The Vatican’s Silence . . . Upcoming Assembly Of Chinese Catholic Representatives Causes Worry

By FR. BERNARDO CERVELLERA

(Editor’s Note: The gathering of what is termed the “sovereign” body that governs the Chinese Church will be held in Beijing from December 26 to 30. For Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI, as expressed in his 2007 Letter to Chinese Catholics, that body is “incompatible with Catholic doctrine.” Its function: to affirm that the Church is the “property” of the state [and the party], and further divide the faithful. An example from the past: In 2010 many bishops were kidnapped to force them to participate.
(Official and underground Catholics are appealing to the Pope for judgment on this assembly and the episcopal ordinations in the presence of an illegitimate bishop. Catholics around the world must ask the Chinese government to respect the dignity and religious rights of its citizens.
(Fr. Bernardo Cervellera is editor in chief of AsiaNews.)

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ROME (AsiaNews) — From December 26 to 30 the Ninth National Assembly of Chinese Catholic Representatives will be held in Beijing. It is the most authoritative gathering of the official Church in China, the one recognized by the government. In its statutes such a meeting is called the “sovereign body” over the Church.
The assembly brings together dozens of official bishops recognized by Beijing — those recognized by the Vatican and those who are not recognized, illegitimate, and even excommunicated. They will be joined by representatives of the Patriotic Association (PA), be they Catholics or atheists, as well as a number of priests, nuns, and lay people.
In the last meeting, in December 2010, there were 341 members. The assembly is tasked with outlining fields of commitment for Catholics in society, Church activities, episcopal appointments, and even matters of theology. The assembly also votes for the renewal of the president of the Chinese Bishops Council (a sort of episcopal conference not recognized by the Holy See because it does not include underground bishops) and the president of the PA.
It is not yet known what specific topics will be addressed in the upcoming gathering. AsiaNews sources say that PA officials have traveled far and wide throughout China to invite the bishops to the meeting verifying (and sometimes promising) the possible election of prelates to the two major charges.
It is common knowledge that there are no free and fair elections in China: Everything is prepared behind the scenes so that the assembly vote is reduced to being a mere formality and its conclusion foregone.
Possible candidates for president of the Council of Bishops include Joseph Shen Bin, 46, bishop of Haimen (Jiangsu), or John Baptist Yang Xiaoting, 52, bishop of Yulin (Shaanxi).
Candidates for the presidency of the Patriotic Association include Joseph Guo Jincai, 48, illegitimate bishop of Chengde (Hebei). The first two are both bishops recognized by the Holy See; however, the last is one of eight illegitimate bishops. Indeed, Guo Jincai, ordained in 2010, was the first in a number of bishops ordained without papal mandate, ushering in a new chapter of harassment and violence against the religious freedom of the Christian community.
Other sources, however, expect that the assembly will confirm the current presidents: Joseph Ma Yinglin, illegitimate bishop of Kunming (conference chair), and Fang Xingyao of Linyi (president of the PA), who is close to the Beijing government.
Many lay Catholics and priests view the assembly with indifference and regard it as an opportunity for some opportunists devoid of any real concern for the mission of the Church in China to continue their climb to power.
But many priests of the official and underground Church are offended by this meeting that mixes “rice and sand,” the official bishops in communion with the Pope and bishops excommunicated together, treating them as equals and forcing them to share in the sacrament of unity.
What is of further concern is the fact that the bishops are not in charge of proceedings — as would be the case for a Church that claims to be “apostolic” — but the leaders of the Ministry of Religious Affairs (State Administration for Religious Affairs, SARA), almost confirming that the government, or the Communist Party, commands the Church in China to the point of meddling in strictly religious matters such as the appointment of bishops, issues of doctrine and liturgy, missionary choices.

