This article comes from Chiesa.
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China. Seven New Bishops Do Not a Summer Make
By Sandro Magister
ROME, July 26, 2010 – Twice in the span of a few days, "L'Osservatore Romano" has given extensive coverage to two new episcopal consecrations that took place in China, the first on July 10 and the second on July 15.
The texts of both new stories, because of their delicacy from a diplomatic point of view, were not composed in the newsroom but directly in the offices of the Vatican secretariat of state.
Both, in fact, demonstrate a shift in the sequence of episcopal ordinations in that country.
In recent years, episcopal ordinations in China have seen fluctuating fortunes, between openness and rigidity on the part of the communist government. In 2005, all the new bishops were ordained with the approval of both the pope and the Chinese authorities. In 2006, however, in reaction to the nomination as cardinal of Hong Kong bishop Joseph Zen Zekiun – a nomination seen as hostile by Beijing – the Chinese government resumed ordaining bishops without the pope's mandate. In 2007, the year of Benedict XVI's letter to the Catholics of China, the bishops were again consecrated with the approval of Rome. The new bishop of Beijing was also installed with the agreement of the pope.
But starting in December of 2007, everything came to a halt. For more than two years there was not a single new ordination, in spite of the fact that a very high number of dioceses in China are vacant, or headed by very elderly bishops.
The impasse was broken on April 18 of this year, when in Hohhot, in Inner Mongolia, 47-year-old priest Paul Meng Quinglu was consecrated bishop.
Since then, new ordinations have resumed at a brisk pace. And always with the approval of both Rome and the Chinese authorities.
On April 21, Joseph Shen Bin, age 40, was ordained bishop of Haimen, in the province of Jiangsu. On May 8, Joseph Cai Bingrui, age 44, was ordained bishop of Xiamen, in the province of Fujian. On June 24, Joseph Han Yingjin, age 52, was ordained bishop of Sanyuan, in the province of Shaanxi.
Moreover, on April 8, another bishop ordained in 2004 with the sole mandate of the Holy See, Matthias Du Jiang, was installed as head of the diocese of Bameng, in Inner Mongolia, with the official reco.
The Vatican made no public announcement of the four appointments and official installations listed so far here. It preferred to wait for further developments. But the news did not escape observers. The latest issue of the international magazine "30 Days," printed in Rome and required reading for both Vatican diplomats and Chinese authorities in the field, dedicated an entire article to precisely this "change of pace" in relations between the Holy See and Beijing. "30 Days" pointed out, among other things, that for the first time in the history of the People's Republic of China, one of the participants in the ordination on May 8 was a bishop from Taiwan, Joseph Cheng Tsai-fa.
For the other two episcopal nominations that took place in July, however, the Holy See provided ample publicity, evidence that it believes the new course is in a consolidation phase.
In both of these cases, the news published in "L'Osservatore Romano" specified not only that the new bishops enjoy the twofold approval of Rome and Beijing, but also that this was the condition of all of the bishops who participated in the consecration, listed one by one.
The bishop ordained on July 10 in Taizhou, in the province of Zhejiang, is Anthony Xu Jiwei, age 75. From 1960 to 1985, he spent much of his time in prison and forced labor. In recent years, he spent periods of study in South Korea and Europe. The diocese in which he assumed leadership had been vacant for 48 years.
The bishop ordained on July 15 in Yan'an, in the province of Shaanxi, is John Baptist Yang Xiaoting, age 46. His is coadjutor with right of succession to the elderly and ill bishop of the diocese. He has an unusual educational background. From 1993 to 1999, he studied in Rome, at the Pontifical Urbaniana University, receiving his undergraduate and doctoral degrees in theology. In 2002, he also received a master's in sociology of religion from the Catholic University of America in Washington. After returning to China, he founded a center for formation and research. He is dean of studies at the seminary in Xi'an, where he continues to teach. His episcopal ordination was attended by more than six thousand faithful, with 110 priests and 80 sisters.
*
At the Vatican there is a cautiously optimistic view of this batch of episcopal appointments made with the twofold approval of Rome and Beijing.
Naturally, Vatican diplomats know that new strictures on the part of China are always lying in wait. Above all, they know that this kind of solution is not at all optimal, neither for the Church nor for religious freedom in general. In the world today, it is only in Vietnam that the requirement of the state "placet" for every new bishop is suffered by the Church in obedience to written accords with the regime. There is no accord of this kind in China, and none is expected anytime soon, but it is exactly what is now happening in practice. While for the bishops still not recognized by the government, life is miserable, full of arrests and harassment. Just as the activities of the officially recognized bishops, and of their respective dioceses, is subjected to asphyxiating control.
