A man waves China's flag as Pope Francis leads his general audience in St. Peter's Square at the Vatican May 22, 2019. (CNS photo/Paul Haring)
Vatican City, Jul 5, 2022 / 04:49 am (CNA).
Pope Francis said he hopes the Vatican’s provisional agreement with China on the appointment of Catholic bishops will be renewed for the second time in October.
In comments to Reuters published Tuesday, the pope said “the agreement is moving well and I hope that in October it can be renewed.”
The Vatican-China agreement was first signed in September 2018 and then renewed for another two years in October 2020. The terms of the agreement have not been made public.
In September 2021, the Vatican confirmed that the sixth Catholic bishop had been ordained under the agreement’s terms.
Seven bishops ordained before the 2018 agreement have also had their positions regularized by the Vatican.
Pope Francis said the appointment of bishops under the deal in China “is going slowly, but they are being appointed.”
The slow process, he said, is “‘the Chinese way,’ because the Chinese have that sense of time that nobody can rush them.”
Father Bernardo Cervellera, former editor-in-chief of AsiaNews, told CNA last year that the bishops who have been nominated and ordained are close to the Patriotic Catholic Association, “so this means that they are very near to the government.”
The Catholic Church is still in need of around 40 more bishops in China, according to Cervellera.
In the Reuters interview, Pope Francis said the Chinese “also have their own problems because it is not the same situation in every region of the country. [The treatment of Catholics] also depends on local leaders.”
He also defended the Vatican-China deal against its critics.
“Diplomacy is the art of the possible and of doing things to make the possible become a reality,” he said.
He compared today’s critics and those who spoke negatively of the Vatican’s diplomatic decisions during the Cold War, when the popes struck deals with Eastern European communist governments in an attempt to protect the interests of the Catholic Church.
“Diplomacy is like that. When you face a blocked situation, you have to find the possible way, not the ideal way, out of it,” the pope said.
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Pope Francis at the Synod on Synodality on Oct. 6, 2023. / Credit: Vatican Media
Vatican City, Oct 11, 2023 / 10:00 am (CNA).
Pope Francis dined with a group of Rome’s poor at his Vatican residence on Tuesday during the second week of the Synod… […]
Members of the Sts’ailes First Nation at Holy Rosary Cathedral last year for the first Mass to integrate a First Nation language. A Cardus report presents the voices of Indigenous Canadians speaking about their faith and distinguishing it from the traditional spirituality they’re often associated with. / Photo courtesy Nicholas Elbers, 2022
Vancouver, Canada, May 17, 2023 / 14:15 pm (CNA).
A groundbreaking report published by the Ottawa-based Cardus Institute has given voice to Indigenous Canadians who are frustrated by secular society’s unawareness of — or unwillingness to accept — the fact that almost half of them are Christian.
“I find that insulting to Indigenous people’s intelligence and freedom,” Catholic priest Father Cristino Bouvette said of the prejudice he regularly encounters.
Bouvette, who has mixed Cree-Métis and Italian heritage and now serves as vicar for vocations and Young Adults in the Diocese of Calgary, was one of 12 individuals interviewed by Cardus for the report “Indigenous Voices of Faith.”
Father Deacon Andrew Bennett, left, leads a post-production discussion by Indigenous Voices of Faith participants. Photo courtesy of Cardus
Prejudice against Indigenous Christians has become so strong, even inside some Indigenous communities, “that Indigenous Christians in this country right now are living in the time of new martyrdom,” Bouvette said.
Although that martyrdom may not cost them their lives, “they are ostracized and humiliated sometimes within their own communities if they openly express their Christian or Catholic faith.”
Statistics Canada reported last year that the 2021 census found that 850,000, or 47%, of Canada’s 1.8-million Indigenous people identify as Christian and that more than a quarter of the total report they are Catholic. Only 73,000, or 4%, of Indigenous people said they adhere to traditional Indigenous spiritual beliefs.
In a new report, Cardus wants to “amplify the voices of Indigenous Canadians speaking for themselves about their religious commitments, which sometimes clash with the typical public presentation of Indigenous spirituality.” Photo courtesy of Cardus
Ukrainian Catholic Deacon Andrew Bennett, program director for Cardus Faith Communities, conducted the interviews for the think tank last fall. He published his report in March at a time when Canadian mainstream media and many political leaders continued to stir division and prejudice through misleading commentary about abandoned cemeteries at Indian Residential Schools.
