Thursday, July 14, 2011

Chinese cardinal alarmed over threat to church independence

The integrity of the church in China is at stake as China’s Communist government aggressively challenges papal authority, Chinese Cardinal Joseph Zen Ze-kiun said during a visit to San Francisco July 7.

In an interview with Catholic San Francisco, Cardinal Zen, emeritus archbishop of Hong Kong, expressed alarm over the threat to church independence posed by the election of government backed bishops by a “very aggressive” and “defiant” regime.

“The situation is very bad,” the 79-year-old prelate said. He added that “there are too many opportunists who have been ordained as bishops.”

He said the faithful are unsure who is charge and insisted that Rome assert its independence by taking a hard line against all those who participate in questionable ordinations.

“Otherwise the people are confused,” the Shanghai-born cardinal said. “The majority want to be faithful but they are confused.”

Cardinal Zen said “this situation does not favor the growth of the church.”

Cardinal Zen, a Salesian of Don Bosco ordained in 1961, was in San Francisco on a North American tour to visit Chinese Catholics. He said one of his goals was to urge Chinese Catholics to pray for the situation in China and to stay informed.

“It’s not always easy to have the right information,” Cardinal Zen said. “People may be optimistic but it would be wrong optimism.”

Cardinal Zen, an outspoken proponent of human rights, wore a silver jasmine lapel pin as a symbol of freedom.

He said China’s attitude toward human rights is “very bad. It’s hardening; it’s getting worse.”

He judged the chances of a Middle East-style populist movement as “impossible” in China under current conditions.

Cardinal Zen’s visit came in the wake of the second ordination of a Chinese government-backed bishop since November.

On June 29, in southwestern Sichuan province, Father Paul Lei Shiyin was ordained bishop of Leshan -- without a papal mandate -- in the presence of about 1,000 guests and government officials at Our Lady of the Rosary Church in Emeishan, reported the Asian church news agency UCA News.

The same day the government forced postponement of an ordination that had the approval of the pope.

Last November, Father Joseph Guo Jincai was ordained bishop of Chengde in the first ordination of a bishop without papal approval in four years.

The Vatican condemned the November ordination as having “unilaterally damaged" hopes of improved relations with China.

On July 5 Rome issued even stronger language in response to the second government-backed ordination. The Vatican said the ordination was a wound to church unity and had "deeply saddened" Pope Benedict XVI, who desires communion for the church in China.

"An episcopal ordination without papal mandate is directly opposed to the spiritual role of the supreme pontiff and damages the unity of the church,” the Vatican said. The Leshan ordination was a unilateral act which sows division and, unfortunately, produces rifts and tensions in the Catholic community in China," it said.

The Vatican said the survival and development of the church in China can only take place in union with the pope "and not without his consent."

"If it is desired that the church in China be Catholic, the church's doctrine and discipline must be respected," it said.