But the prevalent impression, at the Vatican, is that the idea that prevails today among the Chinese authorities is to leave behind the religious policy of the past, which required Chinese Catholics to break off relations with Rome and join a sort of "patriotic" Church, with bishops appointed solely by the government.
In the view of Vatican diplomats, the factors that led the Chinese authorities to this change of stance are pragmatic in nature. They were illustrated early this year in "30 Days," in an interview with the influential scholar Ren Yanli, a member of the Chinese academy of social sciences and of the institute of research on world religions, who for decades has followed the affairs of the Chinese Church and relations between China and the Vatican.
After pointing out that "the faithful will never listen to pastors who are elected and consecrated autonomously, without the pope's consent," and that "the latest bishops appointed without pontifical mandate remain isolated, and no one wants to receive the Eucharist from their hands, during Mass," Ren Yanli continued:
"The government has realized that if it wants the bishops to be pastors who are esteemed and followed by the faithful, and not viewed as isolated functionaries imposed from the outside, appointment by the pope and full communion with him are indispensable elements, which cannot be omitted. This means that, in fact, the idea of imposing on the Chinese Church an independence involving separation from the pope and from the universal Church is being set aside. The process that leads to an increasingly explicit affirmation of the communion of the Chinese bishops with the pope – and of everything that this involves – is irreversible. There can be no turning back on this road."
*
But the cautious optimism of the Vatican diplomats is contrasted by the more pessimistic view of other churchmen who are closely following the evolution of the Chinese situation.
One of these is Cardinal Zen, a Salesian like Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, secretary of state and therefore head of Vatican diplomacy, but who has often found himself in disagreement with him.
The differences between Bertone and Zen are in many ways the same that divide two international media outlets that are very informed about and dedicated to the Chinese question: on one side, the magazine "30 Days," closely aligned with Vatican diplomacy, and on the other "Asia News," the online agency directed by Fr. Bernardo Cervellera of the Pontifical Institute for Foreign Missions.
In a commentary for "Asia News" on July 23, released in Chinese as well, Fr. Cervellera presented the reasons that might lead one to doubt China's real willingness to open up a future of freedom for the Catholics of that country.
Not only the "clandestine" bishops, in fact, but also the bishops who have the twofold approval of Rome and Beijing are not free to exercise their ministry. In fact, the bishops have two authorities they must obey, that of the Church and that of the state: a state, however, that reserves for itself the power to decide in matters that should belong exclusively to the Church. Often, therefore, the two forms of obedience show themselves to be incompatible for reasons of faith. And those who refuse to join the Patriotic Association, the government agency that controls the Church, can pay dearly for this decision.
At the beginning of this July, the ministry for religious affairs brought dozens of bishops to Beijing for four days of indoctrination on the government's religious policies. The communist authorities are working to make one of their puppet bishops – Ma Yinling of the diocese of Kunming, one of the very few Chinese bishops who do not have the pope's recognition – the president of the two bodies with the most control over the Church, the Patriotic Association and the Council of Chinese Bishops, an imitation episcopal conference, both of which have been left vacant by the death of the two puppet bishops who headed them.
All of this is keeping the tension high between the two components of Chinese Catholicism: the "underground" communities and the officially recognized ones. The letter that Benedict XVI wrote to Chinese Catholics in 2007 to show them how to restore unity clashes with the desire of the Chinese authorities to keep these divisions alive and exploit them for their own advantage. And in fact, the papal letter is still forbidden in that country, and is circulating with difficulty.
So while at the Vatican the latest diplomatic moves are studied and every word is carefully chosen, in the "underground" Chinese communities many are complaining that they feel "forgotten" by the Church of Rome.
The Vatican rarely raises its voice to ask for the liberation of the Chinese Catholics in prison. Two "underground" bishops have not been heard from for years: James Su Zhimin, of Baoding, and Cosmas Shi Enxiang, of Yixian.
Last July 7, Jia Zhiguo, the "underground" bishop of Zhengding, was liberated after being held captive by the police for fifteen months. Cardinal Ivan Dias, prefect of the congregation for the evangelization of peoples, wrote him a "welcome back to service" message.
