Vatican spokesman, Greg Burke, speaking in Lithuania, where Pope Francis visited, told reporters that the aim of the Chinese - Vatican agreement which was recently penned “is not political but pastoral, allowing the faithful to have Bishops who are in communion with Rome but at the same time recognized by Chinese authorities.”
Cardinal Pietro Parolin, the Vatican Secretary of State, indicated – but did not specifically confirm – that the Pope and Chinese authorities would jointly approve the appointment of new Bishops.
"What is required now is unity, trust and a new impetus," Cardinal Parolin said in a video message recorded before he left Rome to join the Pope in Vilnius.
"To the Catholic community in China – the Bishops, Priests, Religious and faithful – the Pope entrusts, above all, the commitment to make concrete fraternal gestures of reconciliation among themselves, and so to overcome past misunderstandings, past tensions, even the recent ones."
But no one but Pope Francis, Cardinal Parolin and his Staff and members of the Chinese Communist Party know the details of the accord since both China and the Vatican have refused to release it public scrutiny.
For example, no one knows how the new accord will affect Catholic leaders who continue to oppose Chinese authorities. Bishop Guo Xijin of Shanghai, head of a so-called “underground diocese, was “detained” by government agents in March.
All that is known is that Bishop Guo and others have been placed under house arrest, and some Priests have been in prison in Hebei province near Beijing for about a year. There have been no reports about their current condition.
How anyone can judge that this accord is not an abandonment, or worse a betrayal, of the thousands of faithful Chinese Catholics who remained loyal to the Bishop of Rome is beyond me.
Church history reveals that Popes often deferred to European monarchs in the selection and appointment of Bishops, that is without question or dispute.
Cardinal Parolin has referred to that history in his remarks relative to the Chinese - Vatican agreement just inked.
But here is the galactic difference.
European monarch were themselves Catholic, personally subject to the spiritual and moral authority of the Roman Pontiff with him they were cooperating in the appointment of Bishops within their realms.
The Chinese Communist government bears no such similarity nor spiritual allegiance to either the Bishop of Rome or, most consequentially, to the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Himself.
My father always cautioned our family with these words of wisdom: “Watch the company you keep.”
Pope Francis himself and, by his encouragement, is forcing the Church to keep company with atheistic Marxist Communists with whom he believes (apparently on the basis of his charism alone) he can establish diplomatic ties which will serve the best interests of the Body of Christ.
"Fools rush in where angels fear to tread"...another wisdom of bygone days.
Jesus cautioned the Church to be aware of “wolves who prowl about in sheep’s clothing”.
The Chinese Communists, however, haven’t even bothered to camouflage the ravenous beasts they truly are.
Let us pray that our Pontifical Shepherd has not led the lambs of faithful Chinese Catholics to the slaughter.
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