Sandro Magister notes that the Vatican and the Pope continue to shame themselves in regard to China:
In defense of the last spaces of freedom for the citizens of Hong Kong, erased by law by the Beijing government, bit by bit the democratic governments around the world are making their statements. But not the Vatican authorities and the pope.
Yet they would have every reason to break their silence, especially now that the communication channels between Rome and China are open and navigable as never before.
On the leeway to be granted to the foreign media, Beijing decides how and when it wants, even brutally. On March 17 it abruptly expelled thirteen journalists from the major American newspapers The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and The Washington Post.
To the Vatican media, however, Beijing is offering golden bridges. During the seventy days of lockdown over the coronavirus pandemic, during which Pope Francis has televised his morning Masses at Santa Marta all over the world, “the voice and face of the bishop of Rome have entered the homes of countless Chinese Catholics every day” the Vatican agency “Fides” has reported. Plus the possibility to enjoy “the sound of the simultaneous translation of the pope’s words into Chinese,” thanks to the most used – and monitored – messaging app in China, called WeChat, with a billion active users.
Also connected to WeChat is the website of the brand-new Chinese edition of “La Civiltà Cattolica,” the historic magazine of the Rome Jesuits directed by Antonio Spadaro that is printed with the prior authorization of the Vatican authorities and fully reflects the thought of Pope Francis.
The first issue of the Chinese edition of “La Civiltà Cattolica” went online on April 20, and its web address is made up of the initial letters of the two words that translate the name of the publication, “Gōngjiào Wénmíng”:
The inauguration of the Chinese edition of the magazine was accompanied by a letter of congratulations from the secretary of state, Cardinal Pietro Parolin, with the usual accompaniment of pledges “of respect, esteem and trust toward the Chinese people and their authorities.”
But of course there is no space in the magazine either for Cardinal Joseph Zen Zekiun, bishop emeritus of Hong Kong and hero of the city’s peaceful protest, or for Burmese cardinal Charles Maung Bo, author of a harsh accusation against “the lies and propaganda” with which the Chinese authorities “have put millions of lives around the world in danger,” by falsifying the origins of the coronavirus epidemic.
While on the other hand, against similar accusations made by American secretary of state Mike Pompeo, the “Global Times,” an expression of the Chinese communist party, has curiously called on none other than the religion of the pope for support, accusing Pompeo of being “a traitor to Christianity” in that he is disobedient to the “ninth commandment” (the one against false witness, ninth for some Protestant groups but for Catholics the eighth).
In China the repression of religious freedom remains severe, and in Hong Kong there is no counting the arrests of high-profile advocates of democracy, including Christians. But everything is happening amid the silence of the Vatican authorities and of Pope Francis, who seems to have other things on his mind. In the one-minute video message he released in March to call for prayer for the Church in China – delivered in Spanish with the Mandarin translation below – he found time to warn Chinese Catholics not to “engage in proselytism,” as if it were this is their capital vice.
On the media landscape, the Vatican has distinguished itself in China in recent months by its works of mercy. Starting with the delivery from Rome in early February, when the epidemic still seemed confined to Wuhan and the surrounding area, of 700,000 masks placed in envelopes with the coat of arms of the pontifical almoner. The first to report on this, with emphasis, was the “Global Times,” the tabloid of the very official “People’s Daily.”
In March, the cardinal secretary of state announced the sending of a gift from Pope Francis to the Chinese charitable organization Jinde Charities, which deals with humanitarian aid and whose headquarters is in Shijiazhuang, 200 miles from Beijing. The gift was 200,000 euros.
Then the flows reversed. In early April Xinde Press, the media branch of Jinde Charities, sent a letter recommending that the pope “wear a mask too” along with three shipments from China to the Holy See of masks, surgical gloves, coveralls, and protective glasses, which were then forwarded by the Vatican to various beneficiaries in Italy.
On April 10, in Beijing, the Chinese foreign ministry spokesman publicly praised the Vatican for this effective solidarity in “safeguarding global health security.”
