Thursday, March 28, AD 2024 11:47am

PopeWatch: China Betrayal

Nina Shea, Director of the Center for Religious Freedom at the Hudson Institute, in an article for the National Catholic Register takes a blistering look at the Vatican’s sell out of the Underground Church in China:

 

Two months out, the China-Holy See provisional agreement on episcopal appointments is proving to be yet another tool for Beijing to suppress the Chinese faithful. And its damage goes even deeper than the Chinese government’s selection of Catholic bishops, as critical as that is for the hierarchically structured Roman Catholic Church.

In asserting state control over religion, Chinese President Xi Jinping continues the harshest crackdown since the Cultural Revolution against all religions, the Catholic Church included, as documented by the Congressional-Executive Commission on China. Meanwhile, the agreement gives the Chinese regime moral cover and provides it with new opportunities for influencing religious matters at home and in Rome.

Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin, who oversaw the Church’s negotiations, concedes that it is “not a good agreement,” but stresses its historic significance for unifying the Chinese Catholic Church with the Pope as head. Beijing, however, seems intent on seeing unity on its terms and relegating the Pope as a figurehead of the Church in China.

The text of the agreement remains secret, but it reportedly gives the officially atheist Chinese government the right to nominate bishops and grants the Pope veto power. A papal veto could lead to more vacant dioceses than the 12 at present. And, if September is a precedent, then the Pope has only the right to rubber-stamp: Pope Francis admitted into full ecclesial communion all seven government bishops who were excommunicated or otherwise deemed canonically illegitimate in Church eyes and appointed two of them to replace “underground” bishops as diocesan heads. No other appointments were made. Pope Francis teared up in welcoming these bishops into the Church and for the unity this seemed to suggest.

China’s some 30 underground bishops — appointed by the Vatican over Beijing’s objection — as Pope Francis said, “will suffer” from the deal. Reportedly the new agreement omits all reference to them, and none has yet been accepted by Beijing.

Cardinal Joseph Zen Ze-kiun, the bishop emeritus of Hong Kong, bitterly denounced the agreement as a “betrayal” by the Vatican. But one wonders if the Vatican wasn’t the party betrayed — by Beijing.

Go here to read the rest.  For playing Judas to faithful Catholics in China, at a time when they are facing the worst persecution since the death of Mao, Pope Francis seems to have only gotten Neville Chamberlain’s wage:  an empty piece of paper.

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Rita
Sunday, December 2, AD 2018 8:11pm

Can pope Francis see his error? What about the rest of the world catholic? Can we trust his governance of the church? I rely on the education i received from my parent and the Baltimore catechist.

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