Catholic Church in China
Part II: Persecution and Confusion
This is the concluding part of this article (Part I was
published in Issue 65) and is based on the speech that Joseph Kung gave at our
Fatima 2000 Peace Conference in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. Joseph Kung is a
nephew of the great Cardinal Kung, who suffered a dry martyrdom for the Roman
Catholic Faith. The Chinese Communists imprisoned Cardinal Kung for over 32
years for being the leading Roman Catholic Bishop in China. He would not betray
the Pope nor the Catholic Church by joining the false Catholic Patriotic
Association (CPA) - the "church" set up by the Chinese Communists to destroy
the Roman Catholic Church in China. We join Joseph Kung now as he describes
ongoing deceptions of the Communist party in China together with the deceptions
of the fake church - the Catholic Patriotic Association.
By Joseph M.C. Kung
It is very sad to note that the invalid church called the
Patriotic Association has been embraced by so many Roman Catholic religious and
institutions at the expense of the blood of their own brothers and sisters in
the underground Church.
There are approximately fifty
Patriotic Association seminarians and priests studying in various Roman
Catholic seminaries in the United States and approximately an equal number
elsewhere in the Free World. This program in the United States is organized by
Maryknoll on behalf of the Patriotic Association. They are given full tuition,
room and board scholarships from various dioceses. And that is from your
donations. These scholarships cost about one million dollars a year in the
United States alone. Upon completion of their studies, the Patriotic
Association seminarians will return (some have already returned) to China to be
ordained, not by the underground Roman Catholic Bishops, but by their Patriotic
Association bishops. They will serve in the Patriotic Association dioceses
which, as I mentioned earlier, are not in communion with the Holy Father.
A number of persons already inquired
of Maryknoll and why it should help the Patriotic Association's seminarians.
Many of Maryknoll's replies to these inquiries were identical, as follows:
"... Several years ago, Vatican
officials encouraged us to get any seminarians out of China that we could and
into United States seminaries if at all possible. Their purpose was (and is) to
get them a proper Roman Catholic education, and to expose them to the Universal
Church. We were able to get about 40 of them out. ... We choose to follow the
Holy Father's policy of reconciliation. ... We do not support one group over
the other."
We wonder why Maryknoll failed to
disclose in its reply any names, occasions and dates of these "Vatican
officials" when they "encouraged" Maryknoll to sponsor "any seminarians" out of
China to the United States, and why Maryknoll failed to point out that all of
the "40 of them out" belong to the Patriotic Association. If Maryknoll really
does "not support one group over the other" as it claimed in its reply, why
does Maryknoll bring only the seminarians of the Patriotic Association to the
United States? Why does Maryknoll not bring an equal number of the seminarians
of the underground Church to the United States? For this matter, why does
Maryknoll not bring even one underground seminarian to the United States?
Some dioceses in the Free World have
granted faculties to Patriotic Association priests studying there, allowing
them to offer Holy Mass and administer other Sacraments openly in a Roman
Catholic parish. In view of their commitment to return to serve their Patriotic
Association bishops, there is no conclusive evidence that these Patriotic
Association priests have made a lifelong conversion of the heart and a lifelong
profession of the true Catholic faith. Many Catholics who are the recipients of
these sacraments from a Patriotic Association priest are totally in the dark,
because they do not know the identity of these priests.
 There are many religious
and lay Catholics who are knowledgeable of what I have just described. They
also possess power, authority and leadership. But, they chose not to speak out.
This silence could be interpreted by the Chinese Government as approval of its
repressive religious policy. This silence could also be interpreted by the
underground Church as a betrayal.
China continues its oppressive
religious policies not only because many Church leaders send wrong and
misleading signals, but also because most governments in the Free World are not
serious about their demands for human rights improvement in China.
In the meantime, the current policies
of many countries in the West to delink human rights from trade send a clear,
but wrong, message to China that we will tolerate human rights abuses for the
sake of profits and trade. This policy also gives the Chinese Government the
confidence that it can continue persecuting religious believers without
affecting its international relationships.
"Zero Tolerance" — does that
sound familiar? Zero tolerance has become the standard verbiage in the
corporate world. To cite some examples, many multi-national corporations often
allude to their policies of zero tolerance of conflicts of interest,
zero tolerance of sexual harassment, zero tolerance of racial
discrimination, and zero tolerance of child labor. Many of these
policies are directly related to the upholding of basic human rights
principles. Yet, the policy of zero tolerance, or for that matter,
even minimum tolerance of human rights violations has not found its way
into the policy of those companies doing business in China.