The fact is that this media idyll acts as a screen, for the Vatican, for what is happening in Hong Kong.
There the diocese has been without a real bishop since the sudden death in January 2019 of its ordinary at the time, Michael Yeung Mingcheung, and is being provisionally governed by Cardinal John Tong Hon, who had been its bishop until 2017.
The natural successor would be auxiliary bishop Joseph Ha Chishing, but he is considered too close to Cardinal Zen and the liberal currents of the city, and therefore too distasteful to Beijing for the Holy See to opt for him, even though Hong Kong is in no way under that halter agreement signed on September 22 2018 which gives to the Chinese authorities first choice of each new bishop.
A candidate to Beijing’s liking would be Peter Choy Waiman, current vicar of the diocese. And he is the one thought to have been chosen by Rome as the new bishop of Hong Kong. The appointment was given as imminent in January, but has remained pending since then.
While the Beijing government has been wasting no time, installing in February as new head of the office of the state council for the affairs of Hong Kong and Macao Xia Baolong, a stalwart of President Xi Jinping and his political teammate in Zhejiang, where he distinguished himself for intolerance against “underground” Protestant and Catholic communities. Between 2013 and 2017, when Xia was vice president of the communist party in that region, it is estimated that 1,200 crosses and dozens of churches were razed to the ground.
It comes as no surprise that Xia’s appointment provided an opportunity for the last British governor in Hong Kong, the Catholic Chris Patten, to harshly criticize the Vatican authorities for their subservience to Beijing, in an interview with “The Tablet” on February 28.
Go here to read the rest. The Pope is too busy dialoguing with the wolves to hear the cries of the sheep.
“Pope” Francis is a Communist, an instrument of the devil, undermining the Catholic Church and the mission of Christ. He should be condemned and rejected by all Catholic and the free world.
I am sorry but the offensive attack to Pope Francis in your publication is a clear statement against the Catholic Church. You cannot be Catholic and at the same time state that the Holy Father is “an instrument of devil.” Your original article was the incendiary motivator for this reaction. Shame on you!
We have robust debate here Antonio. I would suggest that you acquaint yourself with how various saints criticized the popes of their day:
Saint Catherine of Siena to Pope Gregory XI: “Cursed be you, for time and power were entrusted to you and you did not use them!”
Saint Cardinal Newman on Pope Pius IX: “It is not good for a Pope to rule for twenty years-he becomes a god and then has no-one to contradict him.”
Dante, who is now treasured by the Church, placed several popes in Hell. Criticism of popes, even harsh criticism, is very much part of the Catholic Tradition.
He isn’t a Communist. Unlike John Paul II, he gives very little evidence of acquaintanceship with any kind of social theory. What he is, is an exemplar of what might be called the “Argentine mentality” in political economy, whose expression has been Peronism. In 1928, Argentina qualified as a 1st World country by the standards of the day, with a standard of living which compared favorably to most European countries. Now it is a middle-income country which (in contradistinction to Chile and Uruguay) shows no sign of improving its relative position among the world’s economies or even holding its own. That’s what the Argentine mentality gets you.
NB, American politicians from Franklin Roosevelt to Ralph Nader to Bernie Sanders have been advocates of very injurious things. We’ve been fortunate in that Roosevelt got push-back from the courts and that a concatenation of forces prevented the pathologies of the early 1970s from being maintained in time. Right now, the system’s general tendency toward stagnation may keep Sandersism at bay, but its also preventing the reforms from which we would benefit (and may desperately need).
If you want to understand what passes for Vatican diplomacy, the old French proverb explains all:
“No enemies to the left.”
Well, at least Pope Francis came out against racial injustice here in the US. That’s something.
It is good that the shepherd smell of the sheep. It is not good that his breath smell of mutton. We need our shepherds. Too often, they seem blind to us. Speaking from personal experience, having actually owned sheep, even an hour’s inattention can allow death to creep in from the dark. (In my case, it was the ignorance of a city girl trying blithely to go country too fast.) Lord make haste to help us, Lord make haste to save us.