Pope Francis has spoken of his admiration for Chinese culture. He has greeted a delegation from China, accepting a silk imprint of an ancient inscription about Christianity. And he had his picture taken with a Chinese bishop in St. Peter’s Square last month.
Now,
he appears to be considering more significant action: a grand
compromise with China’s Communist leaders to heal the bitter,
decades-old rift that has divided generations of Chinese Catholics and
prevented the pope from openly exercising authority in the world’s most
populous country.
The Vatican
says talks are continuing, and much work remains before a deal is done.
But Francis’ apparent determination to see a rapprochement with Beijing
has already caused unease among some who are worried that he might give
too much away to the hard-line Chinese president, Xi Jinping.
“Most
agree that the two sides must talk,” said a priest in Hebei, a northern
province with many “underground” Catholics who reject state oversight.
“But
there is the risk that if the pope moves too quickly, the underground
priests will feel the church will lose its autonomy,” he said, speaking
on the condition of anonymity. “Some people have sacrificed a lot, and
worry that their sacrifice will not be recognized.”
The
Communist Party expelled Catholic missionaries after taking power in
1949, condemning them as tools of Western imperialists, and has required
Catholics to worship in “patriotic” churches under state oversight.
But
a third or more of China’s estimated nine million to 12 million Catholics
worship in “underground” congregations that are loyal to the pope and
have resisted state control, sometimes enduring persecution and
imprisonment.
The
Vatican has long dreamed of returning to China, bringing the
underground church out of the shadows and healing divisions among
Chinese Catholics.
Under Francis, negotiations with Beijing over reconciliation have gained momentum.
“We
need patience, a lot of patience,” Cardinal Pietro Parolin, the Vatican
secretary of state, who has overseen talks with China, told reporters
this month in Bologna, Italy.
Though
expectations have been building, a breakthrough has been elusive given
the Communist government’s deep suspicion of foreign and religious
influences as subversive, and the fears of Chinese Catholics wary of
state interference in their faith, said people closely following the
talks.
“There are still difficult issues that are not yet agreed upon,”
said the Rev. Jeroom Heyndrickx, the acting director of the Ferdinand Verbiest Institute in Belgium, which studies Catholicism in China.
The
central dispute is over the power to name new bishops and the fate of
existing bishops in China. For the Catholic Church, bishops are divine
successors of the apostles, to be appointed by the pope.
But China has
long insisted on controlling ordinations, arguing that anything else
amounts to interference in its internal affairs.
Most
Chinese bishops are recognized by both the Vatican and the Chinese
authorities, but there are several in the state-backed church who are
excommunicated and working without papal approval, including some
rumored to have broken their vows of chastity and fathered children.
There
are also more than two dozen underground bishops, many of whom are
viewed with suspicion by the government and a few of whom are believed
to be in prison.
Any
deal would have to decide what happens to both groups.
“The Vatican
can’t be seen as selling out people who have suffered and gone to jail
for their faith,” said a Vatican official, who requested anonymity to
speak candidly about the secretive talks.
There is little doubt of Francis’ enthusiasm for China.
In 2014, he sent a greeting
to President Xi while flying through Chinese airspace on his way to
South Korea.
And his encounter with Joseph Xu Honggen, the bishop of
Suzhou, in St. Peter’s Square last month was said to be the first public
meeting between a pope and a bishop resident in mainland China since
the Communist Revolution.
“For me, China has always been a reference point of greatness,” the 79-year-old pontiff told an Italian reporter in January.
Mr. Xi has repeatedly warned against religion’s being used to undermine Communist rule, and his government has torn down crosses from Protestant churches in eastern China and instituted new controls on worship.
But
an environmental foundation run by an official with longstanding ties
to Mr. Xi attended a Vatican conference in September and presented the
pope with a gift heavy with symbolism: a silk drape bearing an
inscription from an ancient tablet that records the presence of
Christianity in China nearly 1,400 years ago.
