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| Papa Francesco |
2018 VATICAN-COMMUNIST CHINA AGREEMENT: REALITY
BITES, CHEWS, AND SWALLOWS
“…the
secret Vatican-China accord of September 2018, an accord so secret that not
even Cardinal Joseph Zen Ze-kiun, the senior Chinese cardinal, has seen it. The
Holy See conceded a great deal, lifting the excommunications of bishops who had
been appointed by the Chinese communist state without papal approval.
“In
return, there have been no observable improvements for the life of the Church
in China. Quite to the contrary, religious persecution has ramped up
considerably, and the Holy See has had to suffer one setback after another.
“The
accord appears to be a significant diplomatic and pastoral failure, and few
voices even bother to defend it. Just last week one of the state-controlled
Catholic bishops, recognized by Rome, declared that loyalty to the Chinese
state — de facto the Communist Party — must be greater than loyalty to the
Church.
“Cardinal
Zen, the courageous and outspoken emeritus bishop of Hong Kong, has repeatedly
blasted the accord and the thinking behind it, not sparing sharp words for the
role of Cardinal Filoni.”
—Father Raymond J. de Souza, “Why Pope Francis’ Appointment of Cardinal Tagle Is Significant,” National Catholic Register (December 12, 2019)
The
Chinese bishops should be loyal to the pope and Roman Catholic doctrine first,
the Chinese state second and only if it is compatible with the former. This
Vatican agreement subverts the authority of the pope and bishops and
compromises the doctrine of the faith. It is also bad precedent to close a
secret agreement with a Communist state. The apparent purpose of secrecy in
this agreement is to obstruct transparency and the corresponding
accountability. Secrecy implies that there is something objectionable about the
agreement, especially if it is a Communist state that is a party to the
agreement.
The
Communist China agreement is a big, black stain on the current papacy. Whatever
the reasons of the pope originally, it’s time to repudiate the agreement.
‘The
Vatican lost everything, got nothing’: An interview with Cardinal Zen:
—Matt
Hadro, “‘The Vatican lost everything, got nothing’: An interview with Cardinal
Zen,” Catholic News Agency, February
15, 2020
I
suspect the pope is somewhat naive about how Communists operate. Cardinal Zen
isn’t.
2018
Vatican-Communist China Agreement: The reality of the Communist state bites,
chews, and swallows the Roman Catholic Church in China.
Cropped photo courtesy of Mazur/catholicnews.org.uk
ReplyDeletePhoto link: https://www.flickr.com/photos/catholicism/8722736835
Gonzalinho
begin
ReplyDeleteZen insisted that John Paul II, instead of being conciliatory and accepting compromises, thought “it was necessary to resist” communism forcefully, saying “This was the fundamental vision of John Paul II which I shared.”
Challenging Re to “show me the text of the agreement” that Benedict XVI approved and Francis signed with Chinese officials…
end
See: https://cruxnow.com/church-in-asia/2020/03/vatican-china-deal-conceived-under-jpii-expert-says/
If the defense of this secret agreement is to realistically carry any credibility, the agreement should be made public. Secrecy involving a Communist state as a party to the agreement is with 99% probability objectionable.
Gonzalinho
https://cruxnow.com/church-in-asia/2020/03/vatican-china-deal-conceived-under-jpii-expert-says/
Delete—Elise Ann Allen, “Vatican-China deal conceived under JPII, expert says,” Crux, March 4, 2020
Gonzalinho
VATICAN COOPERATES WITH COMMUNIST CHINA MURDER AND USE OF TORTURE
ReplyDelete“While registering, Catholic clergy must align themselves with Chinese Catholic Patriotic Association, a creature of the Communist government which the Vatican has always maintained is incompatible with Catholic doctrine. Zen claimed the Vatican was putting pressure on Chinese priests to possibly violate their consciences—and even apostatize —by issuing the document.”
Link: https://cruxnow.com/church-in-asia/2020/03/cardinal-zen-says-pope-francis-being-manipulated-on-china/
“The Vatican should immediately drop its deal with China following renewed revelations of forced organ harvesting, rape and torture by the communist regime, according to a letter signed by clergy, human rights campaigners and other leading Catholics.
“The letter in this week’s Catholic Herald cites a report by the China Tribunal chaired by Sir Geoffrey Nice QC, a former prosecutor at the International Criminal Court. The Tribunal found that the Chinese government is conducting a state-run programme of forced organ harvesting from prisoners of conscience and detailed acts of torture.”
Link: https://catholicherald.co.uk/vatican-should-end-its-deal-with-china-say-catholics/
Based on data, the conclusion is obvious—the Chinese government is using the refusal of underground clergy to sign the registration agreement as a means to identify, target, torture, and murder—pause—thousands of people. And the Vatican is a willing accomplice in this barbarity. Whatever defense the Vatican bureaucracy has thrown up has failed—there are thousands of people being abominably treated with the Vatican's cooperation. On just this basis, with the extreme suffering of human beings in mind, l say, yes, the pope is WRONG. He is the pope, but in these matters, he is not infallible.
