Beijing deal silences Vatican on repression for now

Monday, October 1st, 2018

The Vatican’s deal with China’s totalitarian Communist Party on the appointment of bishops is clearly one of careful calculus, something often ignored by the pope’s critics.

The arrangement allows the Chinese regime to nominate new bishops while giving the Vatican an apparent right of veto.

This compromise is seen as effectively removing a stumbling block to the eventual resumption of diplomatic ties.

But we don’t yet know how well informed this church calculation is in relation to the regime’s long-term objectives, or endgame.

In this regard, some analysts have noted that there is a dearth of Vatican officials who can read and write Chinese, giving rise to doubts about the current depth of their insights into the communist giant.

But we do know this deal is the result of a process that began decades ago, arguably in 1971 when the Vatican withdrew its nuncio, an ecclesiastical diplomat, from Beijing’s arch-rival, Taiwan.

The process to reach some sort of accord was taken up by Pope St. John Paul II amid China’s so-called ‘opening-up’ reforms of the late 1970s and early 1980s.

A downside of the current calculus is self-imposed silence by the Vatican, for no one knows how long, over various forms of repression in China, including of Catholics.

President Xi Jinping’s ongoing crackdown on dissent, in tandem with the official Sinicization of religious practices and institutions, is well documented.

Silence in the face of abuses does not come easily to Pope Francis who has continued to speak out, in a refreshingly freewheeling, heartfelt way, on a wide range of topics.

Doing so has won him admiration around the globe both within and outside of the church.

Pope Francis had personal experience of authoritarianism during the 1975/83 rule of the Argentine junta in his homeland. And he saved many clerics and Catholic faithful by hiding them away from the generals rather than by speaking out against them.

There have been accusations, led vociferously by Hong Kong Cardinal Joseph Zen, that Chinese so-called ‘underground’ Catholics loyal to the pope have been sold-out.

This unofficial church group has refused to join the state-run Chinese Catholic Patriotic Association.

The Vatican’s remarkably detail free agreement on the appointment of bishops — and it has never pretended to be transparent or democratic — claims, very boldly, to be pastoral and not political.

However, this is a stretch even for the casual observer of not just China but also of the Holy See.

Still, in providing no detail the Vatican appears to have, so far, shrunk the target for criticism to that which is already well worn.

With the Communist Party of China, just about everything has a political dimension.

And this has been clearly apparent in the way it has dealt with religion. Continue reading

Michael Sainsbury, former editorial director of ucanews.com, has covered China for 10 years and lived there for more than four years.
Image: Innovation AUS