The purpose of the report, he writes, “is to affirm and to shed light on the religious freedom of Indigenous peoples to hold the beliefs and engage in the practices that they choose and to contextualize their faith within their own cultures.”
Too often, however, “the public narrative implies, or boldly declares, that there’s a fundamental incompatibility between Indigenous Canadians and Christianity or other faiths,” Bennett said. “[M]any Indigenous Canadians strongly disagree with those narratives.”
Father Bouvette is clearly one of those.
“We did not have Christian faith imposed upon us because of [my Indigenous grandmother’s] time in the residential school or her father’s time in the trade school that he was sent to,” Bouvette said. “No, it was because our family freely chose to receive the saving message of Jesus Christ and lived it and had continued to pass it down.”
Bouvette said his “grandmother was not tricked into becoming something that she didn’t want to be, and then tricked into staying that way for 99 years and 11 months of her life. She was a Christian from the day of her birth, and she remained a Christian until the day of her death. And so that was not by the consequence of some imposition.”
Nevertheless, Canadians continue to labor under a prejudice holding the opposite view. “I do believe that probably the majority of Canadians at this time, out of some mistaken notion of guilt for whatever their cultural or ethnic background is, think they are somehow responsible for Indigenous people having had something thrust upon them that they didn’t want,” Bouvette said.
“We did not have Christian faith imposed upon us,” Father Cristino Bouvette says in a Cardus report on Indigenous faith. Photo courtesy of Cardus
“But I would say, give us a little more credit than that and assume that if there is an Indigenous person who continues to persevere in the Christian faith it is because they want to, because they understand why they have chosen to in the first place, and they remain committed to it. We should be respectful of that.”
The executive director of the Catholic Civil Rights League, Christian Elia, agrees and says society should grant Indigenous Catholics the respect and personal agency that is due all Canadians.
“Firstly, I am not an Indigenous person, so I cannot speak for our Indigenous brothers and sisters, but neither can non-Indigenous secularists who choose to ignore that Indigenous people in Canada continue to self-identify as Christian, the majority of these Catholic,” Elia said in an interview with The B.C. Catholic.
He said his organization has heard from many Indigenous Catholics who are “growing weary of the ongoing assumption that somehow they have been coerced into the faith, that it is inconceivable that they wish to be Catholic. This condescending attitude must stop.”
Deacon Rennie Nahanee, who serves at St. Paul’s Indian Church in North Vancouver, was another of the 12 whom Bennett interviewed. A cradle Catholic and member of the Squamish First Nation, Deacon Nahanee said there is nothing incompatible with being both an authentic Indigenous person and a Catholic.
“I’m pretty sure we had a belief in the Creator even before the missionaries came to British Columbia,” he said. “And our feelings, our thoughts about creation, the way that we lived and carried out our everyday lives, and the way that we helped to preserve the land and the animals that we used for food, our spirituality and our culture, were similar to the spirituality of the Catholic Church.”
“I believe that’s why our people accepted it. I don’t think anybody can separate themselves from God, even though they say so.”
Interviewed later by The B.C. Catholic, Nahanee said he is not bothered by the sort of prejudice outlined by Bouvette. “People are going to say or do what they want,” he said.
Voices of Indigenous Christianity
Bennett, program director of Cardus Faith Communities, interviewed 12 Indigenous Canadians, most of them Christian, about their religious commitments, “which often clash with the typical public presentation of Indigenous spirituality.” Here is a selection of some of their comments:
Tal James of the Penelakut First Nation in Nanaimo spoke about the relationship between Indigenous culture and his Christian faith:
Tal James and wife Christina. Photo courtesy of Project 620 – James Ministry
“I think … that our [Indigenous] cultures were complete, and in Jesus they’re more complete. I think that’s a big thing and a big step for a lot of us. You’re going to have a lot of non-Indigenous people look at you and question your actions based on your Aboriginal heritage. Don’t take that to heart. They’re the ignorant ones who don’t want you to flourish. Those of you who are Christians, First Nations Christians, you come to the table with the same gifting that non-Aboriginal people have. For them to say, ‘We want to make room for you at the table,’ correct them. You are already at the table, and encourage them to step back and allow your gifts to flourish. Because it’s one in the same spirit.”
