A lot has been said about At the synod to be held this October, China should adapt the Catholic Church to today’s conditions. The detail is not small. Asian giant and Vatican pursue agreement Strained relations since 1951although last yearsThere was a meeting with Francisco lukewarm approach between Vatican and Beijing. Therefore, its relevance is high.
One of the news is the elderly Chinese cardinal and retired archbishop of Hong Kong, Joseph Zen Zekiunbecame one most critical voices meeting. Trivia revolves around ‘mysteryStatement by two Chinese bishops who attended the meeting and left before it ended on October 29.
Zen, who is highly respected among Asian Catholics for his advocacy of religious freedom in Asia, has stepped up his interviews and public appearances in recent weeks to express his views. opposing view At a synod he described as a meeting of “supporters of homosexuals expelled by the church.” “This is not a synod to understand the truth, but merely a ‘sharing’ of feelings. This is not about the truth of faith, It’s just psychology“, criticized the cardinal.
heard in Asia
The problem is that Zen’s voice tip of the iceberg ‘Much bigger, as suggested by Bernardo Cervellera, director of Asia News for twenty years (until 2021) and missionary to this continent. “Wonder [de Zen] before a one-sided, sociological and not very theological synod there was from many places here inside Asia,” says the priest.
“Criticisms of Zen are a clear sign of this. discomfort “This has been going on since the Second Vatican Council,” he notes. “This council had forced the Church to open itself to the world,” Cervellera says, adding that this portion of the clergy believed that the institution should open itself to the world, but that it should also “criticize its absolutist and inhumane pretensions.”
Iacopo Scaramuzzi, a senior Vatican official and author of books on religious issues, has a different view. According to him, Zen is part of a traditionalist movement that “is always the same.” “For example, in 2018, Zen spoke at a conference sponsored by cardinals. Raymond Burke and Walter Brandmüller, who criticized the apostolic exhortation Amoris Laetitia at the time, and Openings for divorcees and returnees “to get married,” he says.
He confirms that these are the same people “who criticized the synod today.” “My opinion is that extreme conservative wingstretching USA to Hong KongHe thinks that the Second Vatican Council is the source of all the problems and is afraid that the Pope will destabilize the existing Church,” Scaramuzzi argues.
mysterious abandonment
However, a separate issue is the problem of these two. bishops of china Antonio Yao Shun and Joseph And Yongqiang, who have voting rights They left parliament this week 12 days after the start of the meeting. The situation reported by Paolo Ruffini, current prefect of the Dicastery for Communications, was surprising because no advance announcement.
Additionally, the decision was justified by claiming that the duo would have made the decision as follows:pastoral needsof their dioceses that would require their presence in China”.
Problem: For more than half a century, China and the Vatican are in conflict. Because the Vatican does not allow Beijing to impose its bishops on itself; this occurred nowhere else in the world and gave birth to two Churches (one official, the other secret, answering to the Pope). This ‘anomaly’ appeared to be resolved with a historic agreement signed between the two countries in 2018. Cracks appeared in 2020When Beijing unexpectedly appointed a cardinal chosen by the Asian country’s authorities.
Therefore, the fact that the duo left the synod “is undoubtedly symptom of a problemBecause the Vatican said that, unlike 2018, two bishops would attend the entire synod,” says Scaramuzzi. “It didn’t surprise me much. There has been progress, but still [en estos años]The relationship between China and the Vatican revealed this: steps forward and backward” he concludes.