Benedict Keith Ip
I once commented upon Pope Francis’ vision at the beginning of 2014. I said that the Pope foresaw that the Church “is not an institution to punish, but instead to forgive and accept, encouraging us to be free to embrace with a joyful spirit…” Up to this moment, I think I can comment on this sentence a little bit to examine its truthfulness.
Pope Francis truly wants to bring changes to the Church, and he has done so in many surprising ways. Just recently in September, he boldly consecrated couples in the Basilica who are considered to have “sinned” – couples who live in cohabitation and whose marriage bonds have had annulments – in civil law one may associate it as divorce or remarriage, which are totally different concepts. In short, John Grabowski from the Catholic University of America has pinpointed it faithfully, “What the pope wants to do is simply put the Church’s focus on mercy, on an encounter with Christ as the heart of its life.” It is worthless to isolate the faithful by faults. Instead we should move forward by admitting what we have done wrongly, and make sure we do not use these faults to create hatred. It is because hatred only motivates people beyond the mission of the Church.
It is quite impossible to predict the Holy See’s next steps right now because our Pope is very eager to make bold changes. In August, His Holiness historically flew over China to Korea to attend the Asian Youth Day. Although scholars and analysts weighted down the expectations of any breakthrough on the Sino-Vatican issue, the Pope seemed not to settle for this. In Korea he mentioned the wish to create dialogue with Asian countries which have not yet established official relations with the Vatican. Before he departed from Korea, he also expressed the wish to visit China anytime he is able to do so. Last week, one news report said that Pope Francis sent a personal invitation to president Xi inviting him to visit the Vatican.
So the Vatican has stepped out first in making an effort to rebuild relationships. What can we expect from this? On a provincial level in China, the Catholic community is getting nervous and feels intimidated. There has been continuous destruction of churches, communities, statues, and the campaign to remove crosses from churches. It firstly began from local authorities, but it looks like the central government kept silent, or even gave its consent. On the same day, September 15, we had two churches being torn down or forced to relocate.
However, the Chinese government has always been aware of the situation. Most of the provinces are still growing promisingly. In other words, China has prioritized dealing with other regional matters, such as its relationship with bordering countries, anti-terrorism within China, and international issues like political reform in Hong Kong for example. Economic development will remain the major policy to ease all symptoms. To be honest, China will never have the motivation to take the first step to change the Sino-Vatican relationship.
However, Pope Francis is breaking the chain by taking the first steps himself, not diplomatically, but fraternally. The theme of the invitation is about making peace in the world, which both parties share commonly. If this invitation is real, personally I believe China may answer in vague terms by acknowledging the opportunity while lacking any real action. It is because the PRC has more critical matters to deal with at present, and China is happy to wait a bit longer for the Holy See to demonstrate more sincere actions.
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