Rose-Alma McDonald, a Mohawk from Akwesasne, which borders New York, Ontario, and Quebec, talked about re-embracing her Catholic faith:
Rose-Alma McDonald. Photo courtesy of Cardus
“I surprised everybody, including myself, in terms of embracing Catholicism after 20 years away. So I’ve had a few epiphanies in the sense that this is why my mother made me do so much in the church growing up. When I’m working, volunteering, and doing stuff in the church, I remember that. I keep remembering I’m Catholic and I’m still Catholic. I will stay Catholic because of the way I was raised.”
Jeff Decontie, a Mohawk from the Algonquin First Nations who lives in Ottawa, talked about being a person of faith in a secular world:
Jeff Decontie. Photo courtesy of Cardus
“Secular worldviews can sort of eat up everything around them and accept a whole wide range of beliefs at the same time. For example, you have the prevailing scientific thinking alongside New Age believers, and people in society just accept this, saying, ‘Oh, whatever it is you believe in, all religions lead to the same thing.’ No one questions it. How can these contradictions coexist? … Then we ask an [Indigenous] elder to lead prayer? Any other religion would be a no-no, but you can ask for an elder who’s going to pray a generic prayer to some generic Creator, and it’s not going to ruffle any feathers. I think that’s the danger of secular thought creeping into Canada: It goes unnoticed, it’s perceived as neutral, but at the same time it’s welcoming a whole wide range of beliefs. And it doesn’t just influence Indigenous thought. It’s influencing Christianity.”
Rosella Kinoshameg, a member of the Wikwemikong Reserve on Manitoulin Island in Ontario, spoke about being Indigenous and Catholic:
Rosella Kinoshameg. Photo courtesy of the Catholic Register
“Well, I can’t change being Indigenous. That’s something that is me. I can’t change that. But to believe in the things that I was taught, the traditional things, the way of life and the meanings of these things, and then in a church, well, those things help one another and they make me feel stronger.”
This article was originally published May 10, 2023, in The B.C. Catholic, a weekly publication serving the Catholic community in British Columbia, Canada, and is reprinted here on CNA with permission.
Vatican City, Sep 29, 2020 / 10:00 am (CNA).- A Vatican official hailed the “positive” results of the Holy See’s provisional agreement with China Tuesday amid reports that a Holy See delegation is heading to Beijing to extend the deal… […]
19 Comments
More of the same skulduggery or a hopeful intent for a Church seemingly battered from both sides of the equation. Cardinal Zen is the only trustworthy voice on China Vatican relations. The Church in China has been severely compromised in messaging Christ, a Christ flagrantly disfigured with Communist ideology. That can’t ever be justly agreed to by Christianity if it is to remain faithful to Christ.
Roman Catholicism has been seriously compromised by scandal and mixed messaging. An accord as permitted by the Vatican simply reinforces a diminishment of what Catholicism is.
2 Timothy 1:7 For God gave us a spirit not of fear but of power and love and self-control.
Isaiah 41:10 Fear not, for I am with you; be not dismayed, for I am your God; I will strengthen you, I will help you, I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.
1 John 4:18 There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not been perfected in love.
Psalm 27:3 Though an army encamp against me, my heart shall not fear; though war arise against me, yet I will be confident.
Blessings upon blessings, dear pastor and brother in Christ.
Geopolitics is not his strong suit. But, then again, I can’t think what is. It seems he has a better relationship with the Chinese communists than he does with some fellow Catholics. I can’t recall him calling the ChiComs nasty names.
Thanks for pointing out. What an absolute travesty—a tyrannical, atheistic and freedom destroying regime the best at implementing the Church’s social doctrine??!
The ways of men, the traditions of people.
The value of the eternal soul and the shortness of time.
To be much in prayer that the gospel goes forward, redeeming souls and changing lives to the better.
The Vatican’s sell-out of the Chinese Catholic Church in this “provisional agreement” is drenched in the blood of untold numbers of Chinese Catholics martyrs already sacrificed to the Chinese Communist Party and likely that of untold numbers more. In the entire 2,000-year-old history of the Church there is no papal act of “diplomacy” so craven, so heinous, and, yes, so diabolical as this. Those responsible for it, from Bergoglio and Parolin down, have ineradicably shamed and soiled the Throne of Peter and Secretariat of State in whose seats of honor they squat. No less astonishing is the near-universal silence from the world’s hireling shepherds at this outrage and at those who have perpetrated it.
Who will stand up for the church? It will be men of courage who will rebuke other men in high position that are not taking their responsibility to heart.
