Paul KeenanVatican-Beijing talks are back on track, writes Paul Keenan
In terms of human measurement, the distance from Rome to the Chinese capital, Beijing, is 8,144kms.
Should Pope Francis be enabled one day to undertake that journey, as is his fervent wish, he faces a flight time of between 11 and 12 hours before touching down in ‘The Middle Kingdom’.
The time period on such a journey would be of most use to the press corps accompanying the Pontiff, such would be the wealth and breadth of questions to be asked on what would surely be the most significant of trips in the history of the papacy.
We are not there yet, of course, and China has not become overnight a bastion of religious freedom and tolerance (far from it), but based on recent developments, Rome and Beijing are once again drawing closer. Last weekend, in a dramatic revelation, the Vatican gave truth to the swirling rumours that a high-level delegation had travelled to Beijing for a fresh round of talks towards diplomatic ties and with that, warmer relations.
The imperceptible move towards some form of common ground is said to have begun within a day of Pope Francis’ March 13, 2013 election to the throne of St Peter, when circumstances in Beijing allowed him to exchange congratulatory messages with newly-elected President Xi Jinping. The exchange was an unprecedented token of warmth at a time of sullen silence between the Vatican and China following the stalling of talks in 2009. Said stall had been precipitated by the removal from the negotiating table of a key Asian expert, the then-Father Pietro Parolin, to allow him to take up a post as papal nuncio to Venezuela.
Separation
Matters descended into a form of hard-balling in the absence of talks, but with no input whatsoever on the substantive matters of separation: The Vatican’s demand to retain control over its own episcopal ordinations versus the Chinese demand for an end of the Vatican’s diplomatic ties to Taiwan and for non-interference in its internal affairs, even under the banner of religion.
With a new Pontiff came a new drive. Just five months after Pope Francis’ elevation, then-Archbishop Parolin was recalled to become the Vatican’s youngest ever Secretary of State, and within 10 months, confirmation that Rome and Beijing were again talking was confirmed. (It was Cardinal Parolin who confirmed, too, the October talks in Beijing, pointing out that the ability now to speak publicly of the negotiations was itself “significant”.)
No less significant will be the results of these talks, with the Vatican side now led by a Secretary of State widely credited with securing diplomatic ties with communist Vietnam, and a Pontiff whose credentials are cemented by his recent success in US and communist Cuba relations.
The ever-present ‘ghost at the feast’ however, is China’s outspoken Cardinal Joseph Zen. The former senior prelate for Hong Kong, and a man who has seen most recently the hard tactics of the Chinese machine when challenged (by pro-democracy students), Cardinal Zen makes no bones about his inability to view matters with the same optimism as the Vatican Secretary of State.
In response to Cardinal Parolin’s 2014 interview, he stated: “We do not see any sign that would encourage the hope that the Chinese Communists are about to change their restrictive religious policy.”
For Cardinal Zen, the issue of international diplomatic relations is given a human face by his proximity to those who have suffered the most under China’s repeated attempts to keep the Catholic Church ‘in line’. The December reports of his reaction to Cardinal Parolin’s interview cited his referencing of the imprisoned prelates, Bishop Cosma Shi Enxiang of Yixian, arrested in 2001 and Bishop Su Zhimin of Baodong, arrested in 1996.
Sadly, reports subsequently emerged in February of this year that Bishop Shi had died, though, in a final agony for his extended family, when they tried to recover his body for burial, his death was denied by officials who have since failed to produce either his body or evidence that the 94-year-old prelate is alive. By February, he had served overall some 54 years in prison for refusing to reject the Church of Rome for that of the Chinese Patriotic Catholic Association (CPCA), China’s officially sanctioned Church.
Barely a month after the reported death, Cardinal Zen was again railing against any hint at compromise with Beijing, denouncing the idea publicly as the Vatican’s “unconditional surrender” to the communist regime.
Bishops Shi and Su are but two names on a longer list of clergy currently detained in one form or another for their adherence to Rome.
House arrest
At least six priests are missing following their detention by police in recent years, and who can forget the case of Bishop Thaddeus Ma Daqin, quickly slapped down with house arrest in 2012 for his highly publicised rejection of the CPCA during his ordination address in Shanghai? Rapturous applause then for the new bishop gave way, according to reports, to thrice-weekly re-education classes for the errant prelate.
However, all must be set against a recent development, no doubt arising from a certain ‘feel-good factor’ resulting from renewed negotiations.
In August, the Chinese authorities allowed for the public ordination of Bishop Joseph Zhang Yinlin, coadjutor of Anyang diocese, a first since the Bishop Ma debacle. Notably, in a not insignificant nod towards compromise, the capacity event was overseen by three prelates who were simultaneously Vatican approved and government sanctioned.
Cardinal Zen would no doubt bristle at this, but it is undoubtedly another element of progress.
How far China is ultimately willing to go in reaching out to Rome remains to be seen; President Xi remains a mystery, but one who continues to surprise. The drive against corrupt officials of the Communist Party continues at a heady pace and the remarkable ending of the infamous One Child Policy left seasoned China-watchers stunned (although The Irish Catholic flagged the policy as being under reconsideration as far back as 2013, just months after Mr Xi’s election).
While history has given every good reason to remain cautious of predicting outcomes in Vatican-China negotiations, it is exciting to speculate and to see the papal flight at last banking over Beijing, for so long a ‘forbidden city’.