Father Bernardo Cervellera, a longtime observer of Sino-Vatican
affairs, is deeply troubled by recent moves made by China’s communist
authorities.
"We are back in the 1950s,” said Fr. Cervellera, a missionary of the
Pontifical Institute for Foreign Missions and editor of institute’s
influential Asia News website.
"Honestly, I would say that with these elections we are taken back to
the time of Mao Zedong and the foundation of the Patriotic
Association,” the state-authorized Catholic Church established by the
communist ruler.
Fr. Cervellera has for many years been a sharp critic of the regime
in Beijing and a cautionary voice on the Church’s relations with the
regime. In a Dec. 9 interview with CNA he said recent developments do
not offer much cause for optimism.
The troubles began Nov. 20 when communist authorities appointed
Father Guo Jincai a bishop, in express defiance of Vatican wishes and
without the Pope's approval.
In a gesture that sparked further outrage
from the Vatican, authorities forced at least eight bishops loyal to
Rome to participate in the rogue ordination.
This week, communist officials again forced bishops loyal to Rome to
take part in elections for the government-run Catholic Patriotic
Association and Bishops' Conference of the Catholic Church.
Neither institution is recognized by the Vatican.
While others see recent developments reflecting a more delicate political balancing act
by the two sides, Father Cervellera believes many in the Church are
being overly optimistic about the intentions of the communist government
in Beijing.
Fr. Cervellera said Chinese officials are sending a clear message
that the communist party — and not the Vatican — is in charge of the
Chinese Church.
He said the recent elections to the Patriotic Association and the
so-called Bishops' Conference were meant "to wound the Vatican" and set
up obstacles to unity in the Church.
The elections installed a bishop ordained without papal approval to
head the bishops’ conference.
A bishop loyal to Rome was elected to head
the Patriotic Association. Both bishops were the only candidates
nominated to run for the posts.
Installing a legitimately ordained bishop to the presidency of an
organization not approved by the Vatican is another show of force by
communist officials. The move is intended to signal that Beijing, not
Rome, is "master of the Church," he said.
Fr. Cervellera, who worked for a time as university professor in
Beijing and is former head of the Vatican’s missionary news agency,
Fides, serves as an unofficial counselor to the Vatican on Chinese
affairs.
He believes that Vatican officials have been “perhaps too optimistic”
in thinking that Pope Benedict XVI’s outreach to Chinese Catholics and
government authorities would lead to new respect for the Church.
In
fact, he says, little has changed since the Pope’s historic 2007 open
letter to Chinese Catholics.
In part, Fr. Cervellera believes, the government's provocative
actions were motivated by the Chinese Patriotic Association, which feels
threatened by any moves to strengthen ties with Rome.
He said
association members are keenly concerned to preserve power and thus
their jobs and control of Church finances.
"The more the Vatican tries to have a dialogue with the government,
the more the Patriotic Association thinks that it's coming to its end,"
he said.
He also believes the government sees control of the Church as a way
to maintain power over a population dissatisfied with rising inflation
and a growing disparity between rich and poor.
Then, there is the issue of communist ideology.
"I think they really
cannot understand what freedom of religion means, that there is
something in the conscience, in the awareness of the person which
doesn't belong to the party or the state, but belongs only to God," Fr.
Cevellera said.
Catholics in China, he explained, have “freedom of worship, but not
freedom of religion.”
True freedom of religion would mean that the
Church would have the power to govern itself without interference from
government officials.
The situation now, he said, is “terrible.” Chinese officials have
created "a problem with our communion from the sacramental point of
view."
Chinese Catholics loyal to Rome have been put in a difficult
position.
They fear that the bishops not approved by Rome will from now
on preside over or be present at all ordinations of new bishops.
That
would render these ordinations illegitimate from the Catholic point of
view.
The result would be a Church led by bishops who are fact bishops
in name only.
In the meantime, both the official state-sanctioned Church and that
which remains "underground," unwilling to subject itself to communist
authority, continue to be united and, paradoxically "strengthened" by
their persecution. There is no freedom for either, Fr. Cervellera said.
As for the future, he hopes that recent Popes’ initiatives to open
the Church for China's nearly six million Catholic has not been in vain.
"My hope is that all the work done for the unity of the Church by
John Paul II, Benedict XVI and the Church in China can continue,” he
said.
SIC: CNA/INT'L