News from China

A Rift Has Opened in Beijing
Between obedience to the pope and to the communist party, some bishops are choosing the latter. The most stunning about-face has taken place in the capital. A secret letter from Cardinal Bertone. The alarm of Cardinal Zen

by Sandro Magister


ROMA, February 11, 2009 – At the Vatican as well, they had deceived themselves that the Beijing Olympics would lead to greater freedom for the Catholic Church. But the news coming to Rome from China shows the contrary.

Meanwhile, once again the Chinese authorities have not permitted bishops to leave the country, to participate in the synod last October.

In the second place, the episcopal see of Beijing – occupied in recent decades strictly by bishops appointed by the government, and without the authorization of the pope, but "reconquered" by Rome two summers ago with the installation of a new bishop approved both by the government and by the Holy See – is in serious danger of being lost again.

In fact, the new bishop, Joseph Li Shan (in the photo) whom cardinal secretary of state Tarcisio Bertone had hailed as "a very good and suitable person," is increasingly stringing together actions submissive toward the regime. To such an extent that many among the faithful already consider him a "traitor."

In the third place, the communist party has intensified its pressure to subjugate the Church and separate a significant part of it from Rome. This pressure is mainly exercised on the bishops installed by the government. Most of these, year after year, had returned to communion with the pope. But now some of them are wavering.

In July of 2007, Benedict XVI had written an open letter to Catholics in China, to help them establish unity between themselves and Rome. But the process of reconciliation and rebuilding of the Chinese Church timidly undertaken after that letter now seems to have come to a halt.

Last April, a second letter went out from the Vatican to China, this time confidential and addressed only to the bishops. But the letter, signed by Cardinal Bertone, seemed to some of the bishops like a step backward in comparison with that of the pope. It was too deferential toward the Chinese authorities.

"Asia News," the online agency with a special focus on China, founded and directed by Fr. Bernardo Cervellera of the Pontifical Institute for Foreign Missions, has carried out a survey among the Chinese bishops. The results have been called "disturbing."

To such an extent that Cardinal Zen Zekiun, making use of the greater freedom that he enjoys as a citizen of Hong Kong, has broken the paralysis and raised the alarm. He has urged his brother bishops on the mainland not to give in, and to be more courageous in opposing the pressure from the regime.

Here is a thorough reconstruction and analysis of all of these events, written for "Asia News" by Fr. Cervellera:


The bishop of Beijing, the Vatican, and compromising with the Patriotic Association

by Bernardo Cervellera


Just over a year after the ordination of their current bishop, the Catholics of Beijing are divided in their opinion of him, and more and more of them are accusing him of betraying the Church of Rome.

Joseph Li Shan, 44, was ordained on September 21, 2007, with papal approval. But after more than year in office his attitude towards the Vatican seems to have changed. Catholics say that the man who came to replace Michael Fu Tieshan, the patriotic bishop who died a year before, is taking long strides toward a return to patriotism, and autonomy from the Holy See.

The faithful have been taken aback by his way of doing things, by speeches that seem to be slipping conctinually toward absolute submission to the Patriotic Association, dedicated to creating and controlling a Catholic Church independent of Rome.


BISHOP AND SERVANT OF POWER


Some of his speeches are particularly revealing. The first was delivered on November 25, during a training session for priests and lay people. The bishop began by praising the progress enjoyed by the Church thanks to the thirty years of reforms launched by Deng Xiaoping. The faithful saw the use of a religious formation course to pay tribute to Deng's modernizations as a "tax paid to political power." But what came next was even more disconcerting. Bishop Li Shan defended the actions of his predecessor, Bishop Fu Tieshan, who had begun the "glorious tradition of loving the fatherland and loving the Church". "Love the fatherland, love the Church" is nothing other than the slogan of the Chinese Patriotic Catholic Association (CPCA), which wants to force the Church to obey the communist party.

Further on, Li Shan said that "the work of loving the fatherland and loving the Church has suffered grave interference from foreign political powers, and from the clandestine Church in China." The accusation against the Vatican is clear: in the speeches of the communist party, it is the Holy See that is considered "a foreign state that wants to meddle in the internal affairs of China under the guise of religion."

Bishop Li continued: "Some people have focused on our diocese and Bishop Fu, undervaluing the results we have obtained in these years, which is much more than what was done in the previous 700 years . . . causing trouble and trying to convince us to give up the principle of Church self-governance [meaning autonomy from Rome), moving us back into the past."

