ROME – Bishop Joseph Li Shan of Beijing will visit Hong Kong later this month, according to a Friday announcement by the diocese, following a similar visit of Hong Kong’s Cardinal Stephen Chow to mainland China earlier this year.
In a brief statement, the Diocese of Hong Kong said that in accepting an invitation from Cardinal Chow, Li Shan will make a 5-day visit to Hong Kong beginning on November 15.
“During this reciprocal visit, Bishop Li will meet with the Bishop of the Diocese of Hong Kong and different diocesan offices to promote exchanges and interactions between the two dioceses,” the statement said.
Li is president of the state-sponsored Chinese Patriotic Catholic Association (CPCA), which has transferred and appointed bishops without Rome’s approval, despite a 2018 agreement on episcopal appointments.
Friday’s announcement signals the latest in a series of steps taken by Chow and Vatican officials to bolster ties between mainland China and the church abroad.
Chow, who was appointed as Bishop of Hong Kong in 2021 and who was made a cardinal by Pope Francis on September 30, has frequently spoken of the need to “build bridges” with China and has voiced his desire for Hong Kong to be a “bridge-building” church, promoting cordial exchanges between Rome and the state-run church on the mainland.
He made a five-day visit to Beijing from April 17-21, marking a significant milestone, as it was the first time a Hong Kong bishop traveled to Beijing since 1985, when Hong Kong was still a British overseas territory.
For decades, Hong Kong has been a Catholic stronghold on the edge of mainland China, where Catholics and members of other religions have at times faced persecution under the officially atheist Chinese Communist Party rule.
Chow during his visit met with Li and other mainland church officials and visited the tomb of famed Jesuit missionary in China Matteo Ricci, declared Venerable by Pope Francis in December. He also made stops at various initiatives run by state-sponsored church entities.
For years, the Vatican has sought to establish stronger ties with China, and in 2018 they signed a provisional agreement with the Chinese government on the appointment of bishops aimed at unifying the official, government-sanctioned church and the so-called “underground” church loyal to Rome.
While that deal has repeatedly been violated by Chinese authorities, Pope Francis has gone to great lengths to reach out to the CCP, praising them publicly and sending clear messages of assurance during his September visit to Mongolia.
During the Pope’s Mongolia visit, Chow, as he has in the past, voiced hope that “Hong Kong will have a mission of being a bridging Church.”
Ahead of the consistory in which he got his red hat, Chow voiced his belief that the Vatican’s approach to dialogue with China is working, and that perceptions it is “naïve” are wrong.
Referring to his own visit to Beijing in April, Chow said further mutual visits were being planned, and hinted that something was on the books for November.
“The more we go, we will have more contacts,” he said on that occasion, saying he personally “will probably go into China to visit other dioceses, that’s for sure, because they invited me, they said come, see all the dioceses if you want. That’s very generous of them.”
“People will say that we’re naïve, but we always have to have some optimism, some positive things,” Chow said, saying, “They also have good people, they also have goodwill, they also want to see something good happening, and we do.”
“So, when the good meet together and encounter, beautiful things can happen,” he said.
Others are less confident. Writing in the Catholic Herald, Benedict Rogers, a veteran commentator on Chinese Catholic affairs, said that urgent clarification was needed.
“The key point for Cardinal Chow to clarify is this,” he wrote. “Who does he mean by ‘they’? If he means the people of China, or genuine Chinese Catholics, then of course there is no argument. But if he is referring to the Vatican’s interlocutors in the CCP and the regime’s state-controlled Catholic Patriotic Association, then that shows extraordinary naivety.”
“Too often Pope Francis, and it seems now Cardinal Chow, conflate two different things: the Chinese people and the CCP regime. That is a grave mistake.”
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