Fr. Cervellera comments:
"Maybe Cardinal Dias thought that it was not yet time to also include the word 'prison' or 'isolation' to make the world understand that the bishop had not returned from a vacation, but a period of abolition of his rights."
The texts of both new stories, because of their delicacy from a diplomatic point of view, were not composed in the newsroom but directly in the offices of the Vatican secretariat of state.
Both, in fact, demonstrate a shift in the sequence of episcopal ordinations in that country.
In recent years, episcopal ordinations in China have seen fluctuating fortunes, between openness and rigidity on the part of the communist government. In 2005, all the new bishops were ordained with the approval of both the pope and the Chinese authorities. In 2006, however, in reaction to the nomination as cardinal of Hong Kong bishop Joseph Zen Zekiun – a nomination seen as hostile by Beijing – the Chinese government resumed ordaining bishops without the pope's mandate. In 2007, the year of Benedict XVI's letter to the Catholics of China, the bishops were again consecrated with the approval of Rome. The new bishop of Beijing was also installed with the agreement of the pope.
But starting in December of 2007, everything came to a halt. For more than two years there was not a single new ordination, in spite of the fact that a very high number of dioceses in China are vacant, or headed by very elderly bishops.
The impasse was broken on April 18 of this year, when in Hohhot, in Inner Mongolia, 47-year-old priest Paul Meng Quinglu was consecrated bishop.
Since then, new ordinations have resumed at a brisk pace. And always with the approval of both Rome and the Chinese authorities.
On April 21, Joseph Shen Bin, age 40, was ordained bishop of Haimen, in the province of Jiangsu. On May 8, Joseph Cai Bingrui, age 44, was ordained bishop of Xiamen, in the province of Fujian. On June 24, Joseph Han Yingjin, age 52, was ordained bishop of Sanyuan, in the province of Shaanxi.
Moreover, on April 8, another bishop ordained in 2004 with the sole mandate of the Holy See, Matthias Du Jiang, was installed as head of the diocese of Bameng, in Inner Mongolia, with the official reco.
The Vatican made no public announcement of the four appointments and official installations listed so far here. It preferred to wait for further developments. But the news did not escape observers. The latest issue of the international magazine "30 Days," printed in Rome and required reading for both Vatican diplomats and Chinese authorities in the field, dedicated an entire article to precisely this "change of pace" in relations between the Holy See and Beijing. "30 Days" pointed out, among other things, that for the first time in the history of the People's Republic of China, one of the participants in the ordination on May 8 was a bishop from Taiwan, Joseph Cheng Tsai-fa.
For the other two episcopal nominations that took place in July, however, the Holy See provided ample publicity, evidence that it believes the new course is in a consolidation phase.
In both of these cases, the news published in "L'Osservatore Romano" specified not only that the new bishops enjoy the twofold approval of Rome and Beijing, but also that this was the condition of all of the bishops who participated in the consecration, listed one by one.
The bishop ordained on July 10 in Taizhou, in the province of Zhejiang, is Anthony Xu Jiwei, age 75. From 1960 to 1985, he spent much of his time in prison and forced labor. In recent years, he spent periods of study in South Korea and Europe. The diocese in which he assumed leadership had been vacant for 48 years.
The bishop ordained on July 15 in Yan'an, in the province of Shaanxi, is John Baptist Yang Xiaoting, age 46. His is coadjutor with right of succession to the elderly and ill bishop of the diocese. He has an unusual educational background. From 1993 to 1999, he studied in Rome, at the Pontifical Urbaniana University, receiving his undergraduate and doctoral degrees in theology. In 2002, he also received a master's in sociology of religion from the Catholic University of America in Washington. After returning to China, he founded a center for formation and research. He is dean of studies at the seminary in Xi'an, where he continues to teach. His episcopal ordination was attended by more than six thousand faithful, with 110 priests and 80 sisters.
*
At the Vatican there is a cautiously optimistic view of this batch of episcopal appointments made with the twofold approval of Rome and Beijing.
Naturally, Vatican diplomats know that new strictures on the part of China are always lying in wait. Above all, they know that this kind of solution is not at all optimal, neither for the Church nor for religious freedom in general. In the world today, it is only in Vietnam that the requirement of the state "placet" for every new bishop is suffered by the Church in obedience to written accords with the regime. There is no accord of this kind in China, and none is expected anytime soon, but it is exactly what is now happening in practice. While for the bishops still not recognized by the government, life is miserable, full of arrests and harassment. Just as the activities of the officially recognized bishops, and of their respective dioceses, is subjected to asphyxiating control.