One
benefit of reconciliation for the Chinese government may be that the
Vatican eventually decides to establish diplomatic relations with
Beijing and cut formal ties with Taiwan, the self-governing island that
China considers part of its territory.
Already,
most bishops appointed by the state-controlled church quietly win the
pope’s approval before ordination, or seek and receive papal forgiveness
and acceptance afterward.
But Beijing sometimes appoints bishops
against the Vatican’s wishes, and the Vatican sometimes appoints bishops
without Beijing’s approval.
In August, Cardinal John Tong, the bishop
of Hong Kong, disclosed in a pastoral letter
that “the Chinese government is now willing to reach an understanding”
on the issue. But he also acknowledged concerns among members of the
underground church and their supporters.
“They
wonder if Vatican officials or the pope himself may go against the
principles of the church,” he noted, before assuring parishioners that
Francis “would not accept any agreement that would harm the integrity of
faith of the universal church.”
Hundreds
of underground Catholic clergy were jailed under Mao’s rule.
But today,
the term “underground” is often a misnomer, because many unregistered
churches operate openly and are warily tolerated by local officials.
Underground clergy still risk harassment and detention, though,
especially if they resist demands to join the state-run Chinese
Patriotic Catholic Association.
Thaddeus Ma Deqin,
an auxiliary bishop in Shanghai, disappeared in 2012, apparently into
house arrest, after he denounced the association at his ordination.
Later, a blog statement in his name recanted and praised the association as “irreplaceable.”
A year ago, Pedro Wei Heping,
also known as Wei Heping, an underground priest in northwest China, was
found dead in a river.
The police said he had drowned himself, but
supporters said suicide was unthinkable and suspected foul play.
“China
is negotiating with the Vatican, but the political environment is
tightening,” said Sister Beatrice Leung, a professor in Taiwan who studies Chinese Catholicism.
Supporters
of Francis’ approach said the Chinese church was in danger of
splintering further if there was not a compromise.
Rival claims to lead
some Chinese dioceses and the absence of bishops in others have left
many priests and parishioners isolated or feuding, they said.
There are
as many as 70 dioceses in China without a bishop, said Anthony S. K. Lam, the executive secretary of the Holy Spirit Study Center in Hong Kong.
“These
days it’s widely accepted that bishops need the Holy Father’s approval
to serve — maybe there are just a few older people who might disagree,”
said the Rev. Francis Li Jianlin, a priest in the government-registered
church in Henan Province, in central China.
“The acceptance of both
sides will be needed, but the method is still being explored.”
In a sign of the divisiveness of the issue, Cardinal Joseph Zen Ze-kiun, the outspoken retired bishop of Hong Kong, wrote in August
that Francis was too eager for a deal with Beijing and argued that “the
possibility of an unacceptable agreement now looks likely.”
There
is a precedent for a papal compromise with a Communist government. In
the 1990s, the Vatican reached a deal effectively giving the Vietnamese
government a veto over the pope’s appointment of bishops.
Cardinal
Tong, the Hong Kong bishop, noted the Vietnam model in his pastoral
letter, and appeared to suggest that Francis could make appointments
based on the recommendations of a local bishops’ conference.
But he
noted that a legitimate conference would have to include China’s
underground bishops and exclude state-backed bishops found unacceptable
by the pope.
“Candidates would be chosen by the local church but not disliked by the authorities,” said Elisa Maria Giunipero, an expert on Catholics in China at the Catholic University of the Sacred Heart in Milan. “The pope would have the final say.”
In an article
in the party’s flagship People’s Daily newspaper in August, China’s top
religious affairs official said the state-backed church must continue
to “itself select and ordain bishops” and “firmly exercise leadership
over Chinese Catholicism.”
This month, a bishop was ordained in Changzhi, a city in northwest China, with the approval of both the Holy See and the Chinese authorities.
Francis has said he will not be rushed.
“We’re speaking about this slowly, but slow things always go well,” he told reporters last month when asked about the talks. “Fast things don’t go well.”