Cardinal Zen speaks in yesterday’s AsiaNews:
The government of China has asked the Patriotic Association to stop Episcopal ordinations without the consent of the Holy See, said Cardinal Joseph Zen. The Cardinal was speaking after celebrating Mass to take possession of his titular church in Rome. The Cardinal said the Patriotic Association (PA) “was fomenting dissent between the Chinese government and the Vatican” but was “defeating itself” in doing so.
Cardinal Zen, a champion of religious freedom in China, said “he could not tell whether the Chinese government would ever allow Pope Benedict XVI to visit the country”. However, he added: “If they insist on keeping this abnormal situation and make it impossible for the pope to go there, they are defeating themselves.”
The Catholic Church claims the right to be free from governmental interference, including in China, insofar as its internal organisation is concerned, most notably when it comes to appointing bishops. Mgr Giovanni Lajolo, Vatican Secretary for Relations with States, renewed this demand in an interview with the Bucharest (Romania) daily Ziud. The prelate also told the paper that he was confident that relations between the Holy See and the Moscow Patriarchate would improve and that Benedict XVI and Aleksij II might meet the “not so distant future”.
“As in every other country in the world, the Church is not asking for any privileges in China; it only wants the right to organise itself as it sees fit,” said the Pope’s ‘foreign minister’ among other things.
The right of the Church to appoint bishops “is established in Canon Law and does not in any way, shape or form get in the way of how the Chinese state is organised”. By the same token, “China’s political authorities should not interfere in the internal organisation of the Church, most notably in how it selects its bishops,” Mgr Lajolo insisted.
This is from today’s WSJ, but is not online. I don’t think. Thanks to Nancy Nall for sending it along:
As Catholics around the world echoed the Vatican’s condemnation of "The Da Vinci Code," there was a surprise addition to the list of calls for a boycott. China’s official church — set up by the Communist Party to deny the pontiff’s authority over the country’s Catholics — unexpectedly turned more Catholic than the pope. For the first time, it issued a formal directive, instructing its followers not to "watch, listen to and talk about the movie." By contrast, the pontiff has not issued any official edict.
"The movie has many details that go against the Catholic teachings or are even insulting," said Liu Bainian, vice chairman of the Chinese Patriotic Catholic Association (CPA). That’s a bit rich, coming from a body that chooses when to follow papal teachings according to whether it suits the party’s interests.
"If the CPA truly believes in Scripture and the church’s teaching, why don’t they also condemn abortions in China?" asked Joseph Kung, a U.S.-based advocate for China’s underground church.
Instead, the association has repeatedly shown its true colors, issuing letters in support of abortion, sterilization and the Chinese government’s one-child policy.
Now that last bit is news to me. Can anyone provide some sort of documentation or references?
An op-ed on Chinese Christian dissidents, from Sunday’s WaPo:
By instinct and training, we journalists are suckers for political dissidents. Their struggles are the ultimate underdog stories, with prison terms or even death as the stakes. Editors reinforce reporters’ instincts by awarding prime display to the act of protest in its many forms.
By instinct and training, we journalists are skeptics about religious activists. Their appeals are seen in newsrooms as special pleadings from organized interest groups. Editors reinforce reporters’ instincts to treat religion politely but suspiciously. Ours is a secular trade honoring information more than faith.
This professional dichotomy ran through my mind during a recent conversation here with Yu Jie, a Chinese writer who says his political opposition to the Beijing dictatorship is deeply rooted in Christian faith. Yu insisted to me that Christianity will play the decisive role in bringing to China the freedoms that political protesters died demanding in Tiananmen Square in 1989
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