Vatican City, Feb 3, 2018 / 01:25 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- Several sources familiar with a proposed deal between the Chinese government and the Holy See have said the landmark agreement is not only a possibility, but an “imminent” certainty that could come to fruition as early as this spring.
While no specific timeline has been given for the agreement, “I’ve heard that it is imminent. And in China, in many areas and environments, it is already taken as a done deal,” Henry Cappello told CNA Feb. 2.
President of the “Caritas in Veritate International” organization, Cappello travels to China on a regular basis to offer training to the country’s bishops, and has strong ties with both those approved by the Holy See and those backed by the communist government’s Chinese Patriotic Catholic Association.
Cappello was in China two weeks ago, where Joseph Ma Yinglin, the government-backed bishop of Kunming, explained the proposed deal to him.
Without the Vatican’s consent, Ma was tapped by the patriotic association to head the diocese in 2006. After his episcopal ordination, Ma’s excommunication was declared by the Vatican, because he was ordained a bishop without approval from Rome. In 2010 he was appointed president of the Chinese patriotic association’s bishops’ conference.
As part of the agreement, which has been widely reported in recent days, the Vatican is expected to officially recognize seven bishops who are out of communion with Rome, including 2-3 bishops, one of which is Ma, whose excommunications have been explicitly declared by the Vatican.
Cappello said the proposal has already been discussed in China, and he believes “this is the direction that things are going.”
In 1951 Beijing broke official diplomatic ties with the Vatican. Since the 1980s they have loosely cooperated in episcopal appointments, however, the government has also named bishops without Vatican approval.
The result has led to a complicated and tense relationship between the patriotic association and the “underground Church,” which includes priests and bishops who are not recognized by the government.
Many Catholics parishioners and priests who have rejected government control have been imprisoned, harassed and otherwise persecuted.
Currently every bishop recognized by Beijing must be a member of the patriotic association, and many bishops appointed by the Vatican who are not recognized or approved by the Chinese government have faced government persecution.
Many of the Vatican-approved bishops in China are drawing near to the age of 75, when they are required to submit their request for retirement, and many others have died, yet few successors have been named, raising questions as to whether or not a deal might be drawing near.
Regarding the seven bishops who will be recognized should a new agreement come to pass, Msgr. Anthony Figueiredo, who has worked with the seven bishops in question through the Caritas in Veritate for the past several years and was in China in July 2017, confirmed the news on the bishops’ proposed approval, saying “if the Vatican is going to accept them and an accord be reached, it’s going to be for all of them. ”
In addition to recognizing the seven bishops, the new deal would reportedly outline government and Vatican roles in future episcopal selection, with the Vatican proposing names and the Chinese government reportedly having the final say over Vatican-vetted candidates.
Figueiredo, who lives in Rome, travels to China several times a year with Caritas in Veritate, said he has worked closely with the seven bishops in question, and “they have desired this communion for years.”
He personally delivered a letter from the bishops to the Pope in 2016, which he says told the Pope they wanted communion with Rome.
“They didn’t propose the deal, certainly not in the letter they gave me, because that’s what’s come afterwards,” he said, noting that the Vatican has on several occasions sent a delegation to Beijing to discuss the details of a possible agreement.
Figueiredo said the deal could come within the next few months, saying “I think it could well come this spring, absolutely.”
For his part, Cappello said he could neither confirm nor deny any specific details of the agreement, but that as of two weeks ago during his visit to China, “we are talking in the right direction” in terms of what’s already been reported.
He said that in his view, to say China would have the final say in bishop appointments oversimplifies the matter, because the Church in China is complicated and nuanced due to its relations with a communist state.
“The Chinese bishops in China would have a big say, but knowing that the Church in China is in a communist nation, then the Church and the State, the line between them is very narrow,” he said.
“There’s really no black and white, there’s overlap there, so of course there would be an input from the government…it will be a collaboration,” Cappello said.
And as someone that has traveled back and forth to various provinces in China for the past 25 years, he said he has seen progress he calls remarkable, in terms of relations in the past decade, and during the past five years in particular.
With this deal, Pope Francis “is building bridges,” he said, adding that he believes the stronger and more vocal opponents of the accord “are on the wrong side of history.”
One of the most outspoken critics of a deal with the Chinese government has been Cardinal Joseph Zen, Archbishop Emeritus of Hong Kong.
Zen was ordained a priest in 1961 and became a bishop in 1996. He has spent a long missionary career in China, and has long been a vocal protester against human-rights abuses in China.
His concerns have grown so great that he recently traveled to Rome to meet with Pope Francis about the proposed deal, after the Vatican asked Bishop Peter Zhuang Jianjian of Shantou in southern Guangdong province and Bishop Joseph Guo Xijin from the Mindong Diocese of China’s eastern Fujian province to retire so that bishops from the patriotic association could take their place.
In a letter posted to his blog Jan. 29, Cardinal Zen said that while his meeting with the Pope last week was consoling, he believes “the Vatican is selling out the Catholic Church in China…if they go in the direction which is obvious from all what they are doing in recent years and months.”
He implied that Francis was unfamiliar with the situation, and questioned whether there could be any mutual ground with “a totalitarian regime,” comparing this to a hypothetical agreement between St. Joseph and King Herod. He said that if the agreement that comes out is a poor one, “I would be more than happy to be the obstacle.”
