ARTICLES
December 2005 ARTICLES
Contents © 2005
by Jim Holman.
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Very Cozy
Mahony's China Sabbatical and What It May Mean
BY RYAN GRANT
It was, supposedly, the first ever public Mass said by a cardinal in Shanghai, Red China, and Roger Mahony was the celebrant, the November 6 Los Angeles Times reported. This is significant because St. Peter's parish church, where the cardinal celebrated Mass, belongs to the Chinese Catholic Patriotic Association, which since 1949 has been in at least de facto schism from the Holy See. Existing alongside this "patriotic" church have been bishops, priests, and faithful of what is called the "underground" Church, many of whom have suffered imprisonment and death at the hands of Chinese Communists leaders.
Cardinal Mahony, however, told the Times that distinctions between the patriotic and underground churches are "evaporating." "Those labels probably fit 10 years ago, but they certainly don't fit today," said Mahony. This evaporation, if such it be, might be the fruit of a program of cooperation that has existed between the Catholic Church and the Patriotic Association for almost the last 15 years -- a program that the archdiocese of Los Angeles was to play at least some part.
In 1991, a program was created through the Maryknoll Fathers, by which seminarians from China could study at American and European seminaries. "In the beginning we received and trained seminarians, but now we train mostly ordained priests and temporarily vowed religious," said Father Larry Lewis, a Maryknoll Father and director of the program. "All in all we've had 84 participants, and 55 have returned for doctoral work. We have five seminarians in the program now, and these are the last, since now they have seminaries in China that can train them. Now we handle priests and religious pursuing masters and doctoral work."
However, according to one group, there is a problem, since the seminarians being trained are not in union with the Catholic Church. "The seminarians being trained are all a part of the Chinese Catholic Patriotic Association," said Joseph Kung, president of the Cardinal Kung Foundation. "The Chinese Government officially permits only those Catholic churches affiliated with the Patriotic Association, which takes its orders only from the State Council's Religious Affairs Bureau. The Patriotic Association does not recognize the supreme administrative, legislative, and judicial authority of the pope. In fact, it has a provision in its constitution declaring its autonomy from the pope." The Cardinal Kung Foundation, located in Stamford, Connecticut, is named after Ignatius Cardinal Kung, a Chinese bishop who was imprisoned by the Communist Chinese government for 30 years and made a cardinal by John Paul II. Joseph Kung is the late cardinal's nephew. "The Patriotic Association's seminarians and priests have been given full scholarships covering tuition, room, and board from various dioceses. Upon completion of their studies, the seminarians return to China to be ordained, not by the underground Roman Catholic bishops, but by their schismatic Patriotic Association bishops," he added.
"That's their opinion, and we don't go tit for tat with them," said Father Lewis, responding to Kung. "This project was approved by the Holy See from its inception. It was approved by Cardinal Seppe of the Congregation of the Evangelization of Peoples and is overseen by Francis Cardinal George of Chicago and Theodore Cardinal McCarrick of Washington, D.C. This was at the urging of John Paul II for many years, to work for the reconciliation in China. The claim that we only train Patriotic Association seminarians is false, completely wrong," he said, affirming that the program trains seminarians for the underground Church as well.
"That can't be true," Joseph Kung responded. "They have been training seminarians from the Patriotic Association for the last ten or 15 years. If they happened to train one underground seminarian for one summer in a summer house, that doesn't count."
But, Father Lewis added, "its impor tant to remember the Patriotic Association is not a Church, it's an organization. There has never been a schism in China. The basic message we have for anyone is that many have suffered, and reconciliation is our hope; that's what keeps us going with this."
While the project is indeed approved by the Vatican, a September 3, 1988 document by Cardial Josef Tomko of the Holy See's Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples adds a note of caution. Directive #5 of the document's Directives on some of the problems of the Church in continental China warns: "if it is forbidden and if it is not possible to give even privately an adequate formation to the candidates for the priesthood, then, these can be sent to the seminaries that are opened under the control of the Patriotic Association. But only under the condition that the general orientation and formation imparted there follow the teaching and directives of the Church." Directive #1 of the same document asserts: "since the Roman Pontiff in the Catholic Church is 'a permanent and visible principle and foundation of unity of Faith and fellowship' (L.G. n.18) those who don't profess or don't preserve the communion with the Pope, cannot consider themselves to be Catholic. Communion with the Pope is not only a question of discipline but of Catholic faith."
According to a report by Father Lewis on the project's progress, admission to the Maryknoll program is contingent upon a letter from the candidate's bishop telling who he is sending, whether or not the candidate is getting a degree or doing master's work. Concerning the subject of orthodoxy, Father Lewis said, "the seminaries in China are certainly giving orthodox teaching. They pray for the pope, pray morning and evening prayer, pastoral ministry, etc."
There are a number of seminaries in the U.S. which educate these seminarians and priests, and among those which were to participate was the Los Angeles archdiocese's St. John's Seminary in Camarillo. However, Dr. Mark Fischer of the admissions office at St. John's maintains they have not received any Chinese seminarians to date. No other archdiocesan officials could be reached for comment. According to Maryknoll, the archdiocese had been prepared to receive seminarians, but it simply never panned out.
There have been other developments on this subject. Recently Monsignor Xing Wenzhi was consecrated as an auxiliary bishop of Shanghai by "official" (that is, Patriotic Association) bishops. This consecration was reported by a June 29 Asia News article as having been a joint consecration between the Patriotic Church and the Vatican. Bishop Wenzhi was also apart of the Maryknoll program. However the joint consecration is yet to be confirmed by the Vatican, and when I contacted the Holy See press office, they claimed they had no knowledge of it.
If in fact the consecration was a joint consecration approved by the Holy See, why hasn't the Holy See said anything about it publicly? It would seem that such a step would signal a complete change of direction in Vatican policy toward the Chinese Church, at least since Cardinal Tomko's directive. However, a June 30, 2005 article published by Zenit quoted the Shanghai Religious Affairs Bureau saying Wenzhi was approved by the Shanghai diocese and the college of Chinese bishops, and the Vatican had nothing to do with it. On August 3, Asia News reported that Pope Benedict XVI had his first audience at which several priests and seminarians purported to be from China's official Church were received by the Holy Father and given a blessing, which is unprecedented since the Communist takeover.
To reconcile the current situation with the Vatican, the Chinese govern ment has insisted that the Holy See break its diplomatic relations with Taiwan and refrain from "interfering" in China's internal (including religious) affairs. The Vatican has declared its willingness to move its diplomatic relations from Taiwan to Beijing. However, Pius XII stated in Ad Apostolorum Principis that the right to appoint bishops was reserved to the Holy See, and that was reiterated by Cardinal Tomko in his 1988 directive on the Church in China. The Holy See enjoys the right of nomination of bishops in every country of the world, including Communist countries such as Vietnam and Cuba, and it is unlikely to compromise on this issue, though it may set up a special accommodation. However until the Vatican clarifies its position, the status of relations between the Vatican and Patriotic Association affairs remains unclear.