Posted on 07/15/2016 7:47:01 AM PDT by marshmallow
Catholic officials say a deal is in the works that would defuse a core dispute between the Holy See and China’s Communist leaders: the fate of eight bishops the Vatican views as illegitimate. But the talks face internal resistance on both sides.
HONG KONG/BEIJING – Pope Francis is leading a determined push to fundamentally alter the relationship between the Vatican and China, which for decades has been infused with mutual suspicion and acrimony.
Interviews with some two dozen Catholic officials and clergy in Hong Kong, Italy and mainland China, as well as sources with ties to the leadership in Beijing, reveal details of an agreement that would fall short of full diplomatic ties but would address key issues at the heart of the bitter divide between the Vatican and Beijing.
A working group with members from both sides was set up in April and is discussing how to resolve a core disagreement over who has the authority to select and ordain bishops in China, several of the sources told Reuters. The group is also trying to settle a dispute over eight bishops who were appointed by Beijing but did not get papal approval - an act of defiance in the eyes of the Vatican.
In what would be a dramatic breakthrough, the pope is preparing to pardon the eight, possibly as early as this summer, paving the way to further detente, say Catholic sources with knowledge of the deliberations.
A signal of Francis’ deep desire for rapprochement with China came last year in the form of a behind-the-scenes effort by the Vatican to engineer the first-ever meeting between the head of the Roman Catholic Church and the leader of the Chinese Communist Party. Aides to the pope tried to arrange a meeting when both Francis and Chinese President Xi Jinping.....
(Excerpt) Read more at reuters.com ...
Just hope Francis doesn't throw the underground church under the bus in this process.
Rein in the pope. He is way off the reservation. His jurisdiction must be faith and morals. There is plenty to do there.
I used to go to a Protestant Three-Self (legal) church when I lived in Wuhan. You hear and read all sorts of horrible tales but I never saw any direct persecution.
Where churches got into conflict was with things like building permits. To get those you have to pay a bribe to get to the front of the line. This is true of everyone not just churches because bribes are just ubiquitous when dealing with the party. The church wouldn’t pay the “tea money” so they could never get the paper work filed. The way they worked around that was to find out who the clerks were and where they lived and then evangelize them.
Catholic experience may be different
May God Bless and protect the Catholics and other Christians in China, who are all suffering persecution if they don’t adhere to the “Three-Self Patriotic Movement”, which is the communist pretense of state-sanctioned Christianity.
China has been tearing down non-member churches and destroying their little fellowship groups, as if they are an enemy of the state.
Of course, we all know from the Books of Acts, Romans, and Hebrews, that Christians are instructed to be good citizens of their country’s government (until, of course it completely conflicts with God’s Word), so the persecution is totally unnecessary.
I am not Roman Catholic, but I stand with my Brothers and Sisters in China, and pray that they will not be betrayed by their leadership.
Look for the Red Pope to ABSOLUTELY throw the underground church under the bus.
The PRC murdered many tens of millions of their own citizens.
Pope Che is perfectly fine with that.
Resident Chinese were not supposed to attend a Christian Church, but they were always accompanied by students who, if asked, would just tell the authorities that they were there to study English and make sure their teachers got to and from church safely, not religion.
The authorities would just smile and wave them through. Don't know if this was because of the Beijing Olympics or just China showing a more gentle face when foreigners were around. I expect it was some of both. She was only 19 when she went and had a generally good experience but, of course, some interesting stories to tell as well. She did pick up quite a bit of Mandarin and said it wasn't that hard to learn.
The pope needs to attend to the SPIRITUAL needs of his flock not be pushing politics and a globalist agenda
Agreed. But Pope Frank is so political that he might as well revive the House of Borgia.
Maybe he’ll let the ChiCom’s choose the next pope too.
“The way they worked around that was to find out who the clerks were and where they lived and then evangelize them.”
That is sheer genius; spiritual solution to a pragmatic, earthly problem.
what does this mean?
Papa Tango: "Then he was intelligent and took some steps forward justifying, and because he did this. And today Lutherans and Catholics, Protestants, all of us agree on the doctrine of justification. On this point, which is very important, he [Luther] did not err. He made a medicine for the Church…"
Small groups. The first one worked out exceedingly well.
Pardon them for what? Did they do something other than be appointed Bishop by the Chinese government?
Civil governments cannot consecrate nor appoint Catholic bishops.
Pope Francis is not okay with the slaughter of tens of millions of the Chinese by their tyrannical government!
Did they accept the appointments? And if so, does the “pardon” mean they will get to serve as Bishops?
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