Dear Catholic Exchange:
Despite wishful thinking to the contrary, China continues its policy of eradicating the Catholic Church within its borders. However, China is not without its accomplices: the United Nations, the World Bank, the United States, Europe, and virtually all the countries of the world contribute to China's disregard for human and religious rights.
The People's Republic of China has managed to gag these countries and organizations from any real criticism or effective sanctions using the allure of profits to be made, signing international agreements that are just as quickly forgotten, and the forbearance or wishful thinking of its oppressive activities in the hopes that it will one day halt its disregard for human and religious rights.
The recent arrest of another Catholic bishop (two in a months' time) is yet another in a litany of examples where little is done with the result that the eventual eradication of the so-called “underground” Church is virtually assured. Both bishops' recent release came after official Vatican protests which hadn't occurred in many, many years, despite the arrests and detentions of many other underground priests and bishops. One has to applaud the Vatican's insistence for their release for no other country has called what is clearly a wrong, a wrong.
The use of the term “underground” at first glance gives an erroneous impression. The underground Church is one in which the priests and bishops are in full communion (bearing the Four Marks of the Church) with the pope and his authority.
In China, the campaign to stiffen its control over all Church activity continues. The number of underground bishops that the Vatican has approved is declining as they grow older. Despite a recent unofficial report that 2/3 of the bishops in China have been approved by the Holy See, there has been no official statement from the Vatican.
One also has to wonder why the Vatican forcefully opposed the Polish government's treatment of the Church before the fall of the Berlin Wall while it acquiesces to another communist government's brazen attempts to dismantle the Church in China. China has consistently complained of foreign attempts to interfere in its internal affairs and it has shown that it has the means and opportunity to do the worst, religion or not.
Government leaders and corporate giants need to reevaluate their silence in these moral issues — their silence adds to their complicity to China's continuing crimes. Keep in mind Dante's quote, “The hottest places in Hell are reserved for those who, in a time of great moral crises, maintain their neutrality.”
Bob Baker
See writer's previous article:
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