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[Barf Alert] Spadaro defends Pope Francis on China In a seven-page interview entitled This Pontificate is a time for sowing and not for reaping in the August issue of the German theological monthly Herder Korrespondenz,the editor in chief of the Jesuit journal La Civilta Cattolica, Fr Antonio Spadaro SJ, discussed Pope Francis’ style of governance and the Vatican’s policy on China. “The place where Francis makes his decisions is not at his desk but in his chapel at morning prayer,” he told his interviewer. Francis did not have a detailed reform plan but proceeded by listening and meditating. “If he sees that, after...

Vatican bishop says Holy See’s secret deal with Chinese Communist Party will be renewed Xi Jinping, president of China. The secret deal, signed in 2018, preceded waves of increased persecution of Christians in China. ROME, August 10, 2020 (LifeSiteNews) — A Vatican bishop close to Pope Francis has said that the Holy See will renew its controversial secret deal with China and that “the initial experience went well.” With the two year Vatican-China agreement due to expire on September 22, Argentine Bishop Marcelo Sánchez Sorondo, the chancellor of the Pontifical Academies of Sciences and Social Sciences, told the Chinese Communist...

Catholic philanthropist Jimmy Lai arrested in Hong Kong Arrest of media tycoon under new security law is ominous for press freedom in the city One of Hong Kong’s leading Catholic philanthropists, media tycoon Jimmy Lai Chee-ying, has been arrested along with members of his family and company management as Beijing continues its swift implementation of the brutal new national security law (NSL). Lai, 72, has donated millions of dollars to Catholic causes and has been retired Cardinal Joseph Zen’s biggest financial backer. This has raised fears in some quarters that the prelate, who like Lai is a trenchant critic of...

Vatican Poised to “Renew” Sellout of the Underground Church in China An article in Asia News sounds the alarm about a prospective renewal of the “provisional agreement”—i.e., betrayal of the Church in China—between the Vatican and the Butchers of Beijing, as I prefer to call the Chinese Communist Party.Asia News points to a piece in the Global Times which reveals that “Negotiations between China and the Vatican on the renewal of the agreement on bishop appointments is proof that the framework has worked well for the past two years, which will help elevate the bilateral relations to the next level,...

Vatican Renews Betraying Agreement With China Francis will renew the secret 2018 agreement with China by which he betrays the Catholics to the Communist State.Both sides are "satisfied" with the agreement which is about to expire in September. Vatican Bishop Marcelo Sanchez Sorondo told GlobalTimes.cn (August 5) that the experience went “well.”Sorondo doesn't offer daily Mass nor say the breviary but believes that the Chinese regime is the "best implementer" of Catholic social doctrine.By suspending the agreement Francis would have to admit his mistake, but he prefers to sacrifice the Church rather than his reputation.Across China, statues of Christ and...

[Barf Alert] China, Vatican to Extend Controversial Deal Communist Party newspaper: 'Framework has worked well' The Vatican is to renew its secret deal with China after negotiations on bishops' appointments proved that "the framework has worked well for the past two years," a Chinese Communist Party newspaper reported Wednesday. Bp. Marcelo Sánchez Sorondo sings the praises of China Global Times claimed Argentine bishop Marcelo Sánchez Sorondo confirmed the renewal, saying "they are going to renew it, which means the initial experience went well." The bilateral secret agreement is due to expire Sept. 22. Sorondo, a philosopher, is current chancellor of the Pontifical...

U.S. Ambassador for Religious Liberty Warns Vatican: China Is ‘at War with Faith’ Sam Brownback, U.S. ambassador-at-large for international religious freedom, said China’s hacking of Vatican computers should warn Church leaders the nation’s communist government is not to be trusted. Speaking with Crux, a U.S.-based online Catholic news outlet, Ambassador Brownback said he really hopes “that the Vatican would look at this and see what they are dealing with,” in reference to revelations this week that hackers tied to the Chinese government had infiltrated the Vatican’s computer networks beginning last May. “If I were a Vatican official and seeing this...

Chinese state-backed hackers infiltrated Vatican, cybersecurity firm says ROME — An American cybersecurity firm has said that a Chinese state-backed hacking group targeted and infiltrated the Vatican this year, in what the firm described as an espionage mission probably aimed at gaining an advantage in diplomatic negotiations.The reported hacking comes at a time when the Vatican and Beijing are looking into extending a controversial agreement on the process of appointing Catholic bishops in China. That provisional deal, signed two years ago, was aimed at healing a decades-long rift between the Holy See and China and eliminating a system in which...

Pope Francis’s Silence on Xinjiang Speaks Volumes A pope dedicated to human rights has said nothing on China, thanks to a secret deal with Beijing. It is Francis’s silence that shocks me most. Almost every Sunday, as he prays the Angelus, he rightly references some injustice somewhere in the world. He has spoken often in the past not only of the persecution of Christians around the world but of the plight of the Rohingyas in Myanmar; the conflicts in Syria, Yemen, Ukraine, and Nigeria; and religious freedom for all.One country—and one country alone—is noticeable by its absence in his prayers...

[Barf Alert] Vatican-China agreement: Catholics keep the faith in historic deal despite slow progress If James Su Zhimin is still alive, he would have turned 88 this month. While he has not been seen for 17 years, Su is still listed by the Holy See, the worldwide government of the Catholic Church, as the Bishop of Baoding in China’s Hebei province. Between 1956 – five years after the Vatican and Beijing broke off diplomatic relations – and 1997, Su was arrested at least eight times, spending more than 30 years in prisons and labour reform facilities for refusing to switch...

