austraLasia
1381
China's independent
Catholic voice - again
HONG KONG: 6th
January 2006 -- If there are two names that turn up in the world press
with almost monotonous regularity they are Bishop Zen and Cardinal Rodriguez
(though the latter sometimes gets 'Maradiaga' which I believe he does not
prefer). They are not loose cannons, but their voices do reverberate
around the world and explode uncomfortably close to certain realities. One
of those realities is China. 'Big', continental China, where Joseph Zen
was born in 1932, Shanghai, and left in 1948 for the then independent Hong Kong,
a year before Mao came on the scene.
The Holy Spirit Study
Centre in HK, an acknowledged and authoritative source of useful information
about things Catholic in China, has recently published 'unofficial' figures of
the Church in China. As the Vatican-published figures tend to run at least
two years late, the Holy Spirit figures are of passing and current interest: 12
million Catholics in a population of 1.2 billion. 138 dioceses; number of
Bishops: - in the Open Church 64, in the Underground Church 39; number of
Priests - in the Open Church 180 (Old); 1,620 (Young), in the Underground
Church 200( Old); 900 (Young); number of Sisters - in the Open Church
3,600, in the Underground Church 1,200; number of Seminaries - Major 14,
Minor 18, in the Underground Church 10; number of Seminarians - in the
Open Church 640, in the Underground Church Circa 800; Minor seminarians in
the Open Church 500; number of Novitiates - in the Open Church 40,
in the Underground Church 20; number of Sisters in Formation - in the Open
Church 600, in the Underground Church 600.
Just
yesterday, Bishop Zen had a full page interview published in the Italian daily,
L'Avvenire. It is to be hoped that this newspaper has got the
interview correct, because it publishes what it purports to be the Holy Spirit
Study Centre figures for China also, but they are plainly wrong! The ones
above are the actual figures published by HSSC. Anyway, L'Avvenire
points out that 'this Salesian has become an authoritative leader not only
for the 300,000 Catholics in Hong Kong but for everyone in the democratic
movement'. The interview is too long to repeat here, but its major points
we can list easily enough.
Bishop Zen is asked what he thinks of China's
economic development - he didn't answer the question as asked but commented on
the heavy 'yoke' (and that became L'Avvenire's headline) that China's
Communist Party structure and methods have imposed on all its citizens. It
is a yoke he believes the Church is actually beginning to shift a little. 'We
are winning back some significant spaces for freedom', because the government
might control structures but it can't control hearts and minds. He is asked the
obvious question about the so-called open and underground distinction, but the
interviewer assumes the answer and asks what is being done about
reconciliation. To some extent the response assumes the answer too and
goes on to point out that the official Church is headless, both the Episcopal
Conference and the Patriotic Association. One died, the other is sick and
discredited in the eyes of the faithful. But on the other hand, he points
out, 85% of official Bishops have also sought and gained Vatican
recognition. The Taiwan question is the next Bishop Zen is asked about:
His reply is that 'we have to explain it well to the faithful in Taiwan that it
[Holy See diplomatic relations with China] is not a betrayal but imposed
necessarily by circumstances'. But nor is he sanguine that this will
happen overnight. The Vatican's insistence on the granting of religious
freedom will be the sticking point.
The final question is
about Bishop Zen's personal support for the democratic movement. Is he
afraid of involving the Church in strictly political questions? The answer
is unequivocal, even a touch blunt: 'Listen here! The Catholic Church in Hong
Kong took part two years ago in demonstrations about the famous article
23....now universal suffrage is in question....it is the citizens' right.
It is a right that the Church cannot NOT
defend'.
_______________
AustraLasia is an email service for the Salesian Family of
Asia Pacific. It also functions as an agency for ANS based in Rome.
For RSS feeds, subscribe to www.bosconet.aust.com/rssala.xml