1 Timothy 5:20 As for those who persist in sin, rebuke them in the presence of all, so that the rest may stand in fear.
2 Timothy 4:2 Preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with complete patience and teaching.
2 Timothy 3:16-17 All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be competent, equipped for every good work.
John 7:24 Do not judge by appearances, but judge with right judgment.”
Not a beep from the Vatican when churches are destroyed, when bishops, priests and laity are arrested and sent to torture camps in China. Bergoglio and Parolin have blood on their hands and it is crying out to heaven.
You stand on the Lord’s side. He gives strength to those who love Him.
Haggai 2:4 Yet now be strong, O Zerubbabel, declares the Lord. Be strong, O Joshua, son of Jehozadak, the high priest. Be strong, all you people of the land, declares the Lord. Work, for I am with you, declares the Lord of hosts,
Proverbs 1:33 But whoever listens to me will dwell secure and will be at ease, without dread of disaster.”
Psalm 93:5 Your decrees are very trustworthy; holiness befits your house, O Lord, forevermore.
The Holy Father is optimistic; however, the curial team and the timing may be off (putting it diplomatically) and inevitably the one acts on the other.
But I have a major query nonetheless, which is, if it is truly the case that the Church during the Cold War let the Communist authorities anywhere appoint bishops for her and she complied. It wouldn’t be the only time I would have spotted a false comparison (putting it diplomatically).
I would think that the Holy Father would wish to distinguish his interests in China from the current of world affairs -great; but (putting it diplomatically) if the Chinese are ambivalent about that, it becomes part of the problem.
‘ Jesus , I trust in Thee’ – to break the walls around hearts …to bring forth the abundant harvest of the hard work of the missionaries who worked in these far away lands in years past, even centuries past … their prayers and love for the people to be far more powerful than the plottings and designs of even the demonic wisdom in persons who think they hold the power ..The Flame of Love of The Mother, to blind Satan ..
The Precious Blood to put to death the bestial passions and bring New Life of holiness … Bl.Mother sharing the graces of the Immaculate Conception , to take in the Holy Spirit Love , even unto the very beginnings of life, to thus become persons who rejoice in loving God , with His Love …to drive out the spirit of envy and its manifestations, that originated in The Garden , that afflict many both near and far , to help all such to seek out the Reign of the Divine Will … willing to allow the afflicted to be around , even as The Lord allowed the weak and sinful to be around , their very presence and trials , as a thorn in the flesh , to be the reminder of the urgency of the need all around .. pleading for the Holy Spirit , desiring all of The Church too to see the need , conveying the desires of the Heart of The Mother and of The Lord .. trusting in what The Spirit can do ..and that deeper trust to make the diffrencce in many wounds in lives of all – from which none are spared in these times ..for the promise that all things work well for those who Love God ..
From Tuesday’s liturgy: “At the sight of the crowds, his heart was moved to pity for them for they were troubled and abandoned, like sheep without a shepherd.”
I have no doubt that Pope Francis will do the best he can for the Catholics when dealing with the ruthless leaders in China. The Church there needs Bishops.
Recently, I read a post from a Catholic man in China in which he praised our Pope’s actions and hoped that people would stop looking at the deal from a western point of view. He said that unifying the Catholics in China was of paramount importance.
Pope Francis is not our Lord’s enemy. He is, in fact, a very faithful disciple, nay, Apostle who has devoted his life to serving the Lord and his Church.
If the reality turns out to be that the Provisional Agreement is not at the service of the Church, the Body of Christ, then 1. it will have to go and 2. it will get found out; and 2. could happen first. Anyone can help expose it, whether from among members of the Church or people and groups not of the Church. You can be certain that Divine Providence will guide the Church in what must take place: have no doubt on it.
Here and there Xi Jinping unifies his thought in one expression, his 2017 New Year’s message carrying one such kernel. But if you read the whole message you will find the separate elements that outline and demonstrate the CPC’s plan of control.
‘ As one saying goes, ‘success comes to those who share in one purpose’. As long as our 1.3 billion-plus people are pulled together for a common cause, as long as the Party stands together with the people and we roll up our sleeves to work harder, we will surely succeed in a Long March of our generation. ‘
Looking back tends to show there has been no apparent interruption of steps in the progression to the Provisional Agreement and its subsequent second phase.
But at the same time it is impossible to assess what it portends because 1. the Agreement is secret and 2. no-one can know directly which events affirm what.
