Posted on 04/09/2005 3:36:32 PM PDT by NYer
SHANGHAI, China -
Thousands of Chinese Catholics attended services for Pope John Paul II in Shanghai on Saturday, despite the Chinese government's refusal to forge ties with the Vatican.
"Our pope loved China and loved the Chinese church," Bishop Aloysius Jin Luxian said at a memorial mass at Shanghai's St. Ignatius Cathedral, the city's main Catholic Church.
"He hoped the Chinese church would be united and not divided," Jin said, a reference to the split between the state-sanctioned church and unofficial groups that still revere the pope as their leader.
A symbolic funeral bier was laid at the base of the altar, topped with white flowers arranged in the shape of a cross and fronted by a framed photograph of the pontiff. Scores of clergy from the Shanghai diocese were arrayed in white, purple and gold vestments in the choir of the gothic red brick church, built almost 100 years ago by French Jesuits.
Beijing avoided sending an envoy to John Paul's funeral in a spat over the Vatican's relations with China's rival Taiwan.
Yet the death of the pope has united China's Catholics in mourning, at least temporarily fading the differences between official and underground churches and fueling hopes that Beijing might ease its rejection of any ties between believers and Rome.
Communist leaders ordered China's Catholics to cut ties with the Vatican in 1951 as they reasserted Chinese sovereignty following a century of war and foreign domination.
Churches run by the official China Patriotic Catholic Association, including St. Ignatius, claim 4 million followers. Foreign experts say as many as 12 million more worship in the unofficial churches.
Underscoring China's unease over commemorations of the pope's death, several dozen uniformed and plain clothes officers kept watch outside the cathedral. Plainclothes officers also sat in the pews at a smaller mass for the pope earlier in the morning at the St. Peters church in downtown Shanghai.
In his homily, Jin made no direct reference to the feud between the Vatican and Beijing.
But he said the pope had long desired to visit China, a wish Beijing blocked him from fulfilling.
"Our pope hoped to visit China, but for various reasons was unable to," Jin said. "Both we and the pope regretted this."
The mass, spoken in Chinese and Latin, concluded with three bows toward the altar — the traditional Chinese sign of respect for the dead — as a brass band played funereal music. Many in the pews, largely elderly but with many young people mixed among them, wiped back tears as Jin sprinkled holy water on the pope's portrait a final time.
Despite the somber tone, participants afterward said they rejoiced in the memory of a pope whom many felt had a particular affection for the church in China. Some said they had prayed for a papal successor to visit China.
"He influenced the whole world. If only he could have visited China we would all have been so happy to see him," said Liang Bing, a Shanghai office worker who said his family's Catholic roots go back "many, many generations."
Liang said he thought a new pope might be able to visit, but that it would take time.
"There is going to be a long process involved, but I think it's entirely possible," Liang said.
There are 5 million Catholics in China.
Catholic Ping
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Hard to imagine a billion plus people werent allowed to watch the Pope's funeral.
In China, there are 2 Catholic Churches - the one sanctioned by the state (homiletics are monitored and restricted) and the underground one. This ban on TV coverage should come as no surprise. In China, practicing catholics and bishops are arrested daily, spending months and even years in prison for distributing "the truth". It is a country filled with martyrs to the faith. May the next pope recognize these saint!
On Oct. 21, 2003, John Paul II created 30 new cardinals, including Archbishop Justin Rigali of Philadelphia, in a ceremony in St. Peter's Square.
One cardinal was created in pectore. The best guess is that he is Bishop Joseph Zen Ze-kiun of Hong Kong. Others have suggested Archbishop Stanislaw Dziwisz (the pope's personal secretary), Archbishop Sean O'Malley of Boston, or the Latin-rite Patriarch Michel Sabbah of Jerusalem.
When a person is name a cardinal "in pectore" (in the heart), it means that his name is not made public, and if the pope dies before his name is made public he cannot go to a conclave and elect a new pope. Often, the man himself does not know. In the past, the pope has appointed cardinals in pectore from China or other Communist countries where the government would oppose the appointment. Cardinal Ignatius Gong Pinmei of Shanghai, who spent 30 years in a Chinese prison, was made a cardinal "in pectore" in 1979. In 1989, the year after he was allowed to go to the United States for medical treatment, Gong had an audience with the pope and learned that he had been elevated to cardinal. The pope did not announce the choice until 1991.
SuziQ, I believe you are correct. More than likely the unnamed Cardinal is in China and does not know that he was elevated to this position. Please remember him and all the Chinese Catholics in your prayers. Many of them have been tortured and died for their faith. Like their 'brothers and sisters' in Africa and throughout the world, they have been welcomed into the Kingdom of God as saints.
Just as John Paul II canonized so many oppressed for the faith, I pray that the next pope will rrecognize and acknowledge these brave Chinese Catholics who have given up their lives for our Lord, Jesus Christ. That recongnition is due them!
I don't know what kind of controversy there would be in holding O'Malley or Sabbah in pectore . I'm familiar with the reason for keeping Bishop Dziwisz' name in pectore because a cardinal may not also be the Pope's personal secretary. As for Bishop Ze-kiun of Hong Kong, the Church was established fully in Hong Kong before the British pulled out, and ties protected under the One Country-Two Systems approach.
bttt
This isn't true at all. There is one Catholic Church in China, just like everywhere else.
What you are getting confused about the clerical association called the Chinese Catholic Patriotic Association formed by the government and misnamed by some in the western press as the Patriotic Church. This is an association of clerics in China who are in a variety of positions regarding their standing with Rome vis-a-vis the licitness of their orders and jurisdiction, some openly schismatic and heretical, others openly or secretly in union with Rome.
The Chinese Catholic people themselves simply belong to their local parishes. They are variously afflicted with good or bad Priests and Bishops as the case may be depending upon the beliefs of these men and their standing with Rome and the ability of the government to force them into and to follow their communist inspired clerical association.
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