Vatican Detente with China Unleashes Worse Persecution

I'm reading Cardinal Zen's book, For Love of My People I Will Not Be Silent. He puts the spotlight on the Vatican political swamp and its flawed relations with China. Curial decisions about Church policy toward China have focused less on the good of the faithful and those clergy who have suffered incredible persecution for keeping the faith and more on ostpolitik, the normalization and detente with Communism. The results? Tragedy for the faithful and their clergy!

The Vatican's agreement with the Communist Chinese government remains secret -- even to Cardinal Zen who, for many (perhaps most) in the West is the face of the Chinese Church. So much for the transparency we hear touted so often in Rome.

Last October, a Taiwanese priest, Fr. Otfried Chan, Secretary General of the Chinese Regional Bishops’ Conference, expressed doubts that the "provisional agreement" even exists as a document. CRUX News reported his interview with journalists:

“Beijing speaks with actions, not with words (or) documents,” Chan said. “So what’s happening (is) they are reinforcing religious oppression very much…they are not sincere, they are not interested in building diplomatic ties with the Vatican, and I think the Holy See understands that now.” 

If there were a written accord, Beijing would be held to it, he said, voicing his belief that the agreement was primarily made with the intention “to make some illicit bishops licit, to legalize their status, to create unity between the underground Church and the official Church. I think that’s the goal of the agreement, but how it looks, nobody knows.” 

Fr. Otfried Chan addresses journalists about the situation in China.

Speaking to journalists from the headquarters of the Chinese Regional Bishops’ Conference, Chan acknowledged that the pope, as a spiritual leader, has a responsibility to care for Catholics all over the world, and because of this, “he must take care of his flock in China and the unity between the official Church and the Vatican Church.”

“It’s his duty, not the politician’s duty,” he said, “but to do this, he needs to dialogue with Beijing. But it failed. It’s not successful, that’s a fact.”

"It FAILED...THAT'S A FACT."

For those who think pussyfooting with commies will improve relations, a U.S. government report indicates a ramping up of religious persecution since the Vatican's 2018 agreement:

“During its 2019 reporting year, the Congressional-Executive Commission on China found that the human rights situation has worsened and the rule of law continued to deteriorate, as the Chinese government and Party increasingly used regulations and laws to assert social and political control,” stated the commission’s annual report, released on Wednesday. 

The report said that “After the PRC Ministry of Foreign Affairs signed an agreement with the Holy See in September 2018 paving the way for unifying the state-sanctioned and underground Catholic communities, local Chinese authorities subjected Catholic believers in China to increasing persecution by demolishing churches, removing crosses, and continuing to detain underground clergy.”

The reality is much worse limiting the religious education of the young, brainwashing them to spy on and report their parents' religious activities. It reminded me of scenes in Orwell's 1984!

But one of the most horrifying aspects of the persecution is the collection of biometric data for organ harvesting:

Until last month, mass collection of biometric data was regarded as an Orwellian fear tactic. That is, until an independent London-based tribunal of international legal and medical experts confirmed that it’s used for mass organ-harvesting from prisoners of conscience.

“After unwilling donors are executed, the tribunal found, their organs are sold to Chinese citizens or foreign “transplant tourists.” Before 2015, China had no voluntary organ-transplant system; the country’s Confucian value system considers it important to keep the body ­intact after death. Yet hospitals perform some 60,000 to 90,000 transplant surgeries each year, the New York Post reported.

Cardinal Zen is no ideologue. When there were concerns about the proper training of priests for both the underground and state church, he taught in the government seminaries (with Vatican approval) to make sure seminarians in both the official and underground churches were well formed. (The underground church has no seminaries, hence candidates attend the CPCA school.) The situation is complicated, and, as the saying goes, "the proof is in the pudding." The pudding cooked up by the current curial officials dealing with China has fallen flat!vThe Vatican's deal with the devil has not created unity for the Church in China, but fomented chaos. 

Last September Cardinal Zen wrote to his brothers in the College of Cardinals begging them to stop the "murder of the Church in China." He considers the agreement one that "encourages the faithful in China to enter a schismatic church (independent of the pope and under the orders of the Communist Party)." You can read the letter and the Cardinal's dubia to Pope Francis about Vatican guidelines regarding the civil registration of clergy in China at LifeSiteNews.

Please pray for our brothers and sisters in China. This isn't just about destroying the faith in that massive country, but it's a warning to the Catholic world. The faith is under attack everywhere. We need to rise up with prayer and with action to defend our most holy faith.