Sad but not entirely unexpected news: The Pope has once again betrayed the suffering Catholics of Communist China. Heroic Cardinal Zen has written an open letter to all his brothers in the Catholic hierarchy, denouncing the new Concordat that sold out the church’s true believers and subjected them to total control buy the Chinese Communist Party.
The letter has been published openly on the Catholic website OnePeterFive.com, an invaluable resource for the church’s current crisis. (It was one of the first to publish Archbishop Vigano’s challenges to the Vatican’s longtime embrace of former Cardinal McCarrick.) Here is the publisher’s introduction of…
“…a letter that Cardinal Joseph Zen sent some time ago to all the cardinals, and that he has now decided to make public. Needless to say, the latest news coming from mainland China only confirms and augments the concerns expressed for some time by many people about the interim agreement signed by representatives of the Holy See and the government of Beijing.”
Cardinal Zen asks “can we passively witness this killing of the Church in China on the part of those who should be protecting and defending it from its enemies?” A good question. As directed to the present papal incumbent, the answer appears to be “Yes”.
I started by saying “the Pope has once again betrayed…” I was thinking also of the earlier betrayal when one of his “social justice” people startled the world (and the Chinese Catholics who know better) with the declaration that “Right now, those who are best implementing the social doctrine of the Church are the Chinese.” The remark came from Bishop Marcelo Sánchez Sorondo, chancellor of the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences, two years ago. The pope never disagreed, just as he has never responded to Archbishop Vigano’s j’accuse August 2018, or to Cardinal Zen’s letter, presented to the Pope in July.
Yet another gratuitous slap in the face for those Catholics suffering persecution in China, and an embarrassment to the rest of us.
Then say a prayer for Cardinal Zen and his flock. And pray that more bishops will find their voices.
O Ben Finiti 