For the future, Bishop Li stated that it is necessary to "maintain the idea of loving the fatherland and loving the Church, persevering on the path towards the Church’s self-governance," because these two guidelines are "the fundamental guarantee for a healthy development of the Church's work in the capital."

"These principles," he concluded, "are the result of what we have learned from the semi-colonial history [meaning enslaved to the Vatican] of the Chinese Church in the past. They are also the valuable experience of the new life and development of the Chinese Church in the socialist society of the new China."

Naturally, in saying all of this Li Shan was defending the necessity of the CPCA and "democracy" in the Church. According to this principle, the appointment of bishops, pastoral work, and theological issues are entrusted to an assembly of bishops, priests, and laity strictly dominated by the CPCA, debasing the Church's sacramental nature.

The entire speech from November 25, in Chinese, was available on the website of the diocese of Beijing until a short time ago. It was also possible to read on the site the speech delivered by Bishop Li Shan on December 19, at the celebrations for the 50th anniversary of the first episcopal ordinations in China autonomous of the Holy See. Both have disappeared in recent days.


THAT SAD CHRISTMAS EVE


Bishop Li Shan delivered a similar speech on Christmas Eve of 2008. At 7 in the evening, he was visited by Ye Xiaowen, director of the state administration of religious affairs; Zhou Ning, director of the second section of the United Front; Tong Genzhu, deputy minister of the central department of the United Front; and many others, including Beijing deputy mayor Niu Youcheng.

The faithful got goosebumps this time, too. Bishop Li Shan – who seemed set to put an end at last to the era of Bishop Fu Tieshan’s subservience to the party and his steadfast refusal to seek reconciliation with the Holy See – thanked the Chinese government for its help and support for every aspect of the Church's life, vowing that he would continue to hold high the standard of "loving the fatherland and loving the Church," and follow the path of the "independence and self-governance of the Church" [from Rome], seeking to make the Catholic Church a model for building a harmonious society.

In all of these speeches and statements, the tone and slogans used are characteristic of the language of the party, and of the most radical period of communism in China, that of the Cultural Revolution. The faithful are astonished, and are wondering how in the world their pastor could turn so quickly into a Red Guard, showing even more servility toward power than his predecessor did.

Bishop Li Shan was known as a good priest, simple, not very broad-minded but faithful to the pope, capable of arousing passion in the young and particularly open to the underground Church, the one not recognized by the government. His speeches against "foreign states" and the underground Church represent a 180-degree turn in his way of thinking.

According to information obtained by "Asia News," the author of the Christmas Eve speech was not Bishop Li Shan, but the secretary general of the Patriotic Association in Beijing, Shi Hongxi, known for his extremist views. Other sources say the bishop got the speech at the last minute, giving him no opportunity to look through it. But the repetition of the same slogans in three different situations raises the fear that, even if he does not agree with what he read, the bishop is at the very least a puppet of the Patriotic Association.


THE POPE: THE CPCA IS "INCOMPATIBLE WITH CATHOLIC TEACHING"


The CPCA, founded in 1958, has for half a century tried every means possible for dividing the Church, ordaining bishops without the authorization of the pope. In recent years, many bishops of the patriotic Church have asked forgiveness for this separation, and thanks to the generosity of John Paul II and Benedict XVI, they have been reconciled with the Holy See. In January of 2007, the Vatican itself announced that "almost all" of the official bishops recognized by the government are now in full communion with the Holy See as well.

The public letter from Benedict XVI to Chinese Catholics, dated June 30, 2007, reaffirmed this strong communion. But it also highlighted the fact that the CPCA is a structure contrary to the Catholic faith, warning that "the principles of independence and autonomy, self-management and democratic administration of the Church are incompatible with Catholic doctrine."

That the bishop of Beijing, ordained with the approval of the pope, should come to the defense of something that is "incompatible" with the Catholic Church is therefore a serious did feed for the Vatican. A blog run by a few Catholics calls Bishop Li Shan a "time bomb" that will go off against the Church of Rome.

According to information obtained by "Asian News," Bishop Li Shan has repented of his actions and has justified his behavior on the basis of the pressure that he had to undergo. In effect, precisely because of the pope's letter and the restoration of unity among almost all the Chinese bishops, the United Front and the Patriotic Association have, for over a year, launched a series of initiatives to bring the official Chinese bishops back into obedience – to them. The United Front and the CPCA summon them constantly, require them to participate in conferences, meetings, study sessions, political sessions, making their pastoral work very difficult. The bishops are not even able to meet among themselves alone, and go from a life in solitude – at the mercy of the CPCA secretaries – to collective gatherings under the control and indoctrination of the United Front and the state administration for religious affairs.


