The status of the Catholic church in China is a fascinating subject. The following article concerns the ongoing tensions between native Chinese Catholics and the Vatican bureacracy.
It comes from Sandro Magister's Chiesa.
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China. Zen's Horn and Bertone's Bell
by Sandro Magister
ROME, February 4, 2010 – Cardinal Joseph Zen Zekiun, bishop emeritus of Hong Kong and a passionate strategist of the Catholic Church in China, has never held back in his criticism of Vatican diplomacy, which he sees as too compliant toward the communist regime of Beijing, or of the Chinese priests and bishops he thinks are pushovers.
In Cardinal Zen's view, the capitulation of the bishop of Baoding and of others like him has been wrongfully encouraged by Vatican authorities, according to whom the heroic season of the clandestine Church has ended, and its bishops and priests should all enter the official Church recognized by the regime.
But is that really how things are? According to Vatican authorities, no, things are not at all as they are portrayed by Cardinal Zen and the agency "Asia News" directed by Fr. Bernardo Cervellera of the Pontifical Institute for Foreign Missions.
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Vatican diplomacy does not speak in the first person, but all that is needed to understand its positions is to read the magazine that most reflects its thought: the international monthly in six languages "30 Days," edited in Rome and directed by senior senator Giulio Andreotti, who served several terms as prime minister and foreign minister of the Italian republic, and has always had extensive contacts in the curia.
In its latest issue, "30 Days" presents a special report on the Chinese Church. Not only that. It announces the release in China, in a large number of copies, of a prayer pamphlet entitled "He who prays will be saved," translated into Mandarin for the first time and with a preface by the bishop of Shanghai, Aloysius Jin Luxian, the most authoritative of the bishops recognized by both the regime and the Church of Rome.
So far, the new issue of "30 Days" has been published only in Italian. But it will soon be released in English, French, Spanish, Portuguese, and German, giving all readers the opportunity to read the report in its entirety.
The report not only includes an extensive investigation by Gianni Valente that reconstructs the matter of the bishop of Baoding with details refuting the "betrayal" and proving his integrity, but also provides two documents of great interest in support of this reconstruction of the facts.
The first is a letter dated June 29, 2008, written by Cardinal Ivan Dias, prefect of the Vatican congregation Propaganda Fide, to the priests, religious, and faithful of the diocese of Baoding.
In this letter, Cardinal Dias – who is formally responsible for the dioceses of China – defends in full the decisions made by Bishop An Shuxin after his release from prison, and orders the clergy and faithful to show him respect and obedience:
"Everyone must know that the esteemed bishop enjoys the favor and the complete trust of the Holy See. So no one may permit himself to doubt his sincerity, or oppose his authority, spreading imprudent judgments that trouble the faithful. This, in addition to providing great pleasure for the enemies of the Church, represents a grave lack of charity before God and the Church . . ."
The second document, from last November, is a long series of questions posed to Bishop An Shuxin by a Chinese priest in disagreement with him, released by a website connected to groups of the clandestine Catholic Church: www.ccccn.org.
A complete translation of the questionnaire from the Chinese will soon be available on the website of "30 Days."
The magazine's report is not short on severe criticism of Cardinal Zen, who is accused of wrongfully setting himself up as the only accurate interpreter of Benedict XVI's letter to Chinese Catholics in 2007, the key document for the Catholic Church in China.
And there is also a strong defense of Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, secretary of state and therefore the highest official of Vatican diplomacy.
Curiously, both Bertone and Zen are Salesians. But they even butt heads in the private meetings of the commission instituted by the Vatican to follow the implementation of Benedict XVI's blueprint letter, a commission to which both of them belong.
Below is reprinted, in its entirety, another compelling section of the report in "30 Days": Gianni Valente's interview of Professor Ren Yanli, a member of the Chinese academy of social sciences and of the institute for research on world religions, which for decades has followed the affairs of the Chinese Catholic Church and relations between China and the Vatican.
Ren Yanli expresses the "soft" side of the positions of the Chinese authorities on the Catholic Church.
But naturally, there are others who express the "hard" side. China also has its Bertones and Zens.
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Hu Jintao and the pope. The audience that almost was
Interview with Ren Yanli
Q: Professor Ren Yanli, there are conflicting views on the situation of the Catholic Church in China...
A: Chinese Catholics are Catholics like all the rest. They have the same faith, they read the same Bible, they go to church freely for Mass, to pray, and to receive the sacraments. Like other Catholics, they love their country and want to participate in the life and modernization of China.
Q: So where do the problems come from?
A: There was a time in which, for various reasons, it didn't seem possible to love country and Church at the same time. When the People's Republic of China was formed, the Vatican was considered a public enemy of the new communist China. And, at the end of the 1950's, at the height of the anti-imperialist movement that dominated Chinese politics at the time, the relationship with the Holy See was severed, and the Chinese Church was shoved into the political stance of independence and of the autonomous appointment of bishops. But already at that time, even those who adhered to that approach out of patriotism or simply for the sake of appearances soon ended up losing their spiritual tranquility. They seemed like divided persons. How can a local Church with no connection to the apostolic see be Catholic? And in fact, since the unfortunate time of the Cultural Revolution, with the reopening of China promoted by Deng Xiaoping, the dominant thought of the Chinese Catholics has been that of recovering, in the time and manner possible to them, their relationship with the Holy See, the pope, and the universal Catholic Church.
Q: A desire that has found different paths for its fulfillment.
A: Some clustered around clandestinely ordained bishops who were in communion with the pope, and who rejected any relationship with and any control by political power. But the bishops who were ordained without the agreement of the apostolic see also started to take the same road, asking to be recognized and legitimized by the pope. They too, in fact, left behind the idea of independence. This has been a general phenomenon, and must be kept in mind in its entirety.
