Hopes for Improved China-Vatican Relations Hit a RoadBlock

c. 2005 Religion News Service VATICAN CITY _ After months of backroom negotiations aimed at harmonizing relations between the globe’s largest church and most populous country, China and the Vatican find themselves locked in a bureaucratic wrestling match with little room to maneuver. Ever since the death of Pope John Paul II this past April, […]

c. 2005 Religion News Service

VATICAN CITY _ After months of backroom negotiations aimed at harmonizing relations between the globe’s largest church and most populous country, China and the Vatican find themselves locked in a bureaucratic wrestling match with little room to maneuver.

Ever since the death of Pope John Paul II this past April, a wave of optimism has been building over the possibility that decades of icy relations between China and the Vatican were beginning to thaw.


But that wave subsided Saturday (Sept. 10) after the Chinese government appeared to reject Pope Benedict XVI’s invitation to four Chinese bishops to join him in Rome for an upcoming synod, an international congress of Roman Catholic bishops.

Church officials say the pope’s invitation to the Chinese bishops was aimed at reconciling the Communist Party’s Catholic Patriotic Association of China and the country’s “underground” church, which is loyal to the Vatican.

An estimated 5 million Chinese Catholics belong to the state-controlled church, which severed ties with the Vatican in 1951 after China’s atheist Communist Party took control of government. The underground church is believed to have at least 8 million faithful.

A key sticking point has been who holds power to appoint Chinese bishops. The Vatican maintains the pope has sole authority in naming bishops in China or any other country, while Catholic Patriotic Association of China officials say that power belongs to the communist government.

Two of the bishops, Jin Luxian of Shanghai and Li Duan of Xian, are key leaders in the official church who reportedly have the Vatican’s tacit approval. A third, Bishop Li Jingfeng, 85, of Fengziang, was recognized by the official Chinese church in 2004 despite his longtime membership in the underground church. The fourth, Bishop Wei Jingyi, 47, of Qiqihar, is a well-known papal loyalist who has spent four years in Chinese labor camps for his ties to the underground church.

Reconciliation might be expected to undercut the powers of the state-controlled church and marginalize powerful CPAC officials like Bishop Michael Fu Tieshan of Beijing, Vatican observers note.

“They are just worried about their uselessness,” said the Rev. Bernardo Cervellera, a China expert with the Pontifical Institute for Foreign Missionaries and founder of the Vatican-linked AsiaNews Web site. Cervellera said the Vatican had bypassed the CPAC and sought approval of the bishops’ visit from the highest levels of Chinese government.


Seeking CPAC approval, he said, would violate church doctrine. “The pope invited the bishops as he always does. The (CPAC) wants that decision to pass through them. But this is something that theologically cannot be done,” he said.

Two days after the pope issued his invitation, China’s official Xinhua news agency quoted an unidentified CPAC spokesman who praised the gesture as a sign of “good intentions of the pope” but accused him of “showing no respect” for the CPAC.

“If the Holy See has deep sincerity to improve China-Vatican relations, we hope they take real actions, rather than put up new barriers,” the spokesman was quoted as saying.

The Vatican and China do not have diplomatic ties, but have been working through unofficial channels to strengthen relations in the wake of John Paul’s death.

After his election in April, Benedict said he hoped to establish diplomatic relations with countries that still had no formal ties with the Vatican, a statement many interpreted as a clear reference to China. Days after the pope celebrated his inaugural Mass, an unofficial meeting between Archbishop Giovanni Lajolo, the Holy See’s foreign minister, and officials from China’s Foreign Ministry took place in Rome.

At issue was Beijing’s failure to send a delegation to John Paul’s funeral _ a move that prompted commentary on China’s poor reputation for religious rights while providing a diplomatic coup to rival Taiwan, which sent a delegation.


According to Mario Marazziti, a spokesman for the Community of St. Egidio, a Rome-based humanitarian group close to the talks, China has insisted that the Vatican cut ties with Taiwan before relations can move forward.

In his statement to Xinhua, the CPAC spokesman cited concerns about Benedict’s invitation to Taiwanese Cardinal Paul Shan Kuo-hsi to attend the synod, calling the gesture a violation of Beijing’s “one China” policy.

Vatican observers say they consider Beijing’s objections a smokescreen. They note that the papal nuncio or ambassador to China was moved to Taipei only after being expelled from Beijing in 1951.

According to Joseph Kung, a U.S.-based advocate for the underground church in China, the Vatican cannot move its embassy back to Beijing until it has assurances from the government that Chinese Catholics will be given full religious freedoms.

These assurances, Kung said, depend on whether Beijing will grant the pope direct authority over Chinese clergy, particularly the naming of bishops, in accord with canon law.

There is speculation that the Vatican has secretly approved more than 90 percent of bishops in the official Chinese church and has given its nod to recent ordinations, including that of Shanghai’s Jin Luxian. By inviting him to participate in the synod, Benedict appeared to confirm the speculation.


Kung said the government is cracking down on Catholics who disregard Chinese authority out of obedience to the pope.

“It has been advised by the Vatican that the two churches reconcile with each other, but you can’t do this under threat,” Kung said.

KRE/RB END MEICHTRY

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