The quotation “politics is the art of the possible” is from Otto von Bismark, who added, “the attainable, or the next best”. It would seem that the Holy Father has adapted “diplomacy” to the wording.
The rationale for the Provisional Agreement could well be that the Holy See is trying practical means for “transitioning from conflict”. Natural sense suggests, however, that the “scene” for this is such as that which existed before Xi Jinping came to power. In other words, a Maoist has entered the picture, ending these days; and the feelings and bon vivant and making alliance that may have been burgeoning beforehand have lost any realistic grounding. Things collapsed.
Bearing in mind too, Mao said of politics, “war is politics with bloodshed and politics is war without bloodshed.”
Cardinal Zen in the interview in eBooks (see link) describes how things were when the Chinese in China left their doors open to their houses and how easy it was to get to Hong Kong. Today this is gone. Demonstrations of Maoism are all there, the strong-arming, the repressing of the “theory” of Deng Xiaoping and the elevation (even inside churches) -almost worship – of the “thought” of Xi Jinping.
Deng Xiaoping opened society and XI Jinping has now overlaid onto it the “progress” of “China’s Long March” ….. while reversing Deng. The question arises, do those who share the platform of the Provisional Agreement really know who they are dealing with, what they are looking for and what they can realistically expect to meet or produce?
The area of peace-craft known as transition justice is for that time when organized violence is crumbling and there has been a meeting of minds on how settlements are going to be arrived at even if not to be immediately concluded; and how interim investigations will be respected. See for example, South Africa, Rwanda, Columbia. This is not where China is.
It could then be wrong on this point ALSO, to input the suggestion that “China has different parts”. Well, yes, of course China does, but at this time you are helping to plant more tares. You hope that in the long run the “tares will convert into wheat” -maybe. Cardinal Zen asked pertinently, how can schismatics appoint bishops.
Another angle of view is being able to identify distortions caused by cult of personality. For instance, Gandhi’s renown for pacifism actually re-frames the reality of the history of his very conscious purpose of leading an active nationalism intended to be brought to victory at all costs; and of standing for it implacably. He said, “It is better to be violent, if there is violence in our hearts, than to put a cloak of non-violence over it to cover impotence.”
The Holy See wants to join with the “strength” and “brightness” of “movement” in the Far East and “extend goodwill” but can it be right that it sidelines its spiritual primacy? While helping propagate Marxism that is not even a Chinese thing and never was and never will be? With no idea who will succeed?
As I have said, when the Holy Spirit brings truth to bear, those who have been involved will, indeed, have to give answer to God Almighty. No-one will be exempted. I have always hoped for the best for the Holy Father’s initiative in China. I have my notes on it still and my prayers. But all the same, I must add, we mustn’t be naive and we mustn’t ignore the the light of Heaven when it may be showing us to make a change or to at least notice when we must look again, in the light.
More of the same skulduggery or a hopeful intent for a Church seemingly battered from both sides of the equation. Cardinal Zen is the only trustworthy voice on China Vatican relations. The Church in China has been severely compromised in messaging Christ, a Christ flagrantly disfigured with Communist ideology. That can’t ever be justly agreed to by Christianity if it is to remain faithful to Christ.
Roman Catholicism has been seriously compromised by scandal and mixed messaging. An accord as permitted by the Vatican simply reinforces a diminishment of what Catholicism is.
A fitting testimony to our Lord and Saviour.
2 Timothy 1:7 For God gave us a spirit not of fear but of power and love and self-control.
Isaiah 41:10 Fear not, for I am with you; be not dismayed, for I am your God; I will strengthen you, I will help you, I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.
1 John 4:18 There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not been perfected in love.
Psalm 27:3 Though an army encamp against me, my heart shall not fear; though war arise against me, yet I will be confident.
Blessings upon blessings, dear pastor and brother in Christ.
Geopolitics is not his strong suit. But, then again, I can’t think what is. It seems he has a better relationship with the Chinese communists than he does with some fellow Catholics. I can’t recall him calling the ChiComs nasty names.
After all, according to his lackey Sorondo, “Right now, those who are best implementing the social doctrine of the Church are the Chinese.”
Thanks for pointing out. What an absolute travesty—a tyrannical, atheistic and freedom destroying regime the best at implementing the Church’s social doctrine??!
The ways of men, the traditions of people.
The value of the eternal soul and the shortness of time.
To be much in prayer that the gospel goes forward, redeeming souls and changing lives to the better.
