The Hermeneutic of Continuity

Via Luke Coppen's Morning Catholic must-reads the other day, I came across an inspiring account of A Vibrant, Living Church in China by Elizabeth Hansen. Pope Benedict's 2007 Letter to Chinese Catholics  demonstrates the immensely difficult conditions in which the Church in China operates and it is edifying to see the sincere desire of the underground Catholics to avoid discord. In the course of her article, Hansen tells of the commemoration last Friday of the 120 martyrs canonised by Pope John Paul. She highlights the example of 18 year old Chi Zhuzi who was preparing for Baptism and refused to renounce the faith when he was captured and tortured during the Boxer Rising in 1900. Even when his right arm was cut off, he refused to deny Christ, telling his tormentors: “Every piece of my flesh, every drop of my blood will tell you that I am Christian.” He was eventually flayed alive. At the Vatican website, you can see a summary for St Augustine Zhao Rong and his compani...

This evening there will be the first showing of the Marie Stopes advertisement for abortion on TV. less publicised was the visit last week to the London headquarters of Marie Stopes International by "Madame Sterilisation", Ms. Li Bin. There is a report of the visit at Tibet Truth which comments: No doubt the Minister of China’s National Population and Family Planning Commission was warmly received by the multi-lateral population agency, which works inside communist China, yet would appear oblivious to the horrifying women’s human rights violations caused by China’s coercive birth-control policies. Like its ‘sister’ organizations the United Nations Fund for Population and the International Planned Parenthood Federation, MSE though acutely aware of China’s program of forced sterilizations and forced abortions, which have traumatized countless women in China and occupied regions such as Tibet and East Turkestan, seems unable to offer a word of public condemnation, concern or ...

Peter Hitchens has written a powerful article for the Daily Mail on the results of China's one child policy which in effect was a "one boy" policy. Classrooms now show an alarming surplus of boys, there is a thriving trade in stolen children, prostitution has increased, and a local abortionist gasped at the idea of aborting a boy, saying: 'Nobody aborts boys unless they are deformed. Girls are what we abort.' The social effects of such a gender imbalance are difficult to assess adequately. As Hitchens explains, the "gendercide" has roots in attitudes that predate communism; nevertheless the availability of abortion has made it possible for the problem to spiral out of control. The Chinese government is using its propaganda machine to attempt to reverse the disaster. Someone should explain that one of the most effective ways for it to solve the problem would be to release its hold on the "Patriotic Church", cease the persecution of the unde...

Over the past couple of days, Stephen Hughes, Member of the European Parliament for the North East of England, has hit the headlines as a Catholic who has expressed indignant opposition to the Holy Father's comments on Equality legislation. Speaking at a meeting of socialists and democrats, Hughes said that he was appalled by what the Pope had said, and pointed to the duty of religious leaders to eradicate inequality. He protested that "Inequality is at the root of many social problems." One social problem for women in one part of the world has been that when they wanted to have a second baby, they have been forced to have an abortion. Other women in the same country have been subjected to forced sterilisation. The USA declined to continue funding programmes in countries which did this sort of thing. In 2001, the EU stepped in to make up the 33 million shortfall. In 2008, Amendment 134 to the EU budget was proposed: Community assistance shall not be given to any gove...

Sandro Magister reports on a new exhibition in the Braccio di Carlo Magno wing of Saint Peter's Square, devoted to the Jesuit missionary to China, Matteo Ricci. (See: Matteo Ricci. How to "Inculturate" Christianity in China ) As I will be in Rome this January for the Clergy Conference , I hope to be able to visit the exhibition.

Joe at Catholic Commentary has posted a follow-up comment to my remarks on unity and the SSPX in the context of State interference in funeral of Chinese Bishop . It is well worth reading in view of Joe's familiarity with the Holy Father's Letter to Chinese Catholics . See: A Comment on Unity

UCANEWS has a report on the funeral of Bishop James Lin Xili of Wenzhou which took place last Saturday. (See: Members of 'open' and 'underground' communities attend bishop's funeral ) Bishop Lin was ordained clandestinely and therefore a member of the "underground Church". In China, as I understand, Catholics try hard to prevent the communist government from driving a wedge between the "official" and the "underground" Church. The funeral of Bishop Lin was an example of this determined co-operation with more than 20,000 people attending - from both communities (along with 1,000 police.) Although the funeral was held in relative freedom, there was still some petty state interference. As UCANEWS reports: The sources also said local government officials forbade the use of the term zhujiao (bishop) on banners and wreaths, but a compromise was reached with the use of "Lin mu" (shepherd Lin). However, officials allowed the verbal use...