The Vatican immediately responded, and in a Jan. 30 statement said Francis is well-informed of the dialogue with China, so “it is therefore surprising and regrettable that the contrary is affirmed by people in the Church, thus fostering confusion and controversy.”
In a Jan. 31 interview with Italian paper La Stampa , Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin spoke of the proposed deal, and, though he didn’t mention Zen’s comments specifically, said “no one should cling to the spirit of opposition to condemn his brother or use the past as an excuse to stir up new resentments and closures.”
On the deal, he said that “if someone is asked to make a sacrifice, small or great, it must be clear to everyone that this is not the price of a political exchange, but falls within the evangelical perspective of a greater good, the good of the Church of Christ”
Figueriedo told CNA he believes the Vatican was quick to counter Zen in order to protect the deal, because “it really takes just one person on the Chinese side to say ‘you shouldn’t go ahead,’” which he says has happened in the past.
Should a deal come to fruition, Cappello said he hoped it would help normalize life for Catholic faithful and allow priests, bishops and seminarians to receive much needed formation.
China is extremely complex, he said, explaining that the Vatican has reached a point of understanding the nation which is both “encouraging and remarkable.”
However, he said there are real reasons for concern based on past events, and that any agreement is something that those on both sides will need to grow into.
CNA reached out to the Vatican for confirmation, however, they declined to comment on the situation.
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So if Poland, Hungary, Slovakia etc decide to bar entry on their soil to any rapefugees from the Middle East on the grounds that they are not vaccinated, Francis will not have any basis to complain.
Great comment.
Vaccine pass or not, I’m staying as far away as possible from this secular smelting facility until and unless good men begin to rebuild it according to the blueprints of Christ.
Good for you. It would be wonderful to have a Vicar of Christ who demonstrates an understanding of the teaching of the Catholic Church.
Lord have mercy.
I’ve been to parts of this vale of tears world wher leprosy still exists. I had great empathy for those suffering. I wondered what having such an affliction would have really been like at the time of Our Lord. I’m starting to learn. As a non-vaxer, with multiple graduate degrees in real sciences, I nonetheless anticipate that it will be only a matter of time before almost all prelates follow the lead of Francis and bar we lepers completely from the Church.
And hopefully another St. Damien will emerge from the ranks!
Looking like protestants were and are mostly right.
2000 years of theology distilled into a single summation medical mandate. Either lessening the theology or magnifying the mandate….
‘Turn the other cheek’ takes on a different meaning in religion these days.
The Vicar of Christ should have insisted on a morally acceptable vaccine in the beginning of the pandemic. Those of us who have religious objections to the currently available, morally compromised vaccines are ignored by Christ’s representative on earth, who seems not to realize that acceptance of the currently available, morally compromised vaccines implies an acceptance of medical research on fetuses aborted by their “mothers.” God help us.
Yes, the Vatican (among others) should have demanded the vaccines and other products be abortion free long ago…and not in the well-you-can-use-them-but-be-sure-to-write-a-protest-letter way they did.
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At this point, however, I no longer just oppose the vax due to the abortion-connection. There are a good number of whispers in the wind that the vax is a real problem for a number of folks, and quite honestly, at this point, I am not sure we know who and who may not be badly affected. We’ve only had it about 1 year.
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I just learned that a medication I take that has a solid track record for safety (admitted, it does have some pretty significant side effects for a minority of people, but they should up quickly so a person can get off pretty quickly as well) has just been linked to an increase risk of lung cancer–to the tune of 12,000 extra cases per year. Sure, this med is used by millions, but still. Would we mandate a drug that caused the deaths of 12,000 a year? I certainly hope not. This drug has been on the market for years, and only now have we learned it can cause cancer.
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Covid is not Smallpox; it isn’t rabies or tetanus or polio. No one should be forced to take a vaccine for it. And honestly, at this point, I think we need to give serious re-think to mandating the vaccines given to children.
So very sad when the Catholic Church has a Pope that really doesn’t get it… the vax was made with a baby (babies) being killed — what the heck more does that tell a person that believes “you do not take the life of another to save another”… come on Vatican…. God is watching….I am so very disappointed in our church for this alone, besides allowing sexual perverts to be priests, bishops, cardinals, and popes…. God is watching…..
In 2013 I resolved I would not return to Rome, my favorite city, until there was a radical change in its orientation. This move proves that it was unquestionably the right decision.
Closed doors? Closed wallet.
The rank tyranny which possesses the Church and society need be called out. It is urgent that Catholic journalism call this petty fraudulent moral posturing out for what is is.
I like the closed wallet–perhaps if we all did that there would be change? I know I will not give to CSA.
What a huge disappointment to see that the VATICAN is further infected by the secular hysteria surrounding this disease. Leftists are busy creating a two tier class-based society. Those who do not wish to be vaccinated for whatever reason are doomed to be second class citizens, and evidently second class members of the church.” Inject this substance into your body” ” Show your papers”. The totalitarianism is all around us. I will say that I had covid and obviously survived the experience although I am a senior citizen. I then took the vaccine shots on doctors advice. That being said I resent the mandates and attempts to FORCE people into compliance by threatening their ability to work, worship, travel, congregate, etc. The dictatorship lives. Things are bad in the US but even worse in former democracies like Canada and Australia. That the church would participate in this is a very grave matter, doing much damage to the faithful. Life of the body at any cost is not what we are about. Taking prudent action is one thing. Masks, as annoying as they be, fall into that category. But BARRING a whole class of people from churches and the Vatican?? Unconscionable.