It is very wrong, bordering on
hypocrisy, for corporations to demand of its employees a strong commitment to
human rights by having all these zero tolerance policies, when these same
corporations are more than willing to relinquish this policy of zero tolerance
once the corporations are 20 hours away, in China. It is even more hypocritical
that, while hiding behind the policy of delinking trade from human rights,
these companies turn a blind eye to the atrocious religious persecutions in
China in exchange for their "thirty pieces of silver".
China has achieved significant
economic progress during the past two decades with much assistance from the
Free World. This progress has not brought about true religious freedom, as many
leaders of the Free World had hoped for. It is, therefore, very naive or even
unethical for governments of the Free World to negotiate with and encourage the
Chinese government to enter the World Trade Organization while such religious
persecution continues and intensifies. Such acts amount to condoning the five
decades of religious persecution in China. As the leaders of the Free World
attended the 50th anniversary celebration of the founding of the Peoples'
Republic of China in Beijing, they must also remember that the religious
prisoners were simultaneously observing the 50th anniversary of the religious
persecutions in China.
Based on all the above actions, one
could theorize that perhaps many Roman Catholic bishops and missionaries
believe that working with the Patriotic Association Church would be the most
expedient route to return China to the Mother Church. If this theory were the
true objective of these Roman Catholic institutions, they should first seek the
counsel of the loyal underground bishops in China. They have not. They should
have accorded the same respect to the authority of the underground bishops as
an Ordinary as they would have accorded to any other Ordinary throughout the
Free World. They have not. These bishops and religious superiors supporting the
Patriotic Association Church are in effect recognizing the Patriotic
Association as a part of the Universal Church while our Holy Father has
steadfastly refused to do so.
If these Patriotic Association
bishops are truly loyal to the Holy Father, as they professed to their overseas
benefactors, they must realize that this terrible persecution in China is
causing much grief to His Holiness. Shouldn't they, the Patriotic Association
bishops, as Christians and as a sign of goodwill, persuade their government and
speak out that the on-going persecution of the Roman Catholic Church should be
stopped immediately, because it is an evil act and also a gross violation of
human rights? They have not. Shouldn't those Roman Catholic bishops and Roman
Catholic religious superiors friendly to the Patriotic Association bishops show
some support and unity to the underground bishops by suspending these donations
and projects to the Patriotic Association until the persecution stops? They
have not.
The nine million loyal Catholics are
very heart-broken and confused. In their hearts, they know that "Papal
Supremacy" is one of the basics of being a Catholic. In their hearts, they know
that the Holy Father is firmly behind them. In their hearts, they know that the
Holy Father will never abandon them. However, facing all these confusing and
contradicting events, the loyal Catholics in China are experiencing a far more
torturous persecution by the acts of our own Church than by being physically
locked up in a Communist jail.
When you see all the donations and
the cooperation with the Patriotic Association; when you see that there are no
parallel donations and projects for the underground Church, do you feel that
these projects with the Patriotic Association are wrong, do you feel that these
projects with the Patriotic Association should never have happened, and do you
feel that these projects with the Patriotic Association could not have been
mere coincidences? Do you get the impression that the Holy See is now accepting
the Patriotic Association? Do you also get the impression that perhaps the
Vatican is ready to abandon the nine million loyal Catholics or is ready to
force them to merge with the Patriotic Association instead of persuading the
Patriotic Association to join the mother Church? Do you ever wonder why there
are bishops and cardinals in the Vatican to approve and encourage these events
to happen and let them continue to happen?
The Communist Government did not
succeed in eliminating the three million Catholics by coercion and persecution
in the 1950s. Now the government is hoping to defeat the Roman Catholic Church
from within its own Church through misinformation, deceit, and confusion over
and on top of the intensified persecutions! The Chinese Government is trying
very hard to erode the respect, confidence, obedience and loyalty of the
underground Church to the Holy Father to the extent that when the chips are
down, the issue of the Papal authority on the Catholic Church in China would
become irrelevant. I am very frightened to say that the Communists appear to be
gaining ground.
However I, for one, believe that our
Holy Father will never allow anyone to abandon these nine million loyal
Catholics.
On this score, speaking in April 1994
at St. John's Church in New York, Cardinal Kung said:
"The Catholic Church will never
vanish in China. I beg you to have the patience to stay with us with your
prayers and open support until our Holy Mother Mary saves China in Her own
time."
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