Cardinal Zen decries/Vatican defends sell-out of Chinese Catholics

Even before the beginning of WWW, I've been writing about the Vatican's perfidious sell-out of the Chinese Catholic "underground Church" -- the 1000s of Catholics who remained loyal to Rome and refused to join the schismatic Chinese Patriotic Catholic Association created by the Communists when they took power in 1949. Ever since, the bishops, priests and laity of the underground Church have endured persecution, imprisonment and even martyrdom, while their church buildings and holy sites have been taken over by the Communists, with many being closed and destroyed.

In 2018, an agreement was signed between the Vatican and the Communist Chinese government in which the bishops appointed by Rome -- some of whom had been imprisoned for years -- were effectively fired, to be replaced by stooges of the CPCA. The "official" Catholic churches are now required to pledge allegiance to the Communist Party and worship the false gods of Communism, replacing hymns with patriotic songs. See "Vatican bends the knee to Chinese commies in secret accord", WWW 23/9/18.

Cardinal Joseph Zen Ze-kiun, Archbishop Emeritus of Hong Kong, has from the beginning been an outspoken opponent of the 2018 agreement, which the Vatican insisted was simply intended to "normalize relations" between the Holy See and Communist China. See "Cardinal Zen denounces Vatican's capitulation to Chinese Communists", WWW 13/2/18.

Even though he is now retired, Cardinal Zen has persisted in his criticism of the sell-out of millions of faithful Catholics. See "Vatican-China agreement 'terrible, terrible, terrible': Cardinal Zen", WWW 4/12/19. Now the prelate has been publicly scolded by Cardinal Giovanni Battista Re, the incoming dean of the College of Cardinals.

In a letter sent to cardinals last week, Cardinal Re says Cardinal Zen "did not properly understand the agreement", and insisted that a draft of the deal had the approval of Pope Benedict XVI. He claims that the China-Vatican deal represents the minds of Popes John Paul II and of Benedict XVI, and that Cardinal Zen is mistaken in his opposition to the deal.

"I desire first of all," Cardinal Re writes, "to emphasize that, in their approach to the situation of the Catholic Church in China, there is a profound symphony of the thought and of the action of the last three Pontificates, which -- out of respect for the truth -- have favored dialogue between the two parties and not contrariety.... Cardinal Zen has affirmed several times that it would be better to have no Accord than than a 'bad Accord'. The three last Popes did not share this position and supported and accompanied the drafting of the Accord that, at the present moment, seemed to be the only one possible."

Imagine if Saints Peter, Stephen, Paul and the rest had made a deal with the Romans because "that was the best we could do. It was better than dying..."

Cardinal Zen accused the Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin (aka "Petrus Romanus")  of passing incorrect translations of Chinese terms to the Vatican in his effort to push through the deal and neglect criticisms.

In a letter released on Sunday, Cardinal Zen wrote, "I have evidence that Parolin manipulates the Holy Father, who always shows me so much affection but does not answer my questions,"  He charged that Cardinal Parolin "manipulates the Holy Father."

To Cardinal Re’s claim that Pope Benedict XVI had approved an early draft of the Vatican-Beijing agreement, Cardinal Zen responded, "Why was it not signed then?", insisting that the former Pontiff had rejected the deal.

To Cardinal Re, the prelate said, in the letter published in his blog, "I admire your courage in venturing into matters which you also recognize as complex, jeopardizing the prestige of your newly inaugurated honorable office." A very back-handed compliment, well deserved.

Further reading: "Re Against Zen. Divided By a Wall of China", by Sandro Magister, Settimo Cielo, 3/3/20.