The Vatican’s sell-out of the Chinese Catholic Church in this “provisional agreement” is drenched in the blood of untold numbers of Chinese Catholics martyrs already sacrificed to the Chinese Communist Party and likely that of untold numbers more. In the entire 2,000-year-old history of the Church there is no papal act of “diplomacy” so craven, so heinous, and, yes, so diabolical as this. Those responsible for it, from Bergoglio and Parolin down, have ineradicably shamed and soiled the Throne of Peter and Secretariat of State in whose seats of honor they squat. No less astonishing is the near-universal silence from the world’s hireling shepherds at this outrage and at those who have perpetrated it.
Who will stand up for the church? It will be men of courage who will rebuke other men in high position that are not taking their responsibility to heart.
1 Timothy 5:20 As for those who persist in sin, rebuke them in the presence of all, so that the rest may stand in fear.
2 Timothy 4:2 Preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with complete patience and teaching.
2 Timothy 3:16-17 All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be competent, equipped for every good work.
John 7:24 Do not judge by appearances, but judge with right judgment.”
God bless you.
Not a beep from the Vatican when churches are destroyed, when bishops, priests and laity are arrested and sent to torture camps in China. Bergoglio and Parolin have blood on their hands and it is crying out to heaven.
You stand on the Lord’s side. He gives strength to those who love Him.
Haggai 2:4 Yet now be strong, O Zerubbabel, declares the Lord. Be strong, O Joshua, son of Jehozadak, the high priest. Be strong, all you people of the land, declares the Lord. Work, for I am with you, declares the Lord of hosts,
Proverbs 1:33 But whoever listens to me will dwell secure and will be at ease, without dread of disaster.”
Psalm 93:5 Your decrees are very trustworthy; holiness befits your house, O Lord, forevermore.
Blessings
The Holy Father is optimistic; however, the curial team and the timing may be off (putting it diplomatically) and inevitably the one acts on the other.
But I have a major query nonetheless, which is, if it is truly the case that the Church during the Cold War let the Communist authorities anywhere appoint bishops for her and she complied. It wouldn’t be the only time I would have spotted a false comparison (putting it diplomatically).
I would think that the Holy Father would wish to distinguish his interests in China from the current of world affairs -great; but (putting it diplomatically) if the Chinese are ambivalent about that, it becomes part of the problem.
‘ Jesus , I trust in Thee’ – to break the walls around hearts …to bring forth the abundant harvest of the hard work of the missionaries who worked in these far away lands in years past, even centuries past … their prayers and love for the people to be far more powerful than the plottings and designs of even the demonic wisdom in persons who think they hold the power ..The Flame of Love of The Mother, to blind Satan ..
The Precious Blood to put to death the bestial passions and bring New Life of holiness … Bl.Mother sharing the graces of the Immaculate Conception , to take in the Holy Spirit Love , even unto the very beginnings of life, to thus become persons who rejoice in loving God , with His Love …to drive out the spirit of envy and its manifestations, that originated in The Garden , that afflict many both near and far , to help all such to seek out the Reign of the Divine Will … willing to allow the afflicted to be around , even as The Lord allowed the weak and sinful to be around , their very presence and trials , as a thorn in the flesh , to be the reminder of the urgency of the need all around .. pleading for the Holy Spirit , desiring all of The Church too to see the need , conveying the desires of the Heart of The Mother and of The Lord .. trusting in what The Spirit can do ..and that deeper trust to make the diffrencce in many wounds in lives of all – from which none are spared in these times ..for the promise that all things work well for those who Love God ..
How long, O Lord, must we wait?
From Tuesday’s liturgy: “At the sight of the crowds, his heart was moved to pity for them for they were troubled and abandoned, like sheep without a shepherd.”
O Lord, how long?
O Lord, how long, must we wait?
“At the sight of the crowds his heart was moved to pity for them because they were troubled and abandoned, like sheep without a shepherd.”
O Lord, how long?
I have no doubt that Pope Francis will do the best he can for the Catholics when dealing with the ruthless leaders in China. The Church there needs Bishops.
Recently, I read a post from a Catholic man in China in which he praised our Pope’s actions and hoped that people would stop looking at the deal from a western point of view. He said that unifying the Catholics in China was of paramount importance.
Pope Francis is not our Lord’s enemy. He is, in fact, a very faithful disciple, nay, Apostle who has devoted his life to serving the Lord and his Church.