THE TIMID LETTER OF CARDINAL BERTONE


To keep the bishops united and halt the influence of the CPCA, on April 22, 2008, the Vatican sent a letter to all the Chinese bishops in communion with Rome. Signed by Vatican secretary of state Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, the letter took months to reach the 90 or so bishops in the official and underground Church. Some of them didn't get it until December of 2008.

In it, Cardinal Bertone stressed the "fundamental principles of Catholic teaching" and recalled the value of communion between the bishops and the pope, and among themselves. For this reason he asked all of the prelates, in the pontiff's name, to "discharge courageously your office as pastors," promoting the catholicity of the Church and seeking greater freedom of activity through direct and respectful dialogue with civic authorities. The cardinal also urged on the bishops "to act together," to demand the right to meet as a group and to discuss their problems freely, without any outside interference. Finally, he suggested that the bishops find a "correct attitude to adopt with regard to those entities to which reference is made in section 7 of the papal document." The reference is to CPCA and to its idea of an independent and self-governing Church.

Cardinal Bertone's letter is important because for the first time it asks the official and underground bishops to meet. But it avoids giving them a joint approach to take toward the CPCA.The previous letter from the pope had noted that this is contrary to Catholic doctrine, but did not ask official bishops to resign from them.

Some underground bishops have said that a more decisive stance on the part of the Holy See would be more effective.

So far, official bishops have tried to resist CPCA pressure, but with few results. At the same time, some underground bishops have tried to get government recognition without joining the CPCA, but no local government has accepted this solution, reaffirming instead the central role played by the CPCA in the government’s religious policies.

This problem is even more urgent because national meetings are being prepared to pick the new chairman of the CPCA and the head of the Bishops’ Conference of the Catholic Church in China, a sort of episcopal conference not recognized by the Holy See. The election to these two posts is expected to take place at an upcoming national congress of Catholic representatives. It should be held soon, since both posts have been vacant for some time: patriotic bishop Michael Fu Tieshan, elected president of the CPCA in 1998, died in 2007. Joseph Liu Yuanren, the patriotic bishop of Nanjing, elected president of the bishops' council in 2004, died in 2005.

Imposing controls on bishops, forcing them to attend conferences and political sessions, celebrating the 50th anniversary of the ordination of Chinese bishops separate from Rome, are part of the United Front and the CPCA's attempts to break the will of official bishops and get them to submit to the traditional structures of control.

Many Catholics, both official and underground, are afraid that without clear and specific guidelines from the Holy See, official bishops will be forced by events and individual interpretations of the papal letter into making compromises.


A SURVEY AMONG THE CHINESE BISHOPS


In recent months, more than a year after the release of the pope's letter to Chinese Catholics, "Asia News" conducted a survey among Chinese bishops as to their attitudes towards Benedict XVI’s guidelines. Some answers are startling. On the one hand, some bishops praise the letter and the pontiff's teachings, which urge unity with him and among themselves. On the other hand, they do not seem at all disturbed by the fact that the document describes the CPCA’s programs and policies as "incompatible" with Catholic doctrine.

So in their replies, a number of the official bishops lavishly praised the Association for its "help to the Church" and the "needy," as well as for "taking care of religion." Some bishops in central China went so far as to say that the CPCA and the Church "are one and the same."

A Catholic from northern China told "Asia News": "Official bishops lack guts. When Beijing tells them to get together, they get going right away. This way they fail to follow the directions set out in the papal letter and run the risk of going back to a past of slavery. Sadly, underground bishops, who have always maintained unity with the pope even if it cost them their life and liberty, are almost all under house arrest. A few have disappeared; others are behind bars."

Other Catholics, especially in Beijing, accuse the bishops of being greedy for power and money; this said to be why they accept compromises. "Perhaps Bishop Li Shan is not personally ambitious," said one worshipper in Beijing’s Nantang Cathedral, the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception, "but he is certainly surrounded by people whose ambition knows no bounds, who are willing to accept any compromise to get what they want, and are prepared to sell the little freedom the Church still has in order to please the government."

