Jorge Mario Bergoglio continues the ecumenical path started by his predecessors in the wake of Vatican II. His motto is to always move forward despite doctrinal differences, to embrace all the "baptized". After the attention paid to the Waldensians, to the evangelists, to the Lefebvrians of the Society of Saint Pius, ecc., it is the turn of the Chinese schismatics included in the Chinese Patriotic Association, puppet in the hands of the People's Republic of China. It's from 1957 than Chinese Catholics, faithful to the Roman Church, they are persecuted by the communist regime and "invited" to join the patriotic "church"., with bishops appointed by the government. Now these bishops, affected by the excommunication of Pius XII, they await Bergoglio's recognition. It seems that only one stamp is missing.
Underground Catholic: We, excluded from the dialogues between China and the Holy See
Catholics of the unofficial Church complain that the "imminent" agreement between Rome and Beijing on the appointment of bishops forgets all the persecutions that Christian communities are suffering. A criticism also of Msgr. Giuseppe Wei Jingyi, which – according to the author – is “clandestine” only in a manner of speaking. Repentant bishops show “repentance” only in private, but in public they continue the government's policy.
Beijing (AsiaNews) – The news of an "imminent" agreement between China and the Holy See on the methods of appointing bishops is raising tensions, debates and positions taken between official and non-official Chinese Catholics (underground). Above all, it targets the campaign in favor of signing the agreement that some media would have undertaken to convince the world of its goodness and perhaps also to convince China, which has not yet expressed itself. Several interventions criticize the fact that this campaign has silenced the voice of the unofficial Church. The following article, received by AsiaNews, it is by an underground Catholic from China, known to us, who signs with the pseudonym “John”.
“Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep's clothing, but inside they are predatory wolves! By their fruits you will recognize them. Perhaps grapes are harvested from thorns, or figs from brambles? Thus every good tree produces good fruit and every bad tree produces bad fruit; a good tree cannot produce bad fruit, nor does a bad tree produce good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. You will therefore know them by their fruits." (Matteo 7, 15-19).
Before we begin, I wanted to mention this biblical passage to remind you of what is happening or about to happen. We don't know anything, but it seems like in just one evening, the mass media are transforming or making a "package" of the clandestine Church [that is, they are creating an image to use – ed].
Reading the article “China, the “clandestine” bishop: we follow the Pope, we trust in the Lord", I would like to thank the author because he put "clandestine" in quotation marks to define this Chinese bishop of Qiqihar [it's about Msgr. Giuseppe Wei Jingyi, interviewed by Vatican Insider, il 16 last February]. This is truly ridiculous: this so-called clandestine bishop is actually an official who wants to represent the clandestine Church and claims to be an authoritative voice. The bishop asks friends in Hong Kong, Macao, Taiwan does not claim to speak for him. If that's true, I would like to ask him: who should represent the voice of the underground Church? What a voice that would be? Based on what? What is the core of our Catholic faith? Who can represent the interest of the Chinese faithful?
This “clandestine” bishop, “on his behalf and on behalf of the community entrusted by God to his pastoral care, he declares solemnly, however relations between China and the Vatican end up, they totally obey the decision of the Pope and the Holy See, whatever it is. And they won't even ask why.". Furthermore, he quotes the passage from the prodigal son, “when the son repents, and asks to return to his father, There may perhaps be reasons why his father refuses to forgive him? On the contrary, the father had been waiting for his return for a long time".
It seems that all the bishops of the Patriotic Church have already repented, but this “repentance” is public or private? If they continue to make non-transparent and non-public choices, but only private and hidden, then how can we believe that this repentance is truly faithful? The bishop of Qiqihar uses the passage of the adulterous woman, but the Lord also tells us that the condition of forgiveness is to no longer sin. Instead, the bishops of the Patriotic Church still work in the Patriotic Association today and how can they be justified?
Regarding the agreement between China and the Holy See, the bishop continues by saying that "to find an agreement you always need to trust the other a little. If there wasn't a little mutual trust, there wouldn't even be the possibility of talking, and no agreement would ever be reached.". I would like to know where this trust of yours comes from?
The new regulations on religions in China are well known (entered into force on February 1st 2018): in fact, it appears from various sources that many clandestine churches are prohibited and sanctioned.
There are several examples that demonstrate the lack of religious freedom in China: the case of Father Pedro Wei Heping, good and faithful priest, died under mysterious circumstances and officially ruled a suicide; the campaign against crosses in Zhejiang in 2015 and the demolition of churches in many other regions; the disappearance [in the hands of the police] of Bishop James Su Zhimin, that his whereabouts are not yet known.
We would like to know what is happening in the Vatican. Il Card. Parolin and the other "optimists" want to put all the Chinese faithful in a big cage? Maybe a bigger cage is needed, because the current one is too small to contain the 12 millions of faithful.
This agreement between China and the Vatican was born in secret and no priest or faithful was involved directly or indirectly. At that time, how can we believe that this agreement is favorable to the Chinese Catholic Church?
