How the possible Vatican-China agreement could be problematic

Washington D.C., Feb 18, 2017 / 16:02 pm

The archbishop emeritus of Hong Kong expressed serious concerns about a possible agreement between the Vatican and China on the appointing of bishops.

The agreement would essentially allow the government to pick candidates for bishops and put pressure on the Pope to veto them.

"Because how can you allow the initiative of selection of bishops in the hands of an atheistic government and totalitarian government? I want it to start from the Holy See," Cardinal Joseph Zen said.

Cardinal Zen spoke to CNA of the possible agreement between the Vatican and the Chinese government on the ordination of bishops there. The current Archbishop of Hong Kong has expressed hope that it will come about.  

Currently, Cardinal Zen explained, "the Vatican approves certain names of people" as candidates and the government does "pay attention" to these names, approving some of them.

"The Chinese government accepts this compromise instead of having more problems," he said.

In the new proposal, however, episcopal candidates would be elected by the clergy, with the Pope having the final say of accepting or vetoing the candidates.

The problem, Cardinal Zen insisted, is that the government will inevitably meddle in the clergy's election. "There is no real election in China," he said.

The pressure would then be put on the Pope if he must repeatedly veto government-appointed candidates.

Hong Kong's current archbishop, Cardinal John Tong Hon, has defended the new proposal, noting that the Chinese government must now recognize the Pope as the supreme head of the Church and insisting that the final authority on appointing bishops rests with the Pope.

"I would prefer the other way around," Cardinal Zen insisted. The government has not shown promise that it would accommodate the Vatican's past concerns, but rather has proven that it wants control over the church in China.

"Even after so much dialogue," he said of the government, "still they were so unkind to the Church." He pointed to the recent ordination of two bishops where Lei Shiyin, an excommunicated Chinese bishop "forced his presence to the ordination" and "took part" in it.

The incident was a "slap in the face of the Holy Father," Cardinal Zen said. "How can the government allow such things? Or even to order such thing? It's very unkind. It's a way to say 'we are still the masters'."

The state has also meddled in the internal affairs of Catholic schools in Hong Kong, he said, which could prove especially detrimental in the future.

"As church we have full freedom," he added, "but we have suffered a heavy drawback, which is they have taken away our right of running education. They have changed the law."

While all schools are state-subsidized, the church under the old plan would "present the management committee" for the schools to the government, usually composed of teachers, parents, and alumni. This committee would be "approved" on formality. A new law has changed that, he said.

"We have no mechanism to intervene. Because until now, until the new law, we run the schools inside the system," he said.

Now the Church would recommend only 60 percent of the management committee and wouldn't even "have full control" over that percentage.

"So there is no guarantee anymore the school would go on according to our vision and mission," he said.

The "underground" Catholic church in China "enjoys a certain amount of freedom" as opposed to the state-run Chinese Catholic Patriotic Association, he said, as the government "tolerates" its underground existence as whole villages may be Catholic and priests say mass in homes.

"The majority of the priests and bishops in the official church, they may, in their heart, still very much united with the universal church, but they are under tight control," he said.

And the situation "is not changing at all, because the system is already very well established at the national level," he added. The current General Secretary of the Communist Party of China Xi Jingping is about "tightening control," he said, and "there is really no foundation for any optimism."