China Analysts Say Vatican’s Agreement With the Chinese Communist Party Ignores Negative Realities

National Catholic Register ^ | September 22, 2022 | Edward Pentin

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China Analysts Say Vatican’s Agreement With the Chinese Communist Party Ignores Negative Realities

Pope Francis and his secretary of state, Cardinal Pietro Parolin, support the deal’s renewal despite the absence of tangible benefits for the local faithful.

VATICAN CITY — As the Holy See prepares to renew its provisional agreement with the People’s Republic of China, recent remarks by Pope Francis and his secretary of state, Cardinal Pietro Parolin, have been criticized by China-watchers and experts as naïve and out of touch with the reality facing Catholics in China and Hong Kong. 

The Pope told reporters on his way back from Kazakhstan last week that the Vatican’s bilateral dialogue with China’s communist government was  “going well” but “slowly because the Chinese pace is slow, they have an eternity to move forward,” and because they are a people of “infinite patience.” The Pope also said he “didn’t feel like” characterizing China as “antidemocratic because it is such a complex country, with its own rhythms.”  

The Holy Father discussed the case 90-year old Cardinal Joseph Zen Ze-kiun, who was put on trial this week in Hong Kong, accused with others of failing to register a pro-democracy support fund. The Pope ambiguously commented that Cardinal Zen “says what he feels, and you can see there are limitations there.” And the Holy Father notably failed to offered any words of encouragement or empathy for the cardinal, who has pleaded not guilty,  and stressed that he himself tries to “support the path of dialogue.” , 

The Pope appealed to the faithful not to “lose patience,” adding that much patience is needed “but we must go with dialogue.”

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China experts and others expressed bewilderment over the Pope’s remarks. On his comment that China moves slowly and his call for patience, Benedict Rogers, the founder of Hong Kong Watch, a charity promoting human rights, freedoms and the rule of law in the China-administered territory, pointed out that the Chinese Communist Party “can move fast when it wishes to.”

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Red Pope Ping

[Tell It Right]

By telling the Catholics in China their churches have to be run by Chicom bishops, Pope Jorge is pushing Chinese Catholics (maybe 12 million strong) into Protestant churches (maybe 23 million strong).