Catholics in mainland China have protested
publicly on websites their disagreement, discontent and anger at
Beijing’s revocation of the appointment of the courageous Thaddeus Ma
Daqin as ‘coadjutor’ bishop of Shanghai.
They did so within hours after the news of the latest, definitive punishment of Bishop Ma was broken by UCA News on December 10.
Citing mainland sources, the news agency reported that the decision had come from the Bishops Conference of the Catholic Church in China (BCCCC).
While there has been no official confirmation of this to-date, Vatican Insider has learned that the Chinese Catholic Patriotic Association (CPA) and the BCCC plan to issue a joint-statement in Beijing on December 12, about this affair which has rocked the whole system of control of the Catholic Church set up by the Communist authorities in the late 1950s.
Within hours of the publication of the news more than 40 mainland Catholics had publicly expressed their anger and discontent, on UCA News’ Chinese language blog-site.
Another popular mainland Catholic website, “Tianzhujiao Zaixian” (Catholic online) posted the news but then decided to close the comments’ section on the website lest the heated reaction would give the Chinese authorities a pretext to shut it down.
Tianzhujiao Zaixian, however, carried out an opinion poll that revealed the real depth of feeling among Chinese Catholics. 47 percent of the 460 who voted in the poll think “the penalty is invalid” and “strongly support Bishop Ma.”
Another 18 percent say they are “shocked” by the bishops’ conference decision and hope it would withdraw the decision before it is too late. An additional 17 percent hope clergy in other dioceses in the mainland will express solidarity with Bishop Ma by words and deeds.
Many protestors questioned the legitimacy of the BCCC’s decision. “It is not entitled to appoint bishops in the first place and now it dismisses a bishop. Does that have any meaning?” asked a Catholic who uses the penname Tianzhu Yongcheng (eternal city of God).
“A bishop is a bishop! Are they regarding him as the Party’s Secretary, whom they can sack anytime they want?” asked another reader, Jianyue Chuxian.
A third person, who goes by the name “Rocky”, warned the BCCCC that if it publicizes the dismissal of Bishop Ma, “you would accomplish your schismatic act and publicly cut yourself off from the Catholic Church.”
Several Catholics denounced the Chinese Catholic Patriotic Association which advocates an independent Church, and called on all the faithful to come out to protest and defend the One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church.
Sources in Shanghai report that almost all the Catholic priests, nuns and lay faithful – both in the ‘open’ and ‘underground’ Church communities, are “in total solidarity” with Bishop Ma. “Never has there been such unity among Catholics in the Shanghai diocese since the early 1950s when the Communists first began their persecution of the Church here”, sources in that megalopolis told Vatican Insider.
Father Thaddeus Ma Daqin was ordained bishop of Shanghai on July 7 with the approval of Pope Benedict XVI and the Beijing authorities.
The Chinese side presented him as ‘coadjutor bishop’ to the 95 year-old Bishop Jin Luxian, while the Holy See referred to him as ‘auxiliary bishop’, though it too considered him as the successor to both the ‘open’ Church Bishop Jin and to the equally elderly ‘underground’ Church, 94 year-old fellow Jesuit, Bishop Fan Zhongliang
As is well known, Bishop Ma greatly upset the Chinese authorities when at the end of the ordination ceremony, he announced publicly that he was abandoning all posts of responsibility in the CCPA so as to devote himself fully to his ministry as a bishop, a stance warmly applauded at the mass and which subsequently gained strong approval from most of the priests, religious and laity in the Shanghai diocese.
The Chinese political and religious authorities cracked down immediately on the courageous bishop, fearing that his defiant act could attract a wider following thereby undermining their control of the mainland Catholic Church.
They detained him on the evening of his ordination, and took him to Sheshan seminary on the outskirts of Shanghai, where he has been under house arrest ever since.
Since July 7, they have subjected him to an ongoing series of punishments and humiliations. They never published his ordination in the official press, thereby delegitimizing him.
They prevented the seminarians from returning to the seminary, and so held him in isolation from the outside world, deprived of his freedom of movement and speech – except for the use of his blog.
They have prohibited him from wearing his Episcopal robes or insignia when celebrating mass, and since December 4 they have barred him from concelebrating mass with other priests at the seminary.
In addition to removing the possibility of his ever succeeding Bishop Jin Luxian as head of the Shanghai diocese, the BCCCC has also suspended him from the exercise of his priestly ministry for the next two years.
The authorities have also deprived him of his former roles as Dean of the Pudong deanery and parish priest of Our Lady of Lourdes Church in Tangmuqiao, both in Shanghai diocese.
In other words, the Chinese authorities no longer recognize him as a bishop in good standing, though in the eyes of the Holy See he is still the legitimate auxiliary-bishop of Shanghai. In a variety of ways, they have sought to crack his spirit and get him to recant and embrace again the CCPA, but they failed. These latest punishments are the visible proof of that failure.
In addition to punishing Bishop Ma, the Chinese authorities have also cracked down on those priests and nuns in the Shanghai diocese whom they consider to have been in some way complicit with the bishop in his challenge to their system of control of the Church.
Furthermore, the BCCCC will henceforth require a “pledge of loyalty” at the ordinations of bishops, a source in Shanghai told UCA News. It is not yet clear to whom the new bishops will have to pledge their loyalty, though some observers think it could be to the CCPA. This should become clear in the coming days.
Officially, the punishments of Bishop Ma are imposed by the BCCCC, but that body is effectively controlled by the CCPA, and both these state- established entities are “incompatible” with Catholic doctrine as Pope Benedict stated clearly in his 2007 Letter to Catholics in China.
Those who understand the Chinese situation well are convinced that behind the crackdown on Bishop Ma by these two state entities, there lies a political decision at a much higher level.