The episcopal consecration of Bishop Stephen Chow Sau-yan’s in Hong Kong’s Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception, Dec. 4, 2021 / Screenshot from livestream
Denver Newsroom, Dec 31, 2021 / 11:00 am (CNA).
Four clerics have told Reuters that several bishops and other officials from the Chinese Catholic Patriotic Association met in October with senior clerics of the Diocese of Hong Kong to talk to them about sinicization, a Chinese government campaign to bring religion into its vision of culture, society, and politics.
“We all know the word sinicization carries a political agenda behind it, and they didn’t have to spell that out,” said one of the four Hong Kong clerics who spoke to Reuters about the meeting.
Sinicization was proposed by Chinese president Xi Jinping in 2015. The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom has called the effort “a far-reaching strategy to control, govern, and manipulate all aspects of faith into a socialist mold infused with ‘Chinese characteristics.”
Reuters’ report on the Oct. 31 meeting was published Dec. 30.
The Hong Kong Liaison Office, which represents the Chinese government in the special administrative region, arranged and monitored the encounter. Participating were three bishops and “about 15 religious figures” from the Patriotic Association, and “about 15 senior clergymen” of the Hong Kong diocese.
Two of the men who spoke to Reuters said the officials from the government-backed Church spoke about the compatibility of sinicization and inculturation, and one described Xi as the “elephant in the room” during the conversation.
“This was just the first step and I felt they knew that they could not come into this too heavy,” another said.
Several told Reuters that Bishop Stephen Chow Sau-yan of Hong Kong attended the meeting only a short time. The Jesuit was consecrated Dec. 4.
Hong Kongers have, historically, largely enjoyed political fredom and freedom of worship and evangelization, while in mainland China there is a long history of persecution of religious persons who run afoul of the government.
Beijing has in recent years tightened control over the island territory and cracked down on dissent.
The Hong Kong diocese has been divided in recent years over reactions to a movement protesting China’s increasing control over the special administrative region.
The Catholic Church in China has been split between the government-sanctioned Chinese Patriotic Catholic Association and the underground Church, which is persecuted and whose episcopal appointments are frequently not acknowledged by Chinese authorities.
In 2018, the Vatican reached an agreement with the Chinese government on the appointment of bishops in the country; the terms of the agreement, which was renewed in October 2020 for two more years, have never been fully revealed. It is meant to help unite the Patriotic Association and the underground Church.
The October meeting’s focus on the compatibility of sinicization and inculturation is not novel.
Fr. Benoit Vermander, a Jesuit priest in China, attempted to outline a path for “sinicization” of religion in a March 2018 issue of La Civiltà Cattolica, whose publication is overseen by the Secretariat of State.
While there are “evident dangers” in following a top-down policy that can bring “a substantial loss of identity,” he argued, Catholics should not avoid sinicization simply because it is government backed. Rather, despite the problems created by the policy, dialogue between Catholics and the communist government is needed.
Fr. Vermander argued that Christians should listen to the government’s appeal for sinicization and “examine which kind of changes it could lead them to imagine and undertake,” while “being aware of the danger.”
And in May 2019 Cardinal Pietro Parolin, Vatican Secretary of State, said that inculturation and sinicization can be “complementary” and “can open avenues for dialogue.”
“These two terms, ‘inculturation’ and ‘sinicization,’ refer to each other without confusion and without opposition,” he told the Global Times, an English-language newspaper owned by the People’s Daily, the official newspaper of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China.
“For the future, it will certainly be important to deepen this theme, especially the relationship between ‘inculturation’ and ‘sinicization,’ keeping in mind how the Chinese leadership has been able to reiterate their willingness not to undermine the nature and the doctrine of each religion,” Cardinal Parolin said.
“Inculturation is an essential condition for a sound proclamation of the Gospel which, in order to bear fruit, requires, on the one hand, safeguarding its authentic purity and integrity and, on the other, presenting it according to the particular experience of each people and culture,” he said.
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Yet another nutty nun and a homosexual-sympathizing pope. Christ could not be amused despite the carnival backdrop.
Today Holy Father you are alluding on X to what would happen if we prayed more and complained less.
If I pray and Jesus tells me to bring something to the direct attention of the Holy Father that crosses him, would you be able to tell the difference between that and a complaint? Perhaps Holy Father you will say it is only a knot and the BVM already loosed out all the knots for you because you declared she needn’t be Redemptrix and you are the Holy Father?
So I find this in my prayer. I believe it is for you. If it is not for you, well, you can make up your own mind. When did Jesus ever use mercy to distort justice?
You are telling these people you are with them in spirit while telling us to legalize their propensity to do and to want evil and its legalization? And that THAT is the Christian proclamation of respect and love due to the Incarnate Word?
But something further is in the vision from the prayer. By all appearance, you never rebuke James Martin for his implicit complaining -nor any of his ilk for that matter. But now you express a heartfelt plea for us to strive in prayer ….. to be less in complaining? Even in the parable the unjust judge was ashamed of the widow.
https://x.com/Pontifex/status/1819334832780202057
All you say is sad but true.
Bishop Strickland is able to carry it over positively without any element of sadness. See in the LIFESITE link, Strickland’s discussion about not pulling up the darnel but remaining as good wheat -with Terry Barber, Virgin MP Radio.
Somehow today CNA coincidentally publishes another viewpoint on the same X post. They portray that the aim of the post is to pray to get around all the gossiping, more than it is about not belly-aching moaners and groaners. But actually my prayer addresses both and anything else anyone wishes to try to overlay.
That’s the point I try to convey faithfully to the Holy Father. He is seeing things only in contexts he has predefined and projects. As if his preferred groups are not gossips and won’t worsen the problem and the personal penchants, you see. He himself complains about rigidity and narrowness (“closed-up”) but he is leading a unidirectional apostolate with very zoned thinking, not the Cross.
Jesus gave that parable precisely for us to be complaining when we know we must.
Brings me back to Strickland. He reminds how St. Paul says be prepared to give the account of the reason for our HOPE. Not sheep wallowing in joy.
https://www.lifesitenews.com/episodes/bishop-strickland-dont-listen-to-church-leaders-who-want-to-reshape-gods-commandments/?utm_source=most_recent&utm_campaign=usa
https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/258503/pope-francis-what-would-happen-if-we-prayed-more-and-complained-less