Posted on 11/06/2016 5:42:17 PM PST by marshmallow
COMMENTARY: What Worked in Poland May Not Work in China
A Holy See-China accord, which would lead to the establishment of diplomatic relations with Beijing, would presumably allow the underground Church and the patriotic Church to unite and freely practice the faith. How free will that be? Reports that a rapprochement between the Holy See and the communist government of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) have grown more hopeful — or foreboding — in recent weeks. Since the PRC set up an official “patriotic Church” in the aftermath of Mao’s 1949 revolution, Catholics in China have been divided. There are those who belong to the patriotic Church regulated by the Chinese communist government and those who belong to the underground Church, which considers membership in the patriotic Church disloyal to Rome.
The sticking point is apparently the appointment of bishops. According to various reports, the Holy See may be willing to allow the Chinese government to propose candidates for vacant dioceses, from which the Church would then make a final selection.
The Chinese situation is a reminder that the appointment of bishops has a long history of entanglement with civil power. One of the great achievements of the First Vatican Council’s declaration of the universal jurisdiction of the supreme pontiff was — after centuries of varying practices — to remove the state from the appointment of bishops in principle. In practice, though, the Church exercised this liberty with some constraints. Indeed, 2016 marks the 60th anniversary of a compromise in Poland that sheds some light on the current Chinese situation.
After the postwar occupation of Poland by Stalin’s Soviet Union, the new primate of Poland, Cardinal Stefan Wyszynski, had to work out many questions about survival in an atheist regime.
“Thus, in 1950, the Church and the Polish government agreed......
(Excerpt) Read more at ncregister.com ...
What Worked in Poland May Not Work in China
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Especially not when the Pope is now a communist.
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