Xi Jinping: pendulum politics towards the Church and the Vatican
Rome (AsiaNews) - In these days of Vacant See and as we wait for the new Pope, many are wondering what point relations between China and the Vatican are at. "Everything is at a standstill, there is no movement whatsoever," summarized a priest in Shanghai. He is referring to both the general situation, and that of the Catholic Church in the great metropolis at the mouth of the Huang Pu River. The regional seminary has been closed since last October and seminarians are losing a year of study in theology, the order of the Sisters of the Presentation has been forced to change their superior general. All of this because of the seminarians and nuns' sympathy with the Auxiliary Bishop Thaddeus Ma Daqin, under house arrest since last July.
The
activities of the diocese of Shanghai were blocked because Msgr. Ma in the
immediate aftermath of his ordination - wanted by the government and the Holy
See - publically announced his decision to quit the Patriotic Association (PA)
to focus on his pastoral work which, as a bishop, would totally absorb him.
The PA is the organization that controls the life of the Christian community
and has among its aims to build a Church independent from the Vatican and the
Pope. Benedict XVI, in his Letter to Chinese Catholics, termed it
"incompatible with Catholic doctrine."
Until Msgr. Ma's
ordination many bishops of the official Church sought to combine fidelity to
the Pope and formal membership of the PA. In recent years, the PA has made
increasingly demands of "their" bishops, often forcing them to
perform acts that are contrary to communion with the Pope such as illegitimate
episcopal ordinations without papal mandate; proclamations on the independence
of the Church; attendance at instruction sessions that last months, thus
keeping the pastors from their religious duties.
Fearing that Msgr. Ma Daqin's decision would have a knock on effect, the state
run Office for Religious Affairs has kept the bishop in forced isolation: He
can not wear the insignia of bishops, he can not celebrate Mass with other
priests and faithful, he has been stripped of the title of Bishop of Shanghai.
The isolation of
this young bishop - who enjoys the support and prayers of the faithful of the
diocese - is even more serious because the ordinary bishops of Shanghai, Msgr.
Aloysius Jin Luxian, 96, is very ill and has been hospitalized for months. In
this way, all pastoral work, programs, gatherings are frozen.
Last November, with the transition of supreme power from Hu Jintao to Xi
Jinping, the Fourth to the Fifth Generation, several observers, Catholics and
others, nourished some hope that the new leadership would change things.
On various
occasions in recent months, Xi Jinping has preached against the corruption of
Party officials, which- he says- puts at
risk the very survival of the entire apparatus. He has also preached respect
for the constitution and the law, saying that no one, not even Party members
are above the law. With these credentials, many are betting that "as soon
as he comes to power" Xi Jinping "will put things right" and
start a " period of reform", even of political reform.
Xi Jinping, who is now secretary general of the party and head of the Central
Military Commission, will also become president during the National People's
Congress, China's parliament, which meets once a year, beginning March 5.
In recent
months, Xi Jinping has shown interest in proposals for reform made by a group
of intellectuals led by Hu Deping. In recent days, he received an open letter
from a hundred intellectuals and activists, demanding greater respect for human
rights and greater respect for the constitution. The problem is that none of
these cast doubt on the Communist Party's monopoly of power. Many analysts see
this monopoly as the cause of all corruption and social unrest in China.
Neither has Xi Jinping himself questioned this aspect in recent months. If anything, the battle against corruption,
reforms (especially economic), sobriety that he preaches only reinforces this
monopoly, eliminating all possible objections raised by the population which is
struggling with injustice, poverty and rampant inflation.
This stalemate over
the monopoly of power points to an inevitable standstill on all other issues. In
recent weeks an official from the Statistics Bureau said it was time to review
the infamous one-child law, which is creating demographic imbalances and
shortages, putting the economic development of the country at risk. But almost simultaneously,
the minister for family planning said that the one-child law "will remain
in force in China for much longer yet."
Something similar occurred regarding the forced
labor camps (laojiao). These camps are an administrative punishment that
the police - without trial, without explanation, without notifying the families
of prisoners - can impose on anyone for security reasons and for up to three
years. The most common victims of this punishment are Christians - bishops,
priests and faithful - members of the Falun Gong, people considered a "danger"
to social order, such as those presenting petitions to the central authorities.
Many Christians
had hoped that with the elimination of these "re-education through labor
camps", that dozens
of priests from the underground Church would return home, as well as some
bishops missing for decades under police custody (Msgr James Su Zhimin, who
disappeared 15 years ago and Msgr. Cosma Shi Enxiang, who was arrested and
disappeared 12 years ago). But while at first Party newspapers reported plans
to eliminate the laojiao, these reports soon spoke instead of simple
"reforms" to the camps. And though some
dissidents were released months before the end of their sentences, there
was not a single priest or bishop among them.
In recent months, some high level Vatican personalities have launched fresh
signals in an attempt to resume dialogue with Beijing, after the abuse of the
illegitimate episcopal ordinations of Harbin
in 2012 and Leshan
and Shantou
in 2011. Card. Fernando Filoni released
an article, a kind of open letter to the Chinese government, which proposed
a positive step towards the beginning of shared-level dialogue. These dialogues
were to have prepared the ground for the restoration of diplomatic relations.
But here too there are mixed signals. A few days after the end of the Petrine ministry of Pope Benedict XVI, the Beijing newspaper Global Times, linked to the People's Daily, the official organ of the Communist Party, published an interview with the director of the Vatican press office, Fr. Federico Lombardi. The interview was preceded by an article entitled "The resignation of the pope sees Chinese Catholics suffer between God and Caesar." The article was a balance account of the situation in China-Vatican relations and defended the relationship of Catholics with the Pope because the Pope has "an exclusively spiritual influence." Just days before, the spokesman of the Foreign Ministry, Hong Lei, had branded the Vatican as a foreign power, which must stop "interfering in China's internal affairs" and must "break relations with Taiwan."
But the most ambiguous
aspect is the fact that some
illegitimate and even excommunicated bishops have been elected to political
office, as members of the Consultative Conference of the Chinese People, or
representatives to the Chinese parliament. As one Catholic in Beijing bitterly
put it: "This decision facilitates the opportunism of some bishops: it is
like suggesting that betraying the pope is the safest way to gain a lot of benefits:
a chauffeur driven car, money, power, social recognition."
Faced with this "pendulum" politics, a Catholic from the underground
Church says: "Do not be fooled by the search for diplomatic relations at
all costs. We Catholics continue to live our faith and our mission in any case.
Now for our leaders are solely concerned with the issues that they perceive to
be most serious and pressing: the transition of power to Xi Jinping, the economy,
social tensions ... Freedom of religion is at the bottom of their agenda.
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