Vatican Deal With China Would Betray Christ - Chinese Cardinal

[Lepanto]

The most senior Chinese Catholic official is condemning a possible reconciliation deal between the Vatican and Beijing.

A possible deal between the Vatican and China's government has been rumored for months; the critical issue to be resolved is the highly controversial matter of allowing China's government a say in selecting bishops. In most other countries, the church operates freely, with full discretion in matters of hierarchy -- at no point is a state actor involved.

Cardinal Joseph Zen, the former bishop of Hong Kong, is a fierce skeptic of the potential deal.

"Maybe the pope is a little naive, he doesn't have the background to know the Communists in China," Zen said of Pope Francis, The Guardian reports. "The pope used to know the persecuted Communists [in Latin America], but he may not know the Communist persecutors who have killed hundreds of thousands*."

https://www.usnews.com/news/world/a...s-vatican-deal-with-china-would-betray-christ


* Should be millions, in China alone

 

[anna ~ grace]

As I understand, there already is a kind of state-approved Catholic organization promoted and allowed by the Chinese Government, which means to keep Catholic Christians in China under the thumb of the State. I know there are other Catholic Christians, and quite a few Protestant ones, who blatantly mistrust these state-run "churches", and refuse to worship in them, choosing instead to pray at home, or to meet privately and illegally.