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Hong Kong’s retired Cardinal Joseph Zen has accused Vatican officials of “a policy of appeasement and compromise” that allowed Communist China’s control of the Church there.
Cardinal Zen said Pope Benedict XVI set appropriate policies, but “his work was wasted by others close to him, who did not follow his line”.
“Saying ‘others’ I mean people in the Vatican, but also those outside who, without the help of the Holy See, would not have done so much damage,” he said in an article on the AsiaNews website.
Earlier, in an interview with the Catholic Register in Toronto, he warned of an impending schism in the Chinese Catholic Church and blamed the Vatican for allowing Communist Party officials to run roughshod over China’s bishops.
“For a long time I have abstained from talking about the Holy See,” he said. “But I think that is unfair. We must be fair to everybody. They [Vatican officials] should take the responsibility.”
The 81-year-old cardinal said it is obvious that the official Chinese bishops’ conference is controlled by the State Administration for Religious Affairs, which also founded the Chinese Catholic Patriotic Association in 1957.
“You can see all the presidents and vice presidents, both in the patriotic association and the so-called bishops’ conference — they are all slaves of the government,” he said. “There are some illegitimate, some legitimate [bishops], but they are all on the side of the government.”
Cardinal Zen said the Catholic faith in China is rooted through Chinese priests and lay people.
“The hope is in the faithful and in the priests, provided we don’t disappoint them too long,” he said. “The faithful, the majority of priests, are still OK. If they keep their faith then we have a future. The priests can help their bishop, they can convert their bishop, not easily but there is a hope.”
Sources:
Image: AsiaNews
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