To put it plainly, Catholics in Communist China are being tortured and killed because of the pope. Obviously that is not his intention but that is the effect. If l were in the place of those victimized by the registration agreement—assuming l survive—l would feel betrayed by my Church and of course by the pope as well.
The response of the Vatican is to defend the agreement. That makes things worse for the victims. It’s the wrong response.
Gonzalinho
https://cruxnow.com/church-in-asia/2020/03/cardinal-zen-says-pope-francis-being-manipulated-on-china/
Delete—“Cardinal Zen says Pope Francis being ‘manipulated’ on China,” Crux, March 2, 2020
https://catholicherald.co.uk/vatican-should-end-its-deal-with-china-say-catholics/
—“Vatican should end its deal with China, say Catholics,” Catholic Herald (March 13, 2020)
Gonzalinho
CHINA IS ALREADY BREAKING ITS VATICAN DEAL
ReplyDeleteOrdinary Catholics deserve to know the details of the arrangement.
Foreign Policy
BY BENEDICT ROGERS | SEPTEMBER 17, 2020, 6:22 PM
At a time when much of the rest of the world is starting to wake up to the repression, mendacity, and dangers of the Chinese Communist Party regime, the Vatican is getting even deeper in bed with it. And at a time when that regime is intensifying repression of religion—including Catholics—in China, Pope Francis is renewing an accord with Beijing that has yielded no benefits yet save for President Xi Jinping and only disunity and suffering for the Catholic Church.
Two years ago, the Vatican signed a provisional agreement with Beijing, valid for two years. It had been a long time coming, and I and others tried to warn of the dangers before the deal was done. When it was announced, I expressed concerns—but also tried to give a pope whom I admire the benefit of the doubt.
China is already breaking the deal. Only last week in Jiangxi province, dissenting Catholic priests have been placed under house arrest, in breach of an agreement to protect clergy from coercion. Priests from Yujiang diocese, under surveillance, have been forbidden from “engaging in any religious activity in the capacity of clergy” after they refused to join the regime’s so-called “patriotic church,” and Bishop Lu Xinping was barred from celebrating Mass.
This was predictable from the start. Everything about the deal was wrong.
Firstly, the timing: in the midst of the worst crackdown on religion since the Cultural Revolution.
The text was, and remains, secret, so no one other than its negotiators and the pope know the details.
And the result was to give an atheist dictatorship a decision-making role in the appointment of bishops.
But two years ago, while I expressed my skepticism, I held out for the possibility that I was wrong and that the pope was rightI held out for the possibility that I was wrong and that the pope was right.
…in the past two years, nothing has made me think that my skepticism about the deal was misplaced. On the contrary, I remain more convinced today than ever that the deal is very profoundly naïve, wrong, immoral, and dangerous. I don’t doubt the good intentions behind it, but they are deeply misplaced.
For a start, why was the release of Catholic clergy and laity in jail before the deal was signed not made—and secured—as a precondition? As it is, to my knowledge there have been no releases and yet more arrests and detentions, as the Jiangxi case shows.
…The brazenness of the regime—tightening the screws in Jiangxi just days before the renewal of the agreement—illustrates how one-sided this deal is. Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian said last week that the agreement was implemented “successfully” and that the two sides “will continue to maintain close communication and consultation and improve bilateral relations.”
From Beijing’s point of view, he is right. The deal has succeeded in furthering the regime’s control of the church in China, repressing dissent, and buying the pope’s silence. The deal has succeeded in furthering the regime’s control of the church in China, repressing dissent, and buying the pope’s silence.
Francis—who most Sundays highlights one or another area of injustice and human rights around the world, and rightly so when he prays the Angelus—has stayed conspicuously silent on the persecution of Christians in China, the atrocities committed against the Uighurs which may well amount to a genocide, or the repression in Hong Kong or Tibet. Until now, not a word of prayer or solidarity for the repressed peoples of China has passed his lips publicly. Such is the tragic price of this worthless deal.
(To be continued)
CHINA IS ALREADY BREAKING ITS VATICAN DEAL
ReplyDeleteOrdinary Catholics deserve to know the details of the arrangement.
Foreign Policy
BY BENEDICT ROGERS | SEPTEMBER 17, 2020, 6:22 PM
(Continued)
Ideally, I would advocate for this deal to be abandoned. And I do in principle, absolutely. But there are two reasons I don’t in practice, just yet. First, I know it will fall on deaf ears. The diplomats in the Vatican are determined, and it will be renewed. Second, we still do not know in detail what is in the agreement. It is difficult to categorically reject a text we have not yet fully seen.
So instead I say this to Rome: If it’s such a great deal—despite all the evidence to the contrary—tell us what’s in it. Come on, pleasantly surprise us! As a Catholic, I believe in miracles and I am prepared to be persuaded. But secrecy and silence are not the way.
So reveal, review, and then—if it’s as bad as the current evidence suggests—repeal the deal.
