Catholics should genuflect at altar, but not to brutal regime|Benedict Rogers
In her first State of the Union address to the European Parliament on Wednesday, the President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen became the latest European leader to signal at long last the beginnings of a re-think in Europe’s relationship with the Chinese regime.
“We must always call out human rights abuses whenever and wherever they occur – be it on Hong Kong or with the Uyghurs,” she told the Parliament. “But what holds us back? Why are even simple statements on EU values delayed, watered down or held hostage for other motives? When Member States say Europe is too slow, I say to them be courageous and finally move to qualified majority voting – at least on human rights and sanctions implementation.”
Her remarks follow statements on Hong Kong and the Uyghurs by several European leaders during Chinese foreign minister Wang Yi’s tour last month, which ended with the German foreign minister Heiko Maas calling on China to withdraw the national security law imposed on Hong Kong and grant access for international observers to visit Xinjiang. The EU’s High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Josep Borrell also recently raised the rhetorical temperature when he noted that China under Xi Jinping has become more “assertive”, “expansionist” and “authoritarian”.
EU member states are still divided as to how to deal with China, the EU as a whole has been slow to wake up to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP)'s intensifying repression at home and aggression abroad, and it has yet to match its stronger rhetoric with meaningful action, but nevertheless these statements indicate some shift in the right direction.
And they are in keeping with much of the rest of the free world. Elsewhere this week Australia’s foreign minister Marise Payne, speaking at the United Nations Human Rights Council, criticized the Chinese regime for its “repressive measures” against the Uyghurs and for eroding rights and freedoms in Hong Kong, the British Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab discussed Hong Kong with United States Vice-President Mike Pence and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on his visit to Washington, DC and British prime minister Boris Johnson faced questions about the Uyghurs from Parliamentarians at the House of Commons Liaison Committee.
The free world – belatedly, slowly – is waking up and speaking out.
There is, however, one institution that appears to be going in the opposite direction and getting deeper into bed with the CCP, and that is the Vatican. Two years on from signing an agreement with Beijing which has led to nothing but more suffering, persecution and disunity for Catholics, Pope Francis has indicated he is poised to renew the deal.
It is difficult to understand the Vatican’s game.
For a start, the agreement remains a secret text, so no one besides the negotiators and key leaders in both parties to it knows what detail it contains, and that for a start is deeply concerning. If it is such a good accord, why can’t we all know what it says?
The one thing we do know is that it gives the CCP a decision-making role in the appointment of Catholic bishops – a peculiarity given the regime’s adherence to atheism. This has resulted in several Catholic bishops from the ‘underground’ church which has always been loyal to Rome being forced to step aside in favor of Beijing-appointed bishops. In and of itself, a total betrayal of clergy who have shown at great personal cost absolute devotion to Rome.
Secondly, the timing is all wrong. To have signed – and now to be on the verge of renewing – a deal that has yielded no obvious benefit to the Church, at a time when the CCP is undertaking the most severe crackdown on religion generally – including against Christians – since the Cultural Revolution seems extraordinary. A regime that is increasingly accused of genocide against the Uyghurs, forced organ harvesting which constitutes a crime against humanity, continuing repression in Tibet and a major assault on churches of all Christian traditions is surely not a trustworthy bedfellow for the Holy See?
Third, not only has the deal resulted in no improvement in religious freedom, it has led to more repression.
Just last week in Jiangxi province Catholic priests have been detained under house arrest, placed under surveillance and forbidden from “engaging in any religious activity in the capacity of clergy”, following their refusal to join the regime’s so-called “patriotic church”. Bishop Lu Xinping from the so-called ‘underground’ was prohibited from celebrating Mass.
And, although it does not apply to Hong Kong – yet – the combined effect of the Vatican’s sell-out to Beijing and Hong Kong’s national security law has led to extraordinary compromise by the Hong Kong Catholic Diocese.
