Vatican City, Oct 17, 2018 / 08:40 am (CNA).- While Chinese Bishop Joseph Guo Jincai is new to the Vatican’s Synod of Bishops, he has served three terms as a deputy to the National People’s Congress in Beijing.
As a member of China’s legislative body, Bishop Guo publicly supported an amendment to eliminate presidential term limits and enshrine “Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era” in the Chinese Constitution in March 2018.
Weeks after his excommunication was lifted last month as a part of an agreement between China and the Holy See, Bishop Guo garnered attention in Rome as one of the first Chinese bishops to ever participate in an ecclesial synod, along with Bishop Yang Xiaoting of Yan’an.
Pope Francis opened the synod with a greeting for the two Chinese arrivals, saying that “the communion of the entire episcopate with the Successor of Peter is yet more visible thanks to their presence.”
The two Chinese bishops took part in the synod on young people, the faith, and vocation.
Young people in China face unique challenges in relation to faith. For example, due to a change in the Chinese government’s religious oversight earlier this year, it is now illegal for anyone under 18 years old to enter a church or religious building.
Bishop Guo told Chinese state media that he did not see any conflict between his role as a legislator and a bishop as the National People’s Congress convened last March.
“My position as a national legislator will not and cannot affect my religious service, as China implements the principle of separation of church and State,” Guo told the state-sponsored newspaper Global Times.
The Global Times reported that Guo went on to say that Catholics must adapt to socialist society in order to survive and develop in China, and a fundamental requirement for this is to be patriotic.
This echoes President Xi Jinping’s repeated comments that all religion in China must “Sinicize” or adapt to Chinese culture and society as defined by the state. In 2016, Xi told Chinese Communist Party leaders that they must “resolutely guard against overseas infiltrations via religious means.”
For decades, China’s 12 million Catholics have been split between an underground Catholic Church in full communion with the Holy See, sometimes subject to government persecution, and the government-run Chinese Patriotic Catholic Association, whose bishops are appointed by the Communist government and have sometimes been ordained without papal approval.
Bishop Guo serves as secretary-general for the Bishops’ Conference of the Catholic Church in China (BCCCC). Bishop Yang, the other Chinese synod delegate, serves as its vice-president.
This Chinese “episcopal conference” was deemed illegitimate in Pope Benedict XVI’s 2007 letter to Catholics in China because it is “governed by statutes that contain elements incompatible with Catholic doctrine.” It is unclear whether the Sept. 22 agreement between the Holy See and China recognized the Chinese government’s bishops’ conference as legitimate.
Vatican spokesman Greg Burke said the objective of the September accord is “not political but pastoral” and will allow “the faithful to have bishops who are in communion with Rome but at the same time recognized by Chinese authorities.”
Yang was ordained a bishop with both papal approval and government recognition in July 2010. The Yan’an bishop studied theology in Rome, obtaining a doctorate in 1999.
“As the family made up of husband and wife is always united, so is the Church, which is one, holy, catholic and apostolic. In Italy, in China or in other countries, the love of Christ is always the same. Pope Francis, who knows very well our situation in the Catholic Church in China, does not want to leave us, does not want to separate us from the universal Church,” Yang said at a Roman parish on Oct. 7, SIR, a news agency sustained by the Italian bishops’ conference, reported.
“I still ask you for help for this Church in China. Our Church is like a child, it is not very mature, so we need your accompaniment, your help and your prayer, always in the love of the Lord,” Yang continued after celebrating Mass at Santa Maria ai Monti.
Before leaving the synod early on Oct. 15 without explanation, the two Chinese bishops had the opportunity to speak with Pope Francis and invite him to visit China.
Guo and Yang stayed in Vatican City’s Santa Marta guesthouse, where “we could live together in daily life with the pope,” Bishop Guo told Avvenire, the newspaper of the Italian bishops conference, in an interview published Oct. 16.
“We could speak with familiarity as children with their father. He told us that he loves us, loves our country and always prays a lot to Christians in China,” Guo continued.
[…]
We could say “a failure to communicate” (as with Steve McQueen in “Cool Hand Luke”), but inclusive/airbrush synodality (read ecclesial graffiti) is also a possibility. With reference to miracles, St. John Paul II insisted that “there are no coincidences.”
Possibly no coincidences elsewhere, either? Below, a link to a coincidental article, and comments…As at Buckingham Palace, is it time for a changing of the guard? Pope Francis recently confided to the media that he honestly asks his closest advisors this question, and reported that they (his handlers?) reassure him that everything is “fine”!
https://www.catholicworldreport.com/2023/04/19/pope-francis-donates-relic-of-the-true-cross-for-king-charles-coronation/#comment-364742
This can’t be a mistake. They needed permission to do that. This is where ecumenical theology, leads the Church Pope Francis is responsible for this and giving Charles pieces of the Holy Cross.The ancestor of Henry viii who beheaded Thomas Moore and Catholics who stood in his way. What a betrayal. Who destroyed the Catholic Church in England. This a total Disgrace. Is the Pope even Catholic,any more.lf he was this would not be happening.
It is in times like these that it feels wonderful to be an Episcopalian. We enjoy both the solidity of Reformation theology and the unerring sense of the sacred at the core of Catholic worship.
Indeed. Shocked that Vatican called Anglican Clergy is null and void. This is not the time to push apart.
I’m inclined to think Maria is right. They wouldn’t just walk in church like that, 50 of them, and just start celebrating Mass. A comment I read the other day, attributed to Pope Francis again, that the Church “is still in diapers,” concerning morality. What an insult. Where has the Church been in 2,000 years?
Can we blame a failure to communicate the Catholic religion at their formation for all the boneheaded thoughts and deeds by high prelates in the last century?
Unite and Serve is the way forward. Divide and Rule is the way backward.
I agree with you totally Dr Coelho. Unity serves the world much better and God too than the division we continue to experience in all parts of our life.
What was the motivation and the motive of the action?
If there is sign of realisation of error, sorrow over error, and convincing honesty to reunite with The Church, and they are willing to carryout the necessities as demanded by Pope Francis 1, they should be received back with joy as the father of the prodigal son received his son back and consistent with God’s wish for all.
Sounds like a plan to me.
🙂
Not a few Anglicans have crossed the Tiber recently and these Anglican Catholics share our beliefs on marriage and family.
Pretending, protesting, changing the words and rites…
Ignoring chastity as if marriage was more important than following Jesus or Mary’s given missions and messages. La Salette,Fatima, Guadalupe and so many other apparitions tell us. How disrespectfull to all Catholics. Who are they trying to kid?
What are Our Lady of Lourdes promises?
1) To all those who shall pray my Rosary devoutly, I promise my special protection and great graces. 2) Those who shall persevere in the recitation of my Rosary will receive some special grace. 3) The Rosary will be a very powerful armor against hell; it will destroy vice, deliver from sin and dispel heresy.