Supporters of the deal will say that the Vatican is playing a long game. But if so, it’s too long for the millions of Uighurs in prison camps, slavery, or under Orwellian surveillance; too long for the churches which are bulldozed, closed, under surveillance, or whose crosses are torn down and priests jailed; too long for prisoners of conscience whose organs are harvested; too long for Hong Kong, whose freedoms are being rapidly dismantled. Compromise for short-term gain may be defensible; total sell-out for no gain at all and an undermining of the church’s moral authority is not.
…I will always genuflect at an altar in a Catholic Church. What I won’t do—and I don’t think any Catholic should do—is kowtow to a brutal, repressive, tyrannical regime. I don’t think the pope should be made to do so either.
Link: https://foreignpolicy.com/2020/09/17/china-francis-vatican/
“Very profoundly naïve, wrong, immoral, and dangerous”
“If it’s such a great deal…tell us what’s in it”
Gonzalinho
https://foreignpolicy.com/2020/09/17/china-francis-vatican/
Delete—Benedict Rogers, “China Is Already Breaking Its Vatican Deal,” Foreign Policy, September 17, 2020
Gonzalinho
VATICAN AND CHINA PREPARE TO RENEW HISTORIC DEAL, ANGERING US
ReplyDeletePope Francis has reportedly approved a two-year renewal of the deal on the appointment of bishops vetted by the Vatican.
Al Jazeera
22 Sep 2020
The Vatican and China are preparing to renew a historic deal on the appointment of bishops that has slightly thawed icy relations, but has angered the United States.
Pope Francis has given the go-ahead for the renewal of the agreement, which is still in “experimental” mode, for another two years, AFP news agency reported on Tuesday.
…US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo went on the offensive last week in an article in US religious magazine First Things, slamming the “horrific treatment” of believers of all faiths in China.
He wrote that many countries had expressed “revulsion” at the “regime’s accelerating violations of human rights”.
“The Vatican endangers its moral authority, should it renew the deal”, he added on Twitter.
…‘Very little fruit’
Thorny issues, such as Chinese Catholic priests suddenly disappearing from their parishes for weeks “at the invitation” of the authorities, are in the meantime being raised with Beijing by Vatican diplomats, the source said.
One of the Catholic Church’s leading experts on Chinese affairs, Father Bernardo Cervellera, told religious news site Cruxnow.com earlier this month that the deal may have drawn much fanfare but had so far borne “very little fruit”.
And he voiced his hope that the Vatican, in renewing the agreement, would be tougher on China.
Link: https://www.aljazeera.com/2020/09/22/vatican-and-china-prepare-to-renew-historic-deal-angering-us/
“Chinese Catholic priests suddenly disappearing from their parishes for weeks ‘at the invitation’ of the authorities”
Gonzalinho
https://www.aljazeera.com/2020/09/22/vatican-and-china-prepare-to-renew-historic-deal-angering-us/
Delete—“Vatican and China prepare to renew historic deal, angering US,” Al Jazeera, September 22, 2020
Gonzalinho
Greg Burke, the director of the Holy See Press Office, stated that “the objective of the accord is not political but pastoral, allowing the faithful to have bishops that are in communion with Rome but at the same time recognized by the Chinese authorities.”
ReplyDeletehttps://www.americamagazine.org/faith/2018/12/07/extremely-high-stakes-china-vatican-deal
—Paul P. Mariani, S.J., “The Extremely High Stakes of the China-Vatican Deal,” America: The Jesuit Review, December 7, 2018
Gonzalinho
Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle uses calm tones and carefully measured words to explain the reasons for the Holy See’s decision to extend the Provisional Agreement with China on the appointment of Bishops.“
ReplyDeleteThe reason for everything is to safeguard the valid apostolic succession and the sacramental nature of the Catholic Church in China,” says the Filipino Cardinal, adding, “And this can reassure, comfort and enliven baptized Catholics in China.”
The Cardinal also recalls the sensus fidei of so many Chinese Catholics, describing it as “a precious testimony, which often sprouted not in well-cultivated and protected gardens, but on harsh and uneven grounds.” At the same time, he acknowledges “certain wounds need time and God's consolation in order to be healed.”
He notes, too, that Bishops “cannot be seen as ‘officials or functionaries’” and insists “Bishops are not ‘functionaries of the Pope’ or ‘of the Vatican,’ because they are the successors of the Apostles.”
https://www.vaticannews.va/en/vatican-city/news/2022-10/tagle-why-holy-see-is-renewing-the-provisional-agreement.html
—Gianni Valente, “Cardinal Tagle: A decision to safeguard apostolic succession for Chinese Catholics,” Vatican News, October 22, 2022
Bishops, by the present law of the Roman Catholic Church, take an oath of obedience to the pope. This obedience, however, is strictly limited by the canons, and is only held to bind in things consistent with the divine and natural law.
https://www.biblicalcyclopedia.com/O/obedience-(ecclesiastical).html
—“Obedience (Ecclesiastical),” McClintock and Strong Biblical Cyclopedia
An agreement to keep apostolic succession intact and beyond dispute and to preclude and heal de facto schism.
The historical problems that arose from the Anglican schism come to mind.
Gonzalinho
At least two competing moral-theological imperatives—one edges out the other.
DeleteGonzalinho