Bishop: Official, Underground Church in China are 'Fundamentally One'
Cardinal Joseph Zen Ze-kiun, the Bishop of Hong Kong and an outspoken voice of the suffering Church in China, spoke this week of the oppression faced by millions of Catholics in China – a daily reality that belies the more familiar image of a country on course to becoming the world’s largest economic power.
Zen surprised listeners Friday when he conveyed an optimistic outlook on relations between the state-sanctioned China Catholic Patriotic Association (CCPA) – which remains under the control of the Chinese government – and the Underground Catholic Church – which remains loyal to the Holy See.
“The Church in China is fundamentally one,” said the bishop. “They’re separate … but just in front of the policies of the government.”
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Relations between the CCPA and the Vatican soured earlier this year following the ordination of two bishops without the approval of the Holy See.
Although Zen disapproved of the ordinations, he pointed out that the two bishops in question had asked for the Holy See’s approval and went on to highlight the fact that 85 percent of the bishops in the Catholic Church in China have been legitimized by the Holy See.
“In 50 years, they’ve made big progress,” he said.
However, any genuine attempts by the CCPA and the Underground Church to become one outwardly have been made difficult because any steps towards one another are “always under the eyes of the government,” said Zen.
“So it’s artificial,” he said of the relationship. “Any movement is in the heart of the people.”
The Hong Kong Bishop was speaking Friday at an ACN press conference in London that also saw the launch of the new ACN book Persecuted and Forgotten? A Report on Christians Oppressed for their Faith 2005/6.
Zen said that the Chinese government continues to create difficulties for Catholics in the country as he painted the picture of a state government with an iron fist grip around the Catholic Church in China.
“In the official church you may see many signs of progress; more and more churches being restored, opened for worship, more children being baptized…but fundamentally nothing changed,” said Zen, who was installed in March 2006 as a sign of the Pope’s high regard for the prelate’s unwavering loyalty to Rome in often difficult circumstances.
The bishop said that although the common believers in China may see more progress, the situation at the top of the Church remains “very bad.” However, he said that the Roman Catholic Church was “using all opportunity to meet with the other side”.
“Hong Kong is in the best position to advise the Holy See to the way to normalization,” said Zen, who has the freedom to passionately defend China’s 15 million Catholics due to the semi-independence of Hong Kong from mainland China.
The bishop remained optimistic that the Catholic Church in China could one day gain independence from the Chinese government, placing his hope in the young generation and their growing wanderlust to the wider world.
“We are unrepentant optimists,” he told a Christian Post correspondent. “Our hope is that the young generation of communists who have traveled abroad can learn more in that system. Maybe today they cannot show their change in mind but when they come to power we can see a change in the situation.”
This may need a “longer process,” he admitted.
“If they (the Chinese government) allowed Catholics to be Catholics then there would be no more Patriotic Church.”
He added: “What we need is a concerted, united standing of all the western governments.”