If the reality turns out to be that the Provisional Agreement is not at the service of the Church, the Body of Christ, then 1. it will have to go and 2. it will get found out; and 2. could happen first. Anyone can help expose it, whether from among members of the Church or people and groups not of the Church. You can be certain that Divine Providence will guide the Church in what must take place: have no doubt on it.
Here and there Xi Jinping unifies his thought in one expression, his 2017 New Year’s message carrying one such kernel. But if you read the whole message you will find the separate elements that outline and demonstrate the CPC’s plan of control.
‘ As one saying goes, ‘success comes to those who share in one purpose’. As long as our 1.3 billion-plus people are pulled together for a common cause, as long as the Party stands together with the people and we roll up our sleeves to work harder, we will surely succeed in a Long March of our generation. ‘
https://www.gwp.org/en/GWP-China/about-gwp-china/news-list/2017/roll-up-our-sleeves-to-work-harder-in-2017/
Looking back tends to show there has been no apparent interruption of steps in the progression to the Provisional Agreement and its subsequent second phase.
But at the same time it is impossible to assess what it portends because 1. the Agreement is secret and 2. no-one can know directly which events affirm what.
https://zenit.org/2017/07/28/china-the-dialogue-is-already-a-positive-fact/
The quotation “politics is the art of the possible” is from Otto von Bismark, who added, “the attainable, or the next best”. It would seem that the Holy Father has adapted “diplomacy” to the wording.
The rationale for the Provisional Agreement could well be that the Holy See is trying practical means for “transitioning from conflict”. Natural sense suggests, however, that the “scene” for this is such as that which existed before Xi Jinping came to power. In other words, a Maoist has entered the picture, ending these days; and the feelings and bon vivant and making alliance that may have been burgeoning beforehand have lost any realistic grounding. Things collapsed.
Bearing in mind too, Mao said of politics, “war is politics with bloodshed and politics is war without bloodshed.”
Cardinal Zen in the interview in eBooks (see link) describes how things were when the Chinese in China left their doors open to their houses and how easy it was to get to Hong Kong. Today this is gone. Demonstrations of Maoism are all there, the strong-arming, the repressing of the “theory” of Deng Xiaoping and the elevation (even inside churches) -almost worship – of the “thought” of Xi Jinping.
Deng Xiaoping opened society and XI Jinping has now overlaid onto it the “progress” of “China’s Long March” ….. while reversing Deng. The question arises, do those who share the platform of the Provisional Agreement really know who they are dealing with, what they are looking for and what they can realistically expect to meet or produce?
The area of peace-craft known as transition justice is for that time when organized violence is crumbling and there has been a meeting of minds on how settlements are going to be arrived at even if not to be immediately concluded; and how interim investigations will be respected. See for example, South Africa, Rwanda, Columbia. This is not where China is.
It could then be wrong on this point ALSO, to input the suggestion that “China has different parts”. Well, yes, of course China does, but at this time you are helping to plant more tares. You hope that in the long run the “tares will convert into wheat” -maybe. Cardinal Zen asked pertinently, how can schismatics appoint bishops.
Another angle of view is being able to identify distortions caused by cult of personality. For instance, Gandhi’s renown for pacifism actually re-frames the reality of the history of his very conscious purpose of leading an active nationalism intended to be brought to victory at all costs; and of standing for it implacably. He said, “It is better to be violent, if there is violence in our hearts, than to put a cloak of non-violence over it to cover impotence.”
The Holy See wants to join with the “strength” and “brightness” of “movement” in the Far East and “extend goodwill” but can it be right that it sidelines its spiritual primacy? While helping propagate Marxism that is not even a Chinese thing and never was and never will be? With no idea who will succeed?
As I have said, when the Holy Spirit brings truth to bear, those who have been involved will, indeed, have to give answer to God Almighty. No-one will be exempted. I have always hoped for the best for the Holy Father’s initiative in China. I have my notes on it still and my prayers. But all the same, I must add, we mustn’t be naive and we mustn’t ignore the the light of Heaven when it may be showing us to make a change or to at least notice when we must look again, in the light.
https://politicaldictionary.com/words/art-of-the-possible/
https://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/mao_zedong_161845
https://catholicebooks.wordpress.com/2022/07/09/online-text-the-sino-vatican-faith-diplomacy-by-professor-juyan-zhang/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w1G4gzOZbss (Cardinal Zen/Al Jazeera interview, YOUTUBE)
https://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/mahatma_gandhi_100677
https://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/dante_alighieri_109737