Q: How do you explain this phenomenon? What are the root causes?
A: It is increasingly clear to me that the decisive factor has been the very faith of the Chinese Catholics, both lay and clergy. Now the priests are not willing to become bishops if their appointment does not come from the pope, and if there is no apostolic mandate. Many new bishops, at the beginning and end of their consecration, have wanted to display publicly the letter of appointment they received from the pope. In part because they know very well that the faithful will never listen to pastors who are elected and consecrated autonomously, without the pope's consent. The latest bishops appointed without pontifical mandate remain isolated, and no one wants to receive the Eucharist from their hands, during Mass. In short, while some in the past have indeed felt some temptation to make a career in an independent Church, the people's faith has helped everyone to make this plan ineffective. And this has also helped the government to readjust its approach.
Q: Where do you see this readjustment? There are some who say that the position of Chinese power always remains rigidly the same.
A: The government has realized that if it wants the bishops to be pastors who are esteemed and followed by the faithful, and not viewed as isolated functionaries imposed from the outside, appointment by the pope and full communion with him are indispensable elements, which cannot be omitted. This means that, in fact, the idea of imposing on the Chinese Church an independence involving separation from the pope and from the universal Church is being set aside. The process that leads to an increasingly explicit affirmation of the communion of the Chinese bishops with the pope – and of everything that this involves – is irreversible. There can be no turning back on this road.
Q: How do you assess the recent phase of relations between China and the Vatican?
A: In my view, it makes no sense to continue talking about a thaw, because there hasn't been any chill for quite a while, and the two sides started having direct contacts many years ago. But this back-and-forth continues: every time one side considers the initiatives of the other as unilateral attempts to shut it out, it engineers actions that can be interpreted as countermoves.
Q: Some examples?
A: Let's start with 2005. All the bishops ordained in that year already had the pope's appointment in the bag before their consecration. That whole year passed in peace. In 2006, the bishop of Hong Kong, Joseph Zen, was made cardinal, and China immediately went back to electing bishops without the pope's mandate, in April and November. A new cycle of tough talk between the Chinese government and the Roman curia was opened. But in January of 2007, when the news came out that Benedict XVI was going to send a pastoral letter to the Church in China, the consecration of bishops not authorized by Rome ceased. That year, the new bishop of Beijing was also elected with the pope's consent. But then in China there was a lavish celebration of the fiftieth anniversary of the Patriotic Association and of the first episcopal appointments made in 1958 without the pope's mandate. At the ceremonies, political leaders reiterated the pro-independence line to which the Chinese Church must adhere.
Q: In short, a sign of inflexibility, yet another step backward.
A: In that context, the Holy See published the "Compendium" of the letter written by Benedict XVI in 2007. In an appendix of this new document it is written that the Holy See, if necessary, can again grant the Chinese bishops the ability to consecrate more bishops, asking for papal approval after the fact. In practice, one realizes that these special faculties, revoked by the pope's letter, could again be attributed to the clandestine communities.
Q: What were the reactions from the Chinese side?
A: There could have been fears of the beginning of a new phase of conflict. But then, when [in 2009] Hu Jintao came to Italy to participate in the G8, the pope let him know that he would be happy to receive him at the Vatican. The encounter could not be held. But the pope's invitation was appreciated.
Q: And now? What's the way forward?
A: In recent months, the eighth congress of Chinese Catholics should have been held. It is the periodic assembly of delegates from dioceses registered with the state administration for religious affairs, which also has the task of filling the leadership positions in the official organisms of the Church of China, like the Patriotic Association and the college of bishops, which have been left vacant when the bishops occupying them have died. Instead, the political authorities have decided to postpone the congress until 2010.
Q: How do you interpret this delay?
A: Maybe they didn't want to force things. They have realized in Beijing that the heads of the official organisms, in order to be truly recognized and respected, they must be bishops in communion with the pope. And the legitimate bishops have a certain reluctance, and would have trouble taking their posts if there were explicit disapproval from the Holy See. It will take time to organize things in such a way that the decision may go to the right man, and everything may go smoothly. Today's Chinese politicians are pragmatists, and tend to solve problems one by one. Without tectonic shifts. Having said this, I am afraid that if some basic problems are not solved first, there will always be the risk of the reopening of exhausting and now outdated conflicts, which would always be harmful to everyone.
Q: What might help, at this time, to break the action-reaction spiral that you describe?
A: For its part, the Holy See would do well to be mindful of and include the Chinese Church: as I have said, in all this time the fidelity of Chinese Catholics to the faith of the apostles has been the decisive factor, including in the evolution of relations with those who lead the country politically.
Q: And on the part of Chinese political leaders, what do you expect?
A: Last May, an anonymous but influential Chinese figure pointed out in a Hong Kong newspaper that the Beijing authorities could propose a revision of the categories of autonomy, independence, and self-government, as they are applied to the local Church. Study seminars reserved for political leaders have already been addressing this argument for some time: how to find a new definition of independence that would distinguish the ecclesial and faith aspect from that of politics. The concept of independence cannot be applied anymore to the aspects of the Church's life that have to do with faith, but must be interpreted only in a political sense.
Q: Concretely, what does this mean? Can you give a practical example?
A: The government wants a guarantee that the Church will not act as a political body. That the Chinese bishops will be independent with respect to any political and geopolitical stances of the Roman curia. In practice, the intention is to avoid the possibility that a bishop or eventually a nuncio might attack government policy. For this reason, some in Beijing insist on wanting to maintain a certain control over the appointment of bishops.
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