanimity in regularizing the situation of seven illicitly ordained bishops (plus one who had died) at the insistence of Beijing.

 

Since then, however, Beijing has not reciprocated with any similarly positive gesture towards the underground bishops. The Vatican will want to see movement on this front since the matter goes to the heart of its effort to promote reconciliation between the state-recognized and the underground church communities in China.

 

Referring to the plight of these underground bishops and giving voice to the desire of Chinese Catholics, Father Criveller told America he would like to see the Chinese authorities “recognize their dignity and allow them to operate freely without the control of the Patriotic Association.”

 

But Catholic bishops in China lack real freedom of assembly and movement. As one Vatican official told me some years ago, the church in China “is like a bird in a cage,” and the Holy See is seeking “to make the cage larger, to gain more space.”

 

In this context, Father Criveller said he would like to see in this new phase of the Sino-Vatican dialogue that Beijing grants all the Chinese bishops “the possibility not only to communicate freely among themselves and to meet to discuss pastoral issues without the presence of state officials, but also to be able to visit Rome, meet Vatican officials and the pope, as bishops in other countries can do.”

 

That, of course, is something the Vatican has long desired. In the past it has asked China to allow the Holy See to have a representative in Beijing who would be Rome’s point of contact with the Chinese bishops and with the authorities. Beijing has not been open to this; it remains to be seen if the friendlier climate between the two parties can lead to that appointment over the next two years.

 

There are many other unresolved questions on which the Vatican will want to reach an agreement with Chinese authorities in due course. Among them, it will want Beijing to eliminate or at least suspend the practice of the convocation of clergy for political indoctrination and making them “disappear” for an unspecified time for this purpose.

 

One of the most troubling issues for the Vatican and the church in China are the regulations being enforced by the authorities since February 2018 that prevent parents from giving children under the age of 18 any religious instruction or prohibit them from taking children to church or participating in any event linked to religion. America has learned that the Vatican has protested these restrictions and hopes Beijing will return to a mode of greater tolerance.

 

There are other matters that the Vatican will want to address before approaching the question of diplomatic relations. It cannot overlook the unresolved questions as to the whereabouts of two elderly bishops and whether they are still alive. Another important issue is the need to resolve in a dignified manner the situation of the bishop of Shanghai, Thaddeus Ma Daquin, who was taken away on the day of his episcopal ordination on July 7, 2012 and has been deprived of his freedom and pastoral ministry ever since.

 

Cardinal Parolin said he is “aware of the existence of various problems regarding the life of the Catholic Church in China” but emphasized “that it is impossible to confront all the issues together.”

 

Nevertheless, it is to be expected that the Vatican will seek to address some of these issues with Beijing over the coming two years. Before the signing of the provisional agreement, China had refused to address these questions, saying they were matters for subsequent discussion.

 

Two years later, it should be possible to consider them in the improved climate of understanding and increasingly friendlier relations. Pope Francis hopes that by building trust and friendship through sincere dialogue, relations can improve between Rome and Beijing and new doors can be opened, not only in the religious field but also in relation to such global issues as peace, climate change and human rights. The next two years will reveal how far China is willing to go down this road with the Holy See.

 

[Watch this next: The Catholic Church in China | A Short Documentary

https://youtu.be/JGc75wwoces

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3.

    Taiwan worries when Vatican agrees with China

                                   30th October 2020

UCA News - www.ucanews.com

 

Taiwan worries when Vatican agrees with China

 

Taipei takes up religion and human rights to warn the Holy See against cosying up to communist leadership

 

By: Ben Joseph

 

Last week the Vatican and China agreed on a specific topic — ways to appoint Catholic bishops in China with approval from the Vatican and Beijing. But it is a worry for Taiwan.

 

Theoretically, the pact renewed for another two-year term has no diplomatic connotations. Not for Taiwan, the tiny country that China sees as one of its provinces.

 

The Vatican is the only European state that has diplomatic links with Taiwan. It troubles the independent and democratic Taiwan to see the Vatican bending toward having diplomatic ties with China.

 

Taiwan managed to get an assurance from the Holy See, which has had 77 years of diplomatic ties with Taiwan, that the deal is restricted to the pastoral needs of Catholics in China. The Vatican repeatedly said the pact is focused on pastoral issues.

 

However, when the Vatican-China deal was renewed on Oct. 22, Taiwan, officially called the Republic of China, openly expressed its fears. Taipei took up religion and human rights, two vexed subjects in authoritarian China, to warn the Vatican against cosying up to the communist leadership in the most populous country in the world, which has witnessed robust economic growth even in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic.

 

China continues to threaten to annex Taiwan militarily.

 

Taking a leaf out the holy book of Chinese party bosses, who often talk about “communism with Chinese characteristics,” Taiwan told the Vatican that "Sinicization of religion" in the People’s Republic of China (PRC) has become “nationalization of religion.”

 

With the Chinese Communist Party dictating all matters, “Catholics in the PRC are facing serious challenges to their faith and conscience,” Taiwan’s foreign ministry said in a statement issued on Oct. 22.

