China’s highest ranking prelate, Cardinal Joseph Zen, is urging Pope Francis not to cut a deal with the Chinese government that would undermine the sacrifice and fidelity of members of the underground Catholic Church in the country.
Pope Francis has publicly defended Communist China’s practice of religious liberty, insisting that in China churches are full and religion is freely practiced.
China’s Communist government has called on the Vatican to take “a more flexible and pragmatic attitude” in order to improve its relations with China.
2016 was a difficult year in many parts of the world for those who sought to be different under authoritarian regimes. Whether Communists, Islamists, or the religious intolerance of their own families, these individuals took a stand and, in some cases, paid the ultimate price to advocate for freedom.
China’s most outspoken Catholic Cardinal has sharply criticized a potential Vatican deal with China’s Communist Party that would cede some Church decision-making to the atheist government.
Hong Kong’s emeritus archbishop, Cardinal Joseph Zen, has slammed the Chinese government’s program to demolish rooftop crosses from Christian churches, calling it a “regression” in China’s policy toward religion, reminiscent of Mao’s Cultural Revolution.
In an interview Wednesday with the Italian daily Corriere della Sera, Emeritus Hong Kong Cardinal Joseph Zen Ze-kiun accused the Vatican of being naïve in its dialogue with Beijing, saying that the Church is preparing to give away too much. “Italians in the Roman Curia don’t know the Chinese dictatorship,” he said, “because they have never experienced a Communist regime.”