But the prevalent impression, at the Vatican, is that the idea that prevails today among the Chinese authorities is to leave behind the religious policy of the past, which required Chinese Catholics to break off relations with Rome and join a sort of "patriotic" Church, with bishops appointed solely by the government.
In the view of Vatican diplomats, the factors that led the Chinese authorities to this change of stance are pragmatic in nature. They were illustrated early this year in "30 Days," in an interview with the influential scholar Ren Yanli, a member of the Chinese academy of social sciences and of the institute of research on world religions, who for decades has followed the affairs of the Chinese Church and relations between China and the Vatican.
After pointing out that "the faithful will never listen to pastors who are elected and consecrated autonomously, without the pope's consent," and that "the latest bishops appointed without pontifical mandate remain isolated, and no one wants to receive the Eucharist from their hands, during Mass," Ren Yanli continued:
"The government has realized that if it wants the bishops to be pastors who are esteemed and followed by the faithful, and not viewed as isolated functionaries imposed from the outside, appointment by the pope and full communion with him are indispensable elements, which cannot be omitted. This means that, in fact, the idea of imposing on the Chinese Church an independence involving separation from the pope and from the universal Church is being set aside. The process that leads to an increasingly explicit affirmation of the communion of the Chinese bishops with the pope – and of everything that this involves – is irreversible. There can be no turning back on this road."
*
But the cautious optimism of the Vatican diplomats is contrasted by the more pessimistic view of other churchmen who are closely following the evolution of the Chinese situation.
One of these is Cardinal Zen, a Salesian like Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, secretary of state and therefore head of Vatican diplomacy, but who has often found himself in disagreement with him.
The differences between Bertone and Zen are in many ways the same that divide two international media outlets that are very informed about and dedicated to the Chinese question: on one side, the magazine "30 Days," closely aligned with Vatican diplomacy, and on the other "Asia News," the online agency directed by Fr. Bernardo Cervellera of the Pontifical Institute for Foreign Missions.
In a commentary for "Asia News" on July 23, released in Chinese as well, Fr. Cervellera presented the reasons that might lead one to doubt China's real willingness to open up a future of freedom for the Catholics of that country.
Not only the "clandestine" bishops, in fact, but also the bishops who have the twofold approval of Rome and Beijing are not free to exercise their ministry. In fact, the bishops have two authorities they must obey, that of the Church and that of the state: a state, however, that reserves for itself the power to decide in matters that should belong exclusively to the Church. Often, therefore, the two forms of obedience show themselves to be incompatible for reasons of faith. And those who refuse to join the Patriotic Association, the government agency that controls the Church, can pay dearly for this decision.
At the beginning of this July, the ministry for religious affairs brought dozens of bishops to Beijing for four days of indoctrination on the government's religious policies. The communist authorities are working to make one of their puppet bishops – Ma Yinling of the diocese of Kunming, one of the very few Chinese bishops who do not have the pope's recognition – the president of the two bodies with the most control over the Church, the Patriotic Association and the Council of Chinese Bishops, an imitation episcopal conference, both of which have been left vacant by the death of the two puppet bishops who headed them.
All of this is keeping the tension high between the two components of Chinese Catholicism: the "underground" communities and the officially recognized ones. The letter that Benedict XVI wrote to Chinese Catholics in 2007 to show them how to restore unity clashes with the desire of the Chinese authorities to keep these divisions alive and exploit them for their own advantage. And in fact, the papal letter is still forbidden in that country, and is circulating with difficulty.
So while at the Vatican the latest diplomatic moves are studied and every word is carefully chosen, in the "underground" Chinese communities many are complaining that they feel "forgotten" by the Church of Rome.
The Vatican rarely raises its voice to ask for the liberation of the Chinese Catholics in prison. Two "underground" bishops have not been heard from for years: James Su Zhimin, of Baoding, and Cosmas Shi Enxiang, of Yixian.
Last July 7, Jia Zhiguo, the "underground" bishop of Zhengding, was liberated after being held captive by the police for fifteen months. Cardinal Ivan Dias, prefect of the congregation for the evangelization of peoples, wrote him a "welcome back to service" message.
Fr. Cervellera comments:
"Maybe Cardinal Dias thought that it was not yet time to also include the word 'prison' or 'isolation' to make the world understand that the bishop had not returned from a vacation, but a period of abolition of his rights."
