Posted on 11/10/2018 5:02:57 PM PST by marshmallow
A long-serving MP and a former Member of the European Parliament are among names who have condemned the agreement
A group of English Catholics, including a long-serving MP, have signed a joint letter expressing “profound dismay” at the Vatican’s provisional agreement with Beijing.
Conservative MP Sir David Amess joined Irish former MEP Kathy Sinnott and Professor David Paton in criticising the Vatican for allowing the atheist Chinese government to have a role in choosing bishops at a time of increasing oppression.
“The Chinese authorities have also continued to harass, detain, or hold indefinitely and incommunicado certain leading Catholic clergy, including Bishops Guo and Shao in the last year,” the letter, published in this week’s Catholic Herald, says.
It adds that since the signing of the agreement, the Chinese government has destroyed two Marian shrines.
“All this illustrates the ominous precedent for the Sino-Vatican treaty: the Concordats with European totalitarian regimes in the early 20th century,” it says.
“Cardinal Zen has accused the Vatican of delivering its flock into the mouths of wolves,” the signatories conclude. “History’s judgement may be much harsher than that.”
AsiaNews reported on Monday that four priests from the underground Catholic Church had been taken into police custody for “indoctrination”.
The publication said that the priests were being “indoctrinated on the religious policy of the Chinese government … because they refuse to enroll in the Patriotic Association.”
(Excerpt) Read more at catholicherald.co.uk ...
Ping
Prayers for the betrayed Catholics of China.
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