With the bishop of Wenzhou near death in
early September, Chinese authorities told Father Lu Xiaozhou it was time
for a trip.
They took the priest more than 300 kilometres away and kept
him under constant surveillance.
Two
men stayed with him at night and, if he wanted to go for a walk during
the day, remained at his side.
Their job was to make sure he and three
other local church leaders remained far from home when the bishop, Zhu
Weifang, died.
One of those with Father Lu was Bishop
Shao Zhumin, who church protocol designates the next top Catholic.
But
while Bishop Zhu was a member of the Chinese Patriotic Catholic
Association – a government-approved body under government control – his
successor belongs to the underground church, which does not accept
Beijing’s religious authority.
The
two bishops occupied the opposite sides of Catholicism’s long-standing
division in China, and local authorities wanted to make sure Bishop Shao
never reached the top office in Wenzhou, which is in the southeastern
Zhejiang province and is sometimes called the country’s Jerusalem.
“[Authorities]
hope the diocese of Wenzhou will continue to be led by the official
church group,” Father Lu said in an interview.
It
is one of the latest in a decades-long struggle between Beijing and the
Vatican over who has the right to choose church leadership. It’s a
battle that appears to be nearing a truce of sorts, amid hopes that a
deal on the appointment of bishops is imminent.
Delegations
from the Vatican and China have met for a flurry of negotiations over
the last two years, including for rumoured talks in Rome in
mid-November.
Though talks have taken place intermittently since the
1980s, the two sides now appear close to marking the historic end of an
estrangement that dates to Mao Zedong’s 1951 expulsion of the papal
nuncio from China.
“We expect they have
reached an agreement,” said Jeroom Heyndrickx, a Belgian priest who
leads the Ferdinand Verbiest Institute at Leuven Catholic University,
which is dedicated to improving dialogue between the church and China.
Such
a deal is expected to resolve how bishops are appointed in China,
ending a standoff that has resulted in some bishops recognized by either
the Vatican or Beijing – but not both – and left dozens of positions
empty.
All that appears to remain is
final sign-off from Pope Francis, who “from the very beginning, in 2013,
sent friendly messages to to China making it clear that he was open to
friendship, to new relations,” Father Heyndrickx said.
That
may mean people like Father Lu will no longer be taken on forced
holidays, one of the hallmarks of the strong-arm tactics, outright
attacks and, occasionally, incarceration China has used to assert its
primacy over the church inside its borders.
But
the looming prospect of a bridge across China’s most prominent
religious divide has itself fractured a Catholic community with deeply
opposing views on the wisdom of rapprochement with the largest atheist
regime on Earth.
Cardinal Joseph Zen, a
Hong Kong leader who was among the church’s most senior Chinese figures
before his retirement, has warned the deal could legitimize the grasp
of Beijing’s authoritarian government over Catholics.
“Can
you imagine the Vatican going to negotiate with Hitler? With Stalin?”
Cardinal Zen asked in an interview. “I don’t think so.”
The
Vatican, he said, “is preparing to compromise, to surrender.” He
believes Pope Francis developed sympathy for communism from watching
those who suffered for their ideology in South America, where he grew up
in Argentina.
But in China, he said, “they are not persecuted
Communists, but they are Communist persecutors. They kill thousands and
hundreds of thousands of people.”
Others,
including Father Michael Kelly, the executive director of UCANews.com,
see Cardinal Zen as an extremist himself, allied with Hong Kong’s
democracy movement and blind to the millions of Chinese Catholics
deprived of proper leadership. The Vatican, after all, has come to terms
with Communist Vietnam. Why not the same with China?
Father Kelly dismissed the heated talk of a history-changing agreement with China as “hype.”
“The
deal is nothing more than joint appointments,” said Father Kelly. “And
the joint appointment of bishops is as old as the church.” In China,
it’s a pragmatic step to regain Vatican influence, he added.
“The
Communist Party is trying to make the Catholic Church simply a national
church that they can control and manipulate,” he said. “That is what
the Vatican won’t stand to see happen.”
Whatever
arrangement is concluded, the Pope will retain final say on appointed
leaders and “safeguard the prerogatives of the church,” said Father
Heyndrickx, who has closely followed negotiations. “This is for sure.”
Still,
any such deal would likely leave unresolved a multitude of problems,
including the division with the Chinese Patriotic Catholic Association,
or the status of underground parishioners.
They, in particular, “are
likely to feel somewhat betrayed,” given the hardship they have endured
to remain faithful to the Pope, said Anthony Clark, director of the
Asian Studies program at Whitworth University.
It’s also a fraught time for the church to cozy up to China, which has in recent years staged a sweeping religious crackdown.
In
China’s far-western Xinjiang region, for example, authorities have
begun ordering Muslims to report “religious activities” – including
circumcisions and even attendance at weddings and funerals – to a series
of new local oversight committees.
The intent is “to guide religion to
better adapt to the secular society,” a local official told state media
in late 2016.
Authorities have,
meanwhile, removed crosses from hundreds of Protestant and Catholic
churches; entire buildings have been razed. “Now seems a precarious time
for the Vatican to make agreements with Beijing,” said Prof. Clark.
Much of the destruction has taken place around Wenzhou, placing religious leaders like Father Lu at a fraught crossroads.
His
forced vacation in September “was not that bad,” he said, particularly
compared with his treatment in 2003, when authorities placed him under
house arrest for 14 months, cutting off all outside contact because he
had organized an unsanctioned university religious event.
“That was a real loss of freedom,” said Father Lu.
He
and the others have now returned to Wenzhou. But Bishop Shao has been
barred from organizing an inauguration event to assume the top position
in Wenzhou. Authorities also ordered him not to hold large-scale events.
Caught
in the fray, Father Lu expressed faith in church leadership and God,
who he said remains “the one really able to rule history.”
Still, he finds the prospect of a Catholic rapprochement with Beijing unsettling.
“If
China and the Vatican come to some agreement, it will further restrict
underground church clergy,” he said. Perhaps he would be asked to leave
his position “for further study” imposed by China.
It
may be an acceptable sacrifice to secure the long-term welfare of the
church.
But he worries nonetheless.
“As to whether an agreement would
allow the government more control, that’s something the Vatican will
have to consider,” he said.