SINOGRAPH Tensions with Rome on
smoother track By Francesco
Sisci
BEIJING - Although there is not yet
a thaw in relations between Beijing and the
Vatican, the climate is much warmer than it was
during the tensions of last year.
Beijing
felt soothed after a conciliatory statement from
the Holy See last week at the end of the yearly
summit on China. In fact, there is collaboration
on the selection of some 10 new bishops that will
take place in the coming months. In recent weeks,
the two sides jointly appointed a bishop, Jian
Shen, of the Diocese of Jiangmen in the southern
province of Guangdong.
China broke off
diplomatic relations with the Holy See in
September 1951. At the heart of the issue is the
appointing of Catholic bishops in mainland China,
who are now named by the Chinese Patriotic
Catholic Association, the body created by the
Communist Party to control
the church in China. Beijing's position is that
bishops should be appointed by itself; the Holy
See's position is that bishops can only be
appointed by the pope.
Today, the two
sides are developing a new relationship. Recent
Chinese consultations with the Holy See were
carried through Hong Kong and the Philippines. The
central authorities in Beijing would prefer to
stay out of it and leave discussions to local
authorities. However, local Catholics are often
not very coherent and united in promoting a
particular candidate for appointment as bishop.
Archbishop Savio Hon, the new secretary of
Propaganda Fide and a Hong Kong native, played a
central role in the thaw. His recent interview
with the CEI (Conference of Italian Bishops)
newspaper of Avvenire has been translated and
circulated freely on the Internet with photos of
China, an obvious wink to the bishop of Beijing.
In the past, such an interview would have been
censored or blocked.
A key development
occurred last year in a meeting between Cardinal
Paul Shan of Taiwan and Wang Zuo'an, the new
minister of the Religious Affairs department. To
Beijing, the interview had at least two aspects: a
religious character and an element concerning the
Taiwan issue.
Beijing wanted to ensure
that Taiwanese Catholics were not fighting against
the reunification of the island with the mainland,
as it seems they did a decade ago by supporting
Chen Shui-bian, the president in favor of a
unilateral declaration of independence of Taiwan
from the rest of China.
Beijing believes
it was the Taiwanese Catholics who undermined the
possibility of normalization of ties between China
and the Vatican by suggesting in 2001 to choose
October 1 as the date to canonize over 100 Chinese
saints. Beijing considered the choice of the date,
China's national day, as a provocation and
discussions were broken for years.
China
also wanted Shan to understand its reasons for
supporting a kind of diplomatic truce with the
current Taiwanese President Ma Ying-jiu. Beijing
in fact is not pushing for diplomatic relations
with the Holy See, which recognizes Taiwan, in
order not to further reduce Taiwan's diplomatic
space and thus give face to Ma. Beijing wants Ma's
support and commitment in the process of gradual
and prudent reunification with China that he has
already undertaken.
Finally, there is the
crucial question of religion, on which Shan, 89,
hit the right notes with Wang, saying, "China and
the Vatican needed some time. The government has
its own powers, and the Catholic Church has its
own. Both must respect each other."
Translated from the double twists of
Chinese and the Curia language, it means that both
must cooperate in the selection of bishops, and
that there cannot be a unilateral decision from
the government.
For his views, Shan was
"rewarded" with an invitation to visit China for
about a week, starting June 4. That might just be
the beginning, since other important visits could
soon follow.
In turn, this should begin to
smooth out some of the future bumps in the road.
It should also help to cure last year's wounds
caused by the ordination of Guo Jincai as bishop
of Chengde, which the Holy See declared "seriously
unlawful", and then the choice of an illegitimate
bishop, Ma Yinglin, as president of the Chinese
Bishops' Conference. Some Catholics in Rome had
demanded that offenders be considered
"schismatic," which would have poisoned relations
with Beijing.
However, the next few weeks
will not be quiet. The new "model" for relations
gives more power to local branches of the
Patriotic Catholic Association. There two or three
new bishops who have not been yet been agreed upon
by Rome and Beijing. Here it is unknown whether
local authorities will wait, as Rome has
requested, or will be eager to act and thus
exacerbate the problems in bilateral relations.
Francesco Sisci is a columnist
for the Italian daily Il Sole 24 Ore and can be
reached at fsisci@gmail.com
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