Vatican explains silence on Hong Kong’s crackdown
Grandstanding statements may not be effective, said the Vatican’s Secretary for Relations with States.
In a recent interview with America Magazine, Archbishop Paul Gallagher sought to explain why Pope Francis has remained silent on Beijing’s human rights abuses and crackdown on Hong Kong.
“Again, I don’t think that grandstanding statements can be terribly effective,” said Gallagher. “I think you have to ask what effect [a statement] is going to have? Is it going to produce a positive change, or does it make the situation more complicated for the local church and for relations with the Holy See?”
The perceived silence of the Holy See drew wide criticism last year as the Vatican and Beijing extended a provisional agreement on the appointment of bishops in China. Pope Francis finally broke his silence on the repression of Uighurs in his book “Let Us Dream,” briefly mentioning them among persecuted peoples, but he has not spoken out about Hong Kong so far.
“I think you will find it true that the Holy See does not have a policy, a diplomatic policy, of denunciation almost anywhere in the world,” said the archbishop, who also noted that the Catholic community in Hong Kong is divided along political lines.
“There are, you might say, Beijing loyalists on one side and then there are people who would like greater freedom and greater exceptions for Hong Kong. We try to work with the local church and do what we can in that way,” he added.
As for the appointment of a new bishop in Hong Kong, it has proven to be “complex and presents difficulties,” said Gallagher, without specifying what the challenges are. “There are certain knots that have to be unraveled, and that’s not going to be easy.”
Though the Vatican has been seeking to normalize relations between the Catholic Church and the Chinese authorities by establishing formal diplomatic ties, Gallagher admitted this is a long-term objective.
The Holy See has only negotiated with “a very, very small group of people” from the Chinese government. “It is quite difficult to understand what the impact is of what they take back to Beijing,” he added.
“At this stage there is no plan” for Gallagher or Cardinal Pietro Parolin, the secretary of state, to visit Beijing and vice versa. Gallagher met with Chinese foreign minister Wang Yi in February last year, marking the highest-level meeting between the two states since the Chinese Communist Party took power in 1949.
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