Hong Kong’s Cardinal John Tong recently issued instructions to all priests to “watch your language” in homilies and avoid making politically provocative comments. A new directive from the diocese to Catholic schools discourages students from participating in protests, after effectively banning an initiative by Catholics to mobilize a prayer campaign for Hong Kong. And the diocese has published religious textbooks with guidance on how Hong Kong students can “contribute to their nation”, with a clear pro-Beijing slant.
“God, thanks for making me Chinese,” the textbooks say. “I will learn to love my country like Jesus did, in order to show my gratitude to you,” read a prayer in a chapter teaching the value of cultural traditions meant for eight-year-olds.
While loving one’s country and contributing to the nation are good principles for a follower of any faith to have, the sub-text here is the CCP’s typical conflation of country and Party. I would argue that Catholics who defend human rights, struggle for fundamental freedoms, promote human dignity and seek justice against the oppressor are very much following the Church’s true teachings, and making a good contribution to their nation, but that is clearly not the message the diocese wants to give.
Whether the diocese came under direct pressure from the mainland and Hong Kong authorities, or from Rome, or acted out of fear in anticipation of angering one or the other or both, is unclear, but whatever the background, it is a very sad day when the Catholic Church in Hong Kong bans a prayer, discourages the defence of human rights and adopts the CCP’s propaganda in its religious school books. It is confirmation of the warning given by Myanmar’s Cardinal Charles Bo, President of the Federation of Asian Bishops Conferences, who called for prayer for Hong Kong when the national security law was imposed and said: “We have learned from heavy experience that wherever freedom as a whole is undermined, freedom of religion or belief — sooner or later — is affected.”
It is a betrayal of Hong Kong’s courageous Catholics who have been at the forefront of the city’s struggle for freedom and the rule of law: the father of the democracy movement Martin Lee, the activist Agnes Chow, the brave proprietor of this fine newspaper, Jimmy Lai, and Hong Kong’s great emeritus bishop, Cardinal Joseph Zen, who has already accused the Vatican of surrendering to Beijing, to name just a few.
And the tragedy is that Beijing has bought the Pope’s silence. Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Zhang Lijian said last week that the agreement between the CCP regime and the Vatican was implemented “successfully” and the two sides “will continue to maintain close communication and consultation and improve bilateral relations”.
Undoubtedly from where Mr Zhang sits, that is true. It is a success – for Beijing. The deal has cemented the regime’s control of the Church, and undercut the Pope’s moral authority.
Most Sundays Pope Francis, when he prays the Angelus in St Peter’s Square, Rome, rightly highlights an issue of injustice from somewhere in the world. Yet there is one country whose people’s sufferings are conspicuous by their absence from his public prayers: China. I have not heard the Pope speak about the persecution of Christians in China, the atrocity crimes against the Uyghurs, or the repression in Hong Kong or Tibet. Not a prayer, not a word of solidarity, not an expression of concern, not an utterance of encouragement for those who are persecuted by the CCP, and not a hint of condemnation of the regime’s brutality. The great Cardinal Ignatius Kung Pin-mei, bishop of Shanghai whom Pope St John Paul II named a Cardinal in pectore (in the heart – or in secret) in 1979 and who spent over 30 years in Chinese prisons, would roll in his grave.
That is the price of the deal that is about to be renewed – and it is a price too high. Catholics should genuflect at the altar in their churches – they should not kowtow to a brutal regime. Yet tragically, that is what some in Rome and some in the Hong Kong Diocese appear to be doing. As a Catholic, I say not in my name.
(Benedict Rogers is a human rights activist and writer based in London. He is the co-founder and Chair of Hong Kong Watch, co-founder and Deputy Chair of the UK Conservative Party Human Rights Commission and a member of the advisory group of the Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China (IPAC). He is the author of six books and a regular speaker and contributor to international media. He has an MA in China Studies from the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) in London, has lived and worked in China, and lived in Hong Kong from 1997-2002 where he worked as a journalist.)
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