The Vatican and China
The Vatican recently released a statement about China. It said nothing about the persecution of Christians and other believers, the imprisonment and enslavement of Muslim Uyghurs, the oppression of Tibetan Buddhists, or the organ harvesting of Falun Gong followers. It made no reference to the prosecution of Cardinal Joseph Zen and other prominent Catholics and human rights defenders in Hong Kong, such as Jimmy Lai. It was silent about the assault on religious freedom under the Chinese Communist Party.
What then was so momentous to displace a condemnation of some of the most egregious, systemic human rights abuses in the world today? According to the Vatican, the CCP had transferred a bishop from one diocese to anotherwhere he was installed as an auxiliary – assistant – bishop, in violation of the secret agreement between the Holy See and China.
‘It was with surprise and regret that the Holy See learned of the news of the “installation ceremony” that took place on 24 November in Nanchang, of H.E. Bishop Giovanni Peng Weizhao, Bishop of Yujiang (Jiangxi Province), as “Auxiliary Bishop of Jiangxi", a diocese not recognized by the Holy See. Such an event, in fact, has not taken place in conformity with the spirit of dialogue that exists between the Vatican parties and the Chinese parties and what has been stipulated in the Provisional Agreement on the Appointment of Bishops of 22 September 2018.’
The statement also claimed that the installation of the bishop ‘was preceded, according to reports received, by prolonged and intense pressure by the local Authorities,’ that is, by the communist party.
The situation arises from the establishment of a CCP controlled ‘patriotic church’ in China in the 1950s which has operated separately from the bishops and dioceses recognised by the Vatican. It was clear from the outset that this ‘patriotic church’ was aligned to Beijing and operated separately from the Vatican. The 1950 Guangyuan Manifesto proclaimed: ‘We are determined to sever all relations with imperialism, to do all we can to reform ourselves, to establish a new Church that shall be independent in its administration, its resources, and its apostolate.’
Predecessors of Pope Francis have sought over six decades to unify Chinese Catholics, but none had taken the remarkable step to recognise the ‘patriotic church’ in the way that he has. Having lived under totalitarian regimes, both John Paul II and Benedict XVI understood the nature of authoritarianism. Not only did the Vatican enter into an agreement with the CCP, it recognised seven ‘Patriotic Church’ bishops. The return to the failed Ostpolitik foreign affairs doctrine has done nothing to improve religious freedom. To the contrary, it demonstrates a naiveite about the CCP. In 2018, the previous regulatory body for religion, the State Administration for Religious Affairs was incorporated into the United Front Work Department, a central instrument of CCP influence and propaganda. Religious organisations are only permitted in China if they constitute arms of the regime. Many places of worship have been destroyed and religious believers persecuted and imprisoned. Images of Xi Jinping and communist slogans adorn churches at the dictate of the government.
If previous CCP lies, such as claiming that it would not militarise the artificial islands in the South China Sea was not sufficient, surely the deliberate breach of the agreement should result in a more clear-eyed approach by the Vatican Secretary of State.
One of the people who continually warned the Vatican about the agreement was Cardinal Joseph Zen, the emeritus archbishop of Hong Kong. His scathing Op Ed in the New York Times in October 2018 was prescient. ‘I know the Church in China, I know the Communists and I know the Holy See. I’m a Chinese from Shanghai. I lived many years in the mainland and many years in Hong Kong. I taught in seminaries throughout China — in Shanghai, Xian, Beijing, Wuhan, Shenyang — between 1989 and 1996. Pope Francis, an Argentine, doesn’t seem to understand the Communists. He is very pastoral, and he comes from South America, where historically military governments and the rich got together to oppress poor people. And who there would come out to defend the poor? The Communists. Maybe even some Jesuits, and the government would call those Jesuits Communists. Francis may have natural sympathy for Communists because for him, they are the persecuted. He doesn’t know them as the persecutors they become once in power, like the Communists in China.’
Zen said that the deal would be a ‘major step toward the annihilation of the real Church in China.’ He concluded his article: ‘If I were a cartoonist I would draw the Holy Father on his knees offering the keys of the kingdom of heaven to President Xi Jinping and saying, “Please recognize me as the pope.” And yet, to the underground bishops and priests of China, I can only say this: Please don’t start a revolution. They take away your churches? You can no longer officiate? Go home, and pray with your family. Till the soil. Wait for better times. Go back to the catacombs. Communism isn’t eternal.’
It is no wonder that the Vatican had little to say about the prosecution of Cardinal Zen by the CCP in Hong Kong. Zen and five others were found guilty of failing to properly register a Humanitarian Relief Fund, which helped pay medical and legal fees for arrested protesters beginning in 2019. They were fined, but are also being investigated under the vague Beijing imposed National Security Laws. The most that the Vatican could say about the situation, which has further chilled freedom of speech, association and religion in Hong Kong was ‘the Holy See has learned with concern the news of Cardinal Zen's arrest and is following the development of the situation with extreme attention.’ It has remained silent about the prosecution and jailing of another prominent Catholic, Jimmy Lai on spurious fraud charges.
For a regime that spurns religion, the CCP increasingly couches its threats in biblical language. Take the condemnation of the recent visit by a cross-party delegation of Australian Parliamentarians to Taiwan. ‘Those who play with fire will perish by it,’ thundered an editorial in the CCP mouthpiece, the Global Times. ‘The politicians from certain countries who visit Taiwan to seek limelight are like (a) political god of plague and pestilence.’ Critics of Beijing, such as the Belgium parliamentarians who introduced a motion that urges de-escalation and condemns what it calls ‘Chinese aggression toward Taiwan, and calls on the People's Republic of China to refrain from any measures that further destabilize the region’ were also threatened with ‘playing with fire’.
The visit by the Australians wasn’t novel. Until interrupted by Covid, delegations of Australian Parliamentarians have been visiting Taiwan each year for many decades. Legislators from various European nations, Japan, Canada, the United Kingdom, the United States and elsewhere have also visited the democratic state. Australian should build on these visits by expanding our trade agreements with a significant economic partner.
Originally published in the Spectator Australia.