Two years after China-Vatican agreement. Repression against minors and churches (II) Priests forced to attend government training courses; underground clergy seized to convince them to join the Patriotic Association. Catechism classes closed; minors removed from churches; sacred buildings under construction blocked, closed or seized. Two years after the agreement, there are far greater difficulties. Rome (AsiaNews) - Two years after the Agreement between China and the Vatican, repression towards Christian communities, both official and underground, has grown. These two testimonies, part of an ongoing AsiaNews investigation (click here) are witness to this. Francis highlights the pressures that all priests receive...

[Barf Alert] As Vatican-China agreement approaches two years, opinion still divided VALLA BEACH, Australia (CNS) -- China has announced that Bishop Paul Ma Cunguo of Shuozhou, a Vatican-recognized bishop, has joined the official state-run Chinese Catholic Patriotic Association.It is the third such concession made by Chinese authorities inside a month as it prepares for a new round of talks with the Vatican in Rome by the end of July. The talks are aimed at refreshing the provisional two-year September 2018 agreement on bishop's appointments, reported ucanews.com. The talks will be the first between the two sides since November 2019, most...

Outrageous that this is described as anything but a riot. The incompetency of the CPD exempt structure is on full display here. There's no reason these assholes shouldn't have been gassed a lot quicker than they were.

[Catholic Caucus] Cardinal Zen calls out Pope Francis for not answering dubia about ‘murder’ of Chinese Church PETITION: Support Cardinal Zen's plea to stop the "murder of the Church in China"! Sign the petition here. VATICAN CITY, July 6, 2020 (LifeSiteNews) — It has been a year since Cardinal Joseph Zen made an emergency trip to Rome in an attempt to warn Pope Francis about the Vatican’s just-released pastoral document that gives priests in China reasons why they should register with the Communist government. The 88-year-old retired bishop of Hong Kong marked the anniversary this July by noting on his blog...

[Catholic Caucus] Zen: Cardinal Parolin Is Murdering The Chinese Church Cardinal Joseph Zen has recalled the publication of the Vatican June 28, 2019 Pastoral guidelines for China.On OldYosef.hkdavc.com (July 6), he writes that the document oddly bears no signature. Thus, Zen asked then Prefect of the Congregation for Evangelization, Cardinal Filoni, “Did you refuse to sign the document?” He answered, “Nobody asked me to sign.”He asked the Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith: “Have you seen the document before it was issued?” The answer, “Now everything about China is exclusively in the hands of the Secretary...

Analysis: Pope's Hong Kong omission complicates all the narratives On Sunday morning, journalists covering the Vatican beat got word from official Vatican communications channels, strongly suggesting Pope Francis would be using his remarks to the faithful at the Angelus to address the ongoing crisis in Hong Kong.When he’d prayed the traditional noonday prayer of Marian devotion, however, mention of the troubled island city was conspicuous by its absence, and journalists were scrambling for an explanation. The omission is serious: either Pope Francis decided for some reason—on his own and at the very last minute—to skip the appeal, or someone convinced...

Are Francis & his Ally China about to go down like the Titanic? Thomist scholar Dr. Taylor Marshall who heads the New Saint Thomas Institute in his YouTube channel said the Francis Vatican's biggest concern in 2020 will be "money" because their money sources such as in the United States and other places are drying up. Marshall stated that the Francis deal with China which betrayed the Chinese Catholic underground Church is about "money": "They are worried they are going to lose all the money... [their] striking the deal with China is a way to get money from China."...

Cardinal Zen contradicts Hong Kong cardinal: China’s new national security law will hurt freedom of religion 'We can see no benefit, no true religious freedom' from the Vatican's deal with China two years ago, Cardinal Zen says. HONG KONG, June 30, 2020 (LifeSiteNews) ― China has imposed a new security law on Hong Kong that Cardinal Joseph Zen believes will have a deleterious effect on religious freedom. In a Cantonese video produced by the “Catholic Faithful Watching the Hong Kong National Security Law,” Cardinal Zen, 88, said the national security law imposed upon Hong Kong by the mainland government cannot...

Multiple media sources have said the Roberts had trouble adopting their children. They had made multiple attempts to adopt without success. Married in their 40’s natural birth at that time was virtually impossible. "Lisa Tucker McElroy’s John G. Roberts Jr.: Chief Justice reveals that their adoption experience was “long and difficult.” In the summer of 2000, a birth mother chose the Roberts to adopt her baby. … Another adoption agency had called them. They called back, and the agency offered another baby. Jack and Josie were born just four months apart. The exact circumstances of Roberts’ adoption remain a private...

T[hird Communist-Approved Bishop Since Vatican-China Deal More secrecy and confusion Last week Peter Lin Jiashan was installed as a state-sanctioned archbishop of Fuzhou, making him the third communist-approved appointment since the secretive Vatican-China deal was reached in September 2018. The clandestine nature of the Vatican-China deal, coupled with the Holy See's favorable actions toward the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), render the details of this latest appointment as clear as mud.Cdl. John Tong Hon Who appointed Jiashan and who approved? Did the CCP appoint him and the Vatican approve or did the Vatican appoint him and the CCP approve? The only people...