Thanks to Frugal Dougal for pointing me to a test to see whether my blog is still banned in China. I'm proud to say that the test shows that there is some "failure in receiving network data" whereas in, for example, Seattle, all is OK. Perhaps this is partly to do with my opposition to the Church Eradication Manual - or possibly my highlighting of the propaganda messasge that " Your home will be destroyed and your cows taken away if you don't abort "

In December 2006, I wrote about Chen Guangcheng when the Jubilee Campaign organised postcards to be sent to the Chinese Ambassador. He had been imprisoned on 24 August 2006 after exposing and speaking out against the policy of forced abortions and sterilisations in the Shandong Province. Sadly he is still in prison. A petition has been organised to ask the Prime Minister to put pressure on the Chinese authorities to free Chen Guangcheng. The petition reads: We the undersigned petition the Prime Minister to take whatever action he can to put pressure on the Chinese authorities to secure the release of Chen Guangcheng, a Chinese prisoner of conscience who, on 20th May 2009 has served 1000 days in prison since being sentanced for highligting abuses of the one-child policy of the Chinese authorities, including forced abortions and sterilisations Further information from petition creator: Chen Guangcheng is a blind lawyer, currently imprisoned in China for "damaging public property ...

Many thanks to Rorate Caeli for the link to the article from the Union of Catholic Asian News: Cardinal Zen Calls On Mainland Bishops To Act Wisely At Pivotal Moment . Cardinal Zen, the Bishop of Hong Kong, was writing in his diocesan Chinese language weekly newspaper, Kung Kao Po. Here is the original Chinese . Google will translate this after a fashion but if anyone who knows Chinese wants to do a proper English translation, I'm sure it would be warmly welcomed in the Catholic blogosphere. Cardinal Zen criticises the participation of some Chinese Bishops in the government sponsored celebrations of the 50th anniversary of the founding of the Chinese Catholic Patriotic Association (CCPA). He points out that forcing Catholics to do something against their conscience, such as the ordination of Bishops without the approval of the Holy See, is not a cause for celebration. The article gives an interesting insight into the arguments used by those in the CCPA, alleging that it is futile ...

Last Tuesday, 10,000 Chinese Catholics attended the funeral of Father Joseph Jia Fuqian, uncle of “underground” Bishop Julius Jia Zhiguo of Zhengding. Fr Jia died on 26 December, aged 88. In 1940, he took his first vows in the St Paul’s Congregation of the Zhengding diocese. When the Catholic Patriotic Association was established in 1958, he refused to join and was sentenced to twenty years of "reform-through-labour", a sentence he served in full. In 1981, three years after his release, now 61 years old, he was ordained a priest by Bishop Peter Joseph Fan Xueyan of Baoding. Bishop Fan was himself a prominent underground Church leader in Hebei, and died in detention in 1992. Fr Jia's funeral was celebrated by his uncle, Bishop Jia at Christ the King Cathedral in Wuqiu village in the Hebei province. The Bishop lives at the Cathedral watched by public security officers. About 60 priests of Zhengding concelebrated at the Mass but it is thought that many other priests from ou...

It is significant that Nature has taken up the question of the now dangerous gender imbalance in China caused by the infamous "one child policy". (Cf. Where have all the flowers gone? ) At one point, the the article says: The unsupportable nature of the modern population boom led China's then leader, Deng Xiaoping, to introduce in 1979 the one-child policy, which nearly all citizens were supposed to observe. Financial incentives were provided for compliance; failure to do so drew fines and confiscations of property, and in some cases led to enforced abortions. Forced abortions? I though we weren't supposed to admit that they happened.

The Vatican Information Service last week published the text of a prayer that Pope Benedict has composed to Our Lady of Sheshan to mark the Day of Prayer for the Church in China, which is due to be celebrated on 24 May. "Virgin Most Holy, Mother of the Incarnate Word and our Mother, venerated in the Shrine of Sheshan under the title 'Help of Christians', the entire Church in China looks to you with devout affection. We come before you today to implore your protection. Look upon the People of God and, with a mother's care, guide them along the paths of truth and love, so that they may always be a leaven of harmonious coexistence among all citizens. When you obediently said 'yes' in the house of Nazareth, you allowed God's eternal Son to take flesh in your virginal womb and thus to begin in history the work of our redemption. You willingly and generously co-operated in that work, allowing the sword of pain to pierce your soul, until the supreme hour of the Cr...

