{"id":196287,"date":"2016-08-28T14:19:33","date_gmt":"2016-08-28T21:19:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/?p=196287"},"modified":"2016-08-28T14:19:33","modified_gmt":"2016-08-28T21:19:33","slug":"catholics-dont-share-popes-optimism-china","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/2016\/08\/catholics-dont-share-popes-optimism-china\/","title":{"rendered":"Some Catholics Don’t Share Pope’s Optimism on China"},"content":{"rendered":"

Speaking in the northern Italian city of Pordenone this Saturday, Pope Francis declared his high hopes for warming relations with Beijing<\/strong><\/a>. China cut off formal relations with the Vatican in 1951, and Pope Francis has been continually signaling a desire to repair the long-fraught relationship<\/a> in recent years as Beijing has been cracking down<\/a> on the rapid growth of Christianity in China<\/a>. Reuters’ Crispian Balmer reports:<\/p>\n

After decades of mistrust, Pope Francis is pushing to improve relations and his secretary of state, Cardinal Pietro Parolin, sounded upbeat about the chances of success.<\/p>\n

“There is much hope and expectation that there will be new developments and a new season in relations between the Holy Sea and China,” he said in a speech in the northern Italian city of Pordenone, which was released to reporters in the Vatican.<\/p>\n

“(This) will benefit not just Catholics in the land of Confucius, but the whole country, which boasts one of the greatest civilisations on the planet,” he said.<\/p>\n

“Dare I say, it would also be of benefit to an ordered, peaceful and fruitful cohabitation of peoples of all nations in a world, such as ours, which is lacerated by so many tensions and so many conflicts.”<\/p>\n

For the Vatican, a thaw in relations with China would offer the prospect of easing the plight of Christians on the mainland, who have often been persecuted by the authorities.<\/p>\n

For China, good relations could burnish its international image and soften criticism of its human rights record. [Source<\/a><\/strong>]<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The Pope’s hopeful words come just over a month after\u00a0reports on\u00a0talks between Beijing and the Vatican to reach a deal involving the ordination of bishops in China<\/a>.\u00a0The\u00a0Chinese Patriotic Catholic Association<\/a>,\u00a0a body overseen by the\u00a0State Administration for Religious Affairs but unrecognized (and sometimes\u00a0deplored) by\u00a0the Vatican<\/a>,\u00a0has since 1957 supervised Catholicism in China. Earlier this month, Global Times reported on mixed opinions amid\u00a0Catholics in China over reported progress in those negotiations<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile at Quartz, Ilaria Maria Sala and Isabella Steger report that some Catholic priests and scholars are highly disturbed by the Pope’s efforts to reach out to Beijing, seeing some\u00a0CCP policies as directly contradictory<\/strong><\/a> to the principles of the Catholic\u00a0church:<\/p>\n

\n

Father Alexander Lucie-Smith, a parish priest in southwest England and contributing editor to the London-based Catholic Herald, compared the potential rapprochement to the Church\u2019s attempt to reconcile with the eastern bloc governments during the Cold War\u2014but emphasized that China\u2019s Communist Party government is a far worse adversary.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Church is diametrically opposed to policies like forced abortion, the contraception policy, the one-child policy, and [China\u2019s] lavish use of the death penalty,\u201d said Lucie-Smith. \u201cThose are pretty damn major things. We believe in freedom, democracy and human rights. It\u2019s wishful thinking that the PRC [People\u2019s Republic of China] believes in that as well.\u201d<\/p>\n

[…]\u00a0Pope Francis is \u201ca great believer in the power of love and mercy,\u201d a priest in Milan who didn\u2019t want his name used told Quartz. \u201cSometimes this works. It works maybe with Cuba. Maybe with the Russian Patriarch. But with China, I do not think it works: They do not let themselves be conquered by love; rather, if you bring love to the table, they just despise you. They certainly do not open doors for you.\u201d [Source<\/strong><\/a>]<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Speaking in the northern Italian city of Pordenone this Saturday, Pope Francis declared his high hopes for warming relations with Beijing. China cut off formal relations with the Vatican in 1951, and Pope Francis has been continually signaling a desire to repair the long-fraught relationship in recent years as Beijing has been cracking down on […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":985,"featured_media":152886,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[116,34,14744,14745,14746,100,5,1051],"tags":[1129,5905,1369,16006,78,4349],"class_list":["post-196287","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world","category-human-rights","category-level-2-article","category-level-3-article","category-level-4-article","category-politics","category-society","category-top-article","tag-catholic-church","tag-christianity","tag-diplomacy","tag-pope-francis-i","tag-religious-freedom","tag-vatican-relations","et-has-post-format-content","et_post_format-et-post-format-standard"],"yoast_head":"\nSome Catholics Don't Share Pope's Optimism on China<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"http:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/2016\/08\/catholics-dont-share-popes-optimism-china\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Some Catholics Don't Share Pope's Optimism on China\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Speaking in the northern Italian city of Pordenone this Saturday, Pope Francis declared his high hopes for warming relations with Beijing. China cut off formal relations with the Vatican in 1951, and Pope Francis has been continually signaling a desire to repair the long-fraught relationship in recent years as Beijing has been cracking down on […]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"http:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/2016\/08\/catholics-dont-share-popes-optimism-china\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"China Digital Times (CDT)\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/ChinaDigitalTimes\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2016-08-28T21:19:33+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/03\/Pope-Francis.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"940\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"616\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Josh Rudolph\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" 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