 

During the period when the two-year provisional Vatican-China agreement was in force from 2018, Chinese authorities removed crosses from churches and demolished churches, media reports said. In its attempt to assimilate the underground Catholic to the state-run church, the government continued a policy of harassment and detentions, they claimed.

 

On Sept. 1, priests in Yujiang Diocese in Jiangxi province who refused to join the official Chinese Patriotic Catholic Association were put under house arrest and banned from “engaging in any religious activity in the capacity of the clergy.” Taiwan used these religious persecutions by Beijing to warn the Vatican against further hobnobbing with China.

 

After the United Nations ceased to recognize the Taiwanese government in 1971, most UN member states cut ties with Taiwan, and the Vatican embassy in Taiwan is led by a chargé d’affairs rather than a nuncio, a Vatican ambassador. Taiwan’s worst fear is that the Vatican may go out of its way to establish formal diplomatic relations with mainland China, which officially expelled the Vatican in 1951.

 

Left with hardly any choice when to comes to choosing global allies, Taiwan had to believe what the Vatican had said.

 

“… Taiwan highly values this solemn commitment and has maintained close contacts with the Holy See, expressing our concern and position,” the Taiwanese foreign ministry said in its statement.

 

Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin reiterated that the agreement thus far “does not envisage the establishment of diplomatic relations.”

 

“For the moment there is no talk of diplomatic relations. We are focused on the Church,” he added.

 

However, hawks in Taiwan were not ready to rest on their oars. While the talks on the Vatican-China deal were in progress, Taiwan confirmed the US$2.37 billion purchase of arms from the US under the 1979 Taiwan Relations Act, which guides relations between the two governments.

 

Before that, Taiwan had approved buying a $1.8 billion weapons package, including missiles, rocket artillery and aerial reconnaissance sensors.

 

Taiwan is building up its defense capabilities to discourage any possible conflict in the Taiwan Strait. Its only European ally has already and openly displayed a newfound love for China.

__________________________________________________________________

4.

    The Provisional Agreement an Act of Faith

                                    23rd October 2020

Sunday Examiner - Hong Kong
http://www.examiner.org.hk/

POSTED INEDITORIAL

 

Provisional Agreement – an act of faith

 

THE PROVISIONAL AGREEMENT on the appointment of bishops in China, signed on 22 September 2018 between the Holy See and the People’s Republic of China, looks likely to get another term. Over the last couple of months, the Chinese Church communities have debated and speculated on whether or not the agreement should be renewed. 

Weeks ahead of the renewal, the Vatican secretary of state, Pietro Cardinal Parolin, expressed the intention to renew it, while “maintaining the agreement as provisional, so as to further verify its usefulness for the Church in China.” This is the argument for the continuity of the agreement: “to verify its usefulness for the Church in China.” 

 

Setting arguments aside, one must acknowledge the fact that the deal has caused confusion and distrust in the minds of many on account of two aspects: the Vatican’s apparent refusal to listen to the dissenting voices and keeping the contents of the deal secret. Although the deal has very little to boast about from its two years of existence, one must acknowledge that it is first of its kind between Vatican and the Chinese government and this might need more time to build mutual trust and confidence. 

 

It would be too ambitious to expect overnight results, but care must be taken to keep open the windows for dialogue. But, if the attempt is to engage the Chinese government in dialogue, it is argued that the Church should also engage in dialogue with critics of the deal within the Church. Dialogue must be with everyone that does not exclude anyone. 

 

In the heat of arguments for and against the issues that confront the Church today, one could easily slip into the danger of being pejorative. One can delude oneself as acting in defence of God and the Church. The passion narrative of the gospels according to Mathew and John presents the poignant scene of the arrest of Jesus (cf. Matthew 26:51 and John 18:10) and the classic example of Peter’s error of judgement. The disciples realised that the master was being taken and Peter wanted to defend the Son of God! What stupid audacity! “Simon Peter had a sword…” But the response of Jesus was conclusive: “…for he who holds on the sword will perish by the sword.” 

 

The greatest preaching Jesus does in the Bible is done on the Cross, defenceless and helpless. We believe in a defenceless Christ or someone who chose not to defend oneself and our Church is a defenceless Church.  

 

Faith in the Risen Christ is the foundation of the Church (cf. 1 Corinthians 15:20) and it should remain a community of faith. Are we running short of FAITH today? Anecdotes from the Acts of the Apostles and other records of the early Church speak of a Church that survived centuries of witch-hunts and persecution by the Jews as well as the mighty Roman Empire. 

 

The catacombs of Rome testify to hundreds of thousands of Christians who preferred to give up their lives in witness to their faith in Christ. Empires and principalities have disappeared into oblivion but the Church lives on because it is the body of the Christ and it cannot be destroyed. 

 

Can faith alone remedy the oppression and agonies to which bishops, priests and faithful are being subjected? Perhaps we stand aghast like Peter and his friends in Gethsemane, helpless and defenceless. But then comes the response of Jesus: “Do you not know that I could call on my Father and he would at once send me more than twelve legions of angels?” (Matthew 26:53). Jose

 

 

End

12. Cardinal John Tong's article

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