China's "Population Control Minister" (shouldn't that title itself put you on your guard just a little?) has been reported as indicating that China might scrap its one child policy. Since his actual comments said nothing of the sort, the spin doctors must have been working hard. See Anthony Ozimic's comments: One-child policy misinformation being planted in Western media . See also John Smeaton's post today on one-child policy propaganda . As the late Dr John S. Aird, former senior China specialist at the U.S. Bureau for the Census (a world expert on China's one-child policy), said five years ago: "The Chinese family planning authorities are continuing their old trick of talking tough to their own people while giving a gentle image to the gullible foreigners. It is a clumsy, transparently obvious trick, but it still works as it has in the past. That is why the Chinese authorities still use it! When will the foreigners wise up?" For a reminder of ...

The BBC has an article asking Has China's one-child policy worked? Worked?! It seems that the answer is "yes" if the purpose was to reduce the population. However, along with Western Europe, China is now facing its own demographic time bomb. I am glad that the article does actually mention the practice of forced abortion which is an atrocity that has often been denied by politicians in the West; but even without this appalling abuse of human life and dignity, the use of government coercion to prevent parents from having children should be deplored by any civilised country.

Fr Wang Zhong, from the diocese of Xiwanze (Hebei), was sentenced to three years in prison for organising the celebrations of the consecration of a church in Guyuan. The story is quite fascinating. He was arrested and kept in isolation with no visiting rights (I wonder how many days they are allowed to do that?) He was charged with organising an unlawful meeting (the consecration of the Church) despite having had a permit for the Church to be built. The permit was produced as evidence as was his parish seal which was made with the permission of the civil affairs bureau. Prosecution evidence was given by a policeman who said that the consecration caused travel problems (7000 people attended). However, the Church is in an isolated area, far from the main road, and has a large car park. The trial was interrupted while the judge consulted the political commissar and representatives of the United Front and the Religious Affairs Bureau. It seems that they could not conclude what would be the...

Via Crucis: a short video dramatisation by Eric Forrest of the persecuted Church in China. H/T Athanasius Contra Mundum

Interesting and informative commentary and analysis as ever from Sandro Magister, this time on reactions to the Holy Father's letter to Chinese Catholics. ( The Pope Writes, but the Beijing Authorities Don't Respond ) The Vatican has seen the lack of reaction from the Chinese authorities in a positive light. I can see the point here - at least the Chinese authorities haven't come out immediately and trashed it. Magister suggests that there is a divide within between the highest authorities and the lower level communist apparatus, the latter being more hostile to the Church. Magister also looks at a dispute between Cardinal Zen and the Flemish Sinologist Fr. Jeroom Heyndrickx, director of the Ferdinand Verbiest Institute at Louvain. Fr Heyndrickx is of the opinion that, [...] the papal letter encourages the members of the clandestine Church to come out into the open, to ask for and obtain the recognition of the civil authorities and to share the sacraments with the bishops a...

Joseph Kung of the Cardinal Kung Foundation has written a prelimary assessment welcoming Pope Benedict's letter to the Catholics of China. The Cardinal Kung Foundation has energetically promoted the cause of the underground Church in China and some commentators have wondered what their reaction would be to the letter which in some respects attemtps to conciliate the underground and the patriotic Church. I was most impressed by the booklet "Stories form the Catholic Church in China" published by Aid to the Church in Need . The short stories are very moving and quite astounding in some cases. One that is relevant to the present case is that of the reconciliation between an "official" Bishop and his underground counterpart. It is in the interests of the old-fashioned atheists in the Chinese government to foster discord between the patriotic and the underground Churches. As so often in persecution, those who are actually involved understand the pressures that othe...

(The Catholic Caveman might be able to suggest an alternative for the word "persons" in the above title.) Edmund has given me a fascinating link comparison in the combox. The exercise involves searching Google images using the word "Tiananmen". First of all, try the UK Google: ( www.google.co.uk/images?q=tiananmen ) Click image to enlarge Then try the China Google: ( www.google.cn/images?q=tiananmen ) Click image to enlarge Well fancy that!