A priest from the underground Church is somewhat more lenient. "These new bishops in the official Church are young, 40 something,: he said. "They have never lived in a free society. For it is self-evident that Christians must be under the control of the state even in strictly religious matters. Besides, the great figures of the Chinese Church are long gone so that they find themselves without role models."

Many bishops and believers are afraid that given this situation of weakness, 2009 might see a new series of unlawful ordinations, without the permission of the Holy See, designed to build up a core of "patriotic" prelates, all obedient to the Party. This would stop conversions to Catholicism, especially among intellectuals who are rediscovering Church teaching as the foundation for their demands for freedom and respect for the individual.


CARDINAL ZEN: NO MORE COMPROMISES


Out of this ambiguous and confused situation, the clear voice of Cardinal Joseph Zen of Hong Kong has emerged, asking bishops and priests in the official Church to be more courageous and resist making compromises with the regime.

In an article published last 4 January in the diocesan weekly "Gong Jiaobao"" (later reprinted in English by the Sunday Examiner), the cardinal urged Chinese bishops and priests to follow the example of Saint Stephen, the first Christian martyr, and always resist the government when it says or does something that is contrary to the faith. In his article "Inspiration from St. Stephen’s Martyrdom," Cardinal Zen analyzes developments in China’s Catholic Church over the last two years, noting the number of illicit ordinations in 2006, attended by a dozen bishops approved by the Vatican, who went out of fear or deception.

He said that "a ray of hope" shone through in 2007 with a meeting at the Vatican to discuss the situation of the Church in China, and above all with the publication of the pope's letter to Chinese Catholics. The bishop of Hong Kong emphasizes that in the letter, the pope affirms that the goals of the Chinese Patriotic Association are contrary to the Catholic faith, and adds that the CCCPCA itself was a "major cause of the Church’s problems in China."

With the regard to this last point the cardinal strongly criticized certain interpretations of the papal letter, especially one by CICM missionary Jerome Heyndrickx, who said that all of the bishops should join the official Church. In reality, the cardinal says, the pope "admires their uncompromising faithfulness and encourages them to "persevere," as Benedict XVI stated in his Angelus address on the feast of Saint Stephen in 2006.

Zen says that given the danger of serious compromises, the experience of the underground Church is even more valuable. For this reason, the cardinal was blasted the celebrations that on 19 December of last year marked the 50th anniversary of illicit episcopal ordinations in China.

For the bishop of Hong Kong, there is nothing to celebrate, because the system of "self-ordination" is the work of 1950's extreme left-wing radicals who saw the pope as an agent of imperialism. But this view is outdated, at a time when China is celebrating 30 years of economic reforms implemented to oppose this radical mentality.

"Forcing Catholics to go against their conscience is a great insult to the dignity of every Chinese citizen," the cardinal writes. "This is why there is nothing to be proud of or to celebrate. Such celebrations are a sign that the establishment won’t let go, that it wants our great nation to bear the mark of backwardness."

For the cardinal, it is clear that all of the hoopla over the CPCA’s 50th anniversary, its "self-ordinations," is a preparation for meetings to elect the new presidents of the Patriotic Association and the Chinese bishops' council. He suggests the bishops should boycott the next meeting to which they are summoned. "Isn’t taking part in such an ‘assembly’ a show of total contempt for the papal letter? Isn’t it a slap in the face? Can your conscience let you do this? Will God’s people accept it? Will it bring any honour to our nation? Will there be hope for a return to normalcy and the enjoyment of freedom of religion?"

In the article, Cardinal Zen says that some members of the Chinese Church are praising compromises and ambiguity. "Some people, talking to the brothers in the underground community, seem to be saying: ‘We are very smart to accept a compromise! We are in communion with the Holy Father and at the same time are recognised by the government. They give us money and we take care of our faithful. You instead prefer to go to prison; you would rather die. And then what of your faithful; abandoned, with no one taking care of them’. "

The cardinal continues: "So, martyrdom has become a stupid thing? That’s absurd; a short-sighted view! Reaching compromises might make sense as a short-term strategy but it cannot last forever. Being secretly united with the Holy Father and at the same time affiliated with a Church that declares itself autonomous from Rome is a contradiction."

Finally, Cardinal Zen ends with a fraternal appeal: "Dear brother bishops and priests, look at the example of Saint Stephen and all the martyrs of our history! Remember that suffering for the sake of the faith is the basis of victory even if right now it might appear as defeat."