Cardinal Zen Against the Vatican Diplomacy in China

L'Espresso Online ^ | 1/11/16 | Sandro Magister

[marshmallow]

In the speech that he addressed on January 11 to the diplomatic corps accredited to the Holy See, with a large section focused on migrants, Pope Francis has not said a word about China.

But we know that this great country is in the foreground in the attention of Francis, which he remembers the impetuous response to a reporter's question: "If you go to China? Tomorrow!".

In mid-October a Vatican delegation went to Beijing. And it transpired that he discussed the procedures for the appointment of bishops, whose recent settlements have taken place almost all to the will of the only communist authorities, in defiance of the authority of the pope.

And the delegates discussed the Vatican he would not require advance as a condition "sine qua non" of the negotiations, the release of Bishop Su Zhimin of Baoding, some time in jail, and the Bishop Ma Daqin of Shanghai, to house arrest for more than three years.

The meetings would come to nothing. which has not prevented the Vatican secretary of state, Cardinal Pietro Parolin, to declare that "talk is already positive" and "is part of a process that hopefully will end with an agreement."

Even more optimistic is the picture of the current relations between Beijing and Rome dashed from a book published recently, written by a Chinese Shanghai converted to Catholicism as an adult and a research fellow at the University Sophia Focolare in Loppiano in Tuscany:

Kim Claret Sheung Yan, "The Gospel beyond the Great Wall", EMI, Bologna, 2015

But there is also a downside. And it is the deadly indictment of Vatican diplomacy published by the Chinese Cardinal Joseph Zen Zekiun, bishop emeritus of Hong Kong - former advisor of Benedict XVI for China but marginalized by Pope Francis - the day of the.....

[jobim]

Thank you for this tellingly crucial news. The pattern remains intact; our fears proceed apace.