The Vatican’s Silence

These priests recall that the assembly, the Council of Bishops, and the Patriotic Association have been branded as “incompatible with Catholic doctrine” by Benedict XVI in his Letter to Chinese Catholics (2007).
“And yet,” one of them said to AsiaNews, “attending these meetings, joining this association has become an obvious fact, which no longer causes any scandal, so much so it’s almost a necessary element of faith in China. This cheapens the meaning of faith and the Sacrament of the Eucharist, an expression of communion with Christ and with the Pope.”
Several priests of the unofficial church, which does not adhere to the PA and because of this is persecuted, are amazed at the Vatican silence on the whole affair. They, as well as many priests of the official Church, are asking the Holy See and Pope Francis to speak out, criticizing this manipulation of faith; that is, “we are awaiting his pronouncement.”
In fact, when SARA organized the previous assembly (December 7-9, 2010), the Commission for the Church in China — still operative at the time, led by Benedict XVI — had asked the priests and the bishops bound to the Pope to avoid “making gestures (such as, for example, sacramental celebrations, episcopal ordinations, attending meetings) that contradict communion with the Pope” (March 2010). And many bishops have followed this indication so that SARA delayed the appointment and eventually even physically forced several bishops to participate.
So far, the Holy See has been silent. Some Vatican commentators, however, with an interpretation that echoes the PA, have been advising the Vatican to keep quiet because, after all, the meeting desired by SARA is purely political.
It may be a “purely political” “thing,” but in China everything is political, even religion.
The Assembly of Chinese Catholic Representatives is indeed of singular worth: to affirm that religion is the property of the state (or party). In doing so SARA also obtains a second result: It divides the Church more and more, increasing the gap between official and underground Catholics. And this is an ecclesial problem.
In addition, the policy choices made in the assembly have direct consequences on the life of the Church in the (poor) prospects of evangelization and in the appointment of bishops. This is why the Vatican’s silence seems to many faithful and priests to be an endorsement of the situation or an even complicit agreement.
If you look at previous gatherings, you realize that the assemblies have been convened precisely to proclaim these party truths: the state “ownership” of the Church and the Catholic religion and its division. In 1998 (January 17-20), at the Sixth Assembly, the bishops wanted to elect as president Anthony Li Duan of Xian, known as a great pastor faithful to the Pope. But the party decided to roll out the patriotic bishop of Nanking, Joseph Liu Yuanren, and the illegitimate bishop of Beijing, Michael Fu Tieshan.
In 2004 (July 7 to 9), there was still a hosanna to the “independence of the Church” (from the Holy See), in submission to the party, which resulted in the reconfirmation of Liu Yuanren and Fu Tieshan.
In 2004 there was an attempt — in the words of Ye Xiaowen, then director of the Religious Affairs — to destroy the canonization of the Chinese martyrs, which took place in 2000. It had seen a convergence of all Catholics on the cult of the martyrs: booklets distributed to all the faithful; common celebrations between official and unofficial communities; gestures of reconciliation. The campaign launched against the canonization and the assembly frightened official bishops and the gestures of reconciliation soon faded.
The assembly was then supposed to have convened in 2009, and maybe even a few years earlier, given that in 2005 Liu Yuanren died, and Fu Tieshan in 2007. But the letter of Benedict XVI to Chinese Catholics unsettled the Chinese government, while now more than 90 percent of the bishops had reconciled with the Pope and labored — at times with fatigue — for the reconciliation between official and underground communities. These germs of unity delayed the assembly convocation, which was postponed until the end of 2010, with police often physically forcing the bishops to participate.
To humiliate the bishops and divide communities, in addition to the assembly, SARA (or more precisely the PA), used the instrument of illegitimate ordinations without papal mandate: in 2000, in 2006 (with the ordination of Ma Yinglin, the current president of the PA), in 2010-2011, before and after the assembly.
They are currently using the exact same methods: ordinations with obligatory participation of excommunicated bishops (Chengdu and Xichang) and convocation of the assembly in late December. The Vatican has also been silent on this violation of the sanctity of the sacrament.

A Divided Party

Since 2000, all these attempts have another purpose: to make relations between China and the Vatican more difficult, detonating conflict to the breaking point. Since 1999, the Holy See and China have been trying to talk with rapprochements, meetings, exchanges of views, but something always happens that forces the partners to separate. Still, in all these years, the responsibility for the failure falls on the PA (linked to the United Front and SARA).
All this is due primarily to the fact that in a future agreement between China and the Holy See, the PA function and its control over the Church will be discussed: although not an ecclesial association, it intrudes on the life of the Church and even places itself above the bishops.
The second reason for this attitude is due to internal issues: a rift between the Chinese Foreign Ministry and the Ministry of Religious Affairs increasingly apparent. The first clearly favor a more relaxed relationship with the Vatican, which would allow China to have a more dignified and acceptable status in the international community; others see the Vatican and its demand for freedom as a threat to their power.
A party source in Beijing has told AsiaNews that the presence of excommunicated Bishop Lei Shiyin in Chengdu and Xichang was demanded by SARA and the United Front and not by the foreign ministry, which was embarrassed into silence.
But the Vatican has remained silent, leading the faithful and Christians around the world to believe that now the celebrations with illegitimate bishops are something obvious and religious freedom is no longer “the litmus test of all human rights” (John Paul II), but a superfluous good that you can do without in order to save a faint hope in diplomatic relations.
For all this, the official and underground Catholics are appealing to the Pope for an authoritative judgment on the assembly and ordinations involving illegitimate bishops under police force.
But it is important for the whole universal Church to urge the Chinese authorities to respect the dignity and religious rights of its citizens, without forcing them to participate in rallies and to do things against their conscience.