Immediately after learning of the renewed endorsement of the agreement between China and the Vatican, the American newspaper published a sharp editorial.
Newsroom (26/10/2022 11:07 PM, Gaudium Press) The digital edition of the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) of 23 October, in an article under the heading of the “Editorial Board”, critiqued the recent endorsement of the China-Vatican agreement for the appointment of bishops. The Wall Street Journal is one of the most influential newspapers in the world, especially in the economic field.
The article, entitled “Of Chinese Catholics and Communists”, is quite critical of the agreement, which was established provisionally in 2018, extended for two years in 2020, and then recently extended again.
After highlighting the absolute power that Xi Jinping has achieved in China, the editorial points out that there is actually little progress to show in terms of religious freedom in the powerful Asian country. On the contrary, the paper stresses that the main effect of the agreement is to “silence Vatican criticism of human rights abuses, from the genocide of Uighur Muslims, to the political trial of Cardinal Joseph Zen in Hong Kong“. This would represent a “return to the failed Vatican Ostpolitik of the 1960’s and 1970’s, when Rome silenced criticism of the Soviet Union and its East European satellites.”
“The agreement gives Beijing a voice in the appointment of Catholic bishops,” the Wall Street Journal continues, “but its terms are secret. A handful of bishops have been appointed, most of them pro-Beijing. Meanwhile, the National Catholic Register reports that 36 of China’s 98 dioceses have no bishop.”
The paper points out that China particularly insists that bishops and priests serve the interests of the atheist Communist Party.
Carte blanche?
In recent statements by the Vatican Secretary of State, Cardinal Parolin, to the effect that one must assume the “good faith” of the Chinese Communists, the American newspaper states that “the use of the word ‘faith’ in that phrase is astonishing, because the Communists in China repudiate all religious faith. Nor has China done anything to deserve that assumption.”
Recalling John Paul II’s motto “Do not be afraid,” which he applied by challenging “regimes like that of the Soviet Union and using his Papacy to draw the world’s attention to the plight of the forgotten and persecuted,” the Wall Street Journal expresses that “the Vatican’s current motto is: be afraid,” and that the Chinese Communists have been given carte blanche for their “inhumane conduct.”
Compiled by Sandra Chisholm
