With yet another delay to Zen trial, Pope Francis must revisit China deal
The trial of Cardinal Joseph Zen in Hong Kong will restart next month due to a ruling of insufficient evidence. As reported by Radio Free Asia, Zen and five co-defendants pleaded not guilty to a charge of failing to properly register a 612 Humanitarian Relief Fund, which offered financial, legal and psychological support during 2019 protests. According to RFA, West Kowloon Magistrate’s Court adjourned after defence attorneys tried to counter police witnesses called by the prosecution. The prosecution was allowed to make its case that the defendants should have registered the fund within a month of beginning operations, but when it came time to cross-examine, the defence’s questions were overruled as irrelevant.
The trial was adjourned before Zen’s lawyers could call witnesses or make a case, after the judge ruled their testimony was well-established. This is the second postponement of the trial in recent weeks. As UCA News reported, German Cardinal Gerhard Ludwig Müller has expressed dismay over both the Vatican’s silence on China’s abuses and Zen’s imminent “unfair” trial. It seems, yet again, the Pope is being given breathing room to stand up for Zen – a long-standing critic of the Vatican’s deal with the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) – and add conditions to, or cancel the CCP deal, entirely.
Zen and the other defendants have pleaded not guilty, although they could be convicted as foreign agents. Their defence is expected to cite a right to association under Hong Kong’s Basic Law. Police have not yet charged Zen with a national security offence, which could lead to life imprisonment. On the current charge, the defendants face a fine instead. Instead of rethinking the deal with Beijing, Pope Francis has expressed hope that the deal struck with the CCP in 2018 will be renewed again soon, having already been renewed in 2020. Through the deal, the Vatican agreed to cooperate in the selection of bishops of a united Catholic Church in China. The objective was a merger of the Underground Catholic Church into the Chinese Patriotic Catholic Association (CPCA). While the Vatican had the final say on appointments, it could only select from CCP-approved candidates.
However, the CCP has itself seemed to renege on the deal, with no provision now for any papal role in the process of selecting bishops, or even a right to approve or veto appointments. The result of the deal has been ongoing persecution of Catholics, such as Bishop Augustine Cui Tai, who has been in jail on and off since 2007. With even the Wall Street Journal accusing Pope Francis of abandoning Zen, it is falling to cardinals like Müller and Fernando Filoni to speak up instead. For his part, Cardinal Pietro Parolin – who has been key to the deal – said was that he was “very saddened” by Zen’s arrest, but that it should not be read as “a disavowal” of the agreement.
Pope Francis recently said “there is a dialogue commission that is going well”, and Parolin “is the person right now who knows the most about China and dialogue with the Chinese”. Having said he does “not identify with” designating China as undemocratic, the Pope said of Zen “he says what he feels, and you can see that there are limitations”. Cardinal Müller, however, told Il Messengero that during a recent consistory, no senior Vatican official or even the Pope mentioned Zen, with “no solidarity document, no prayer initiative for him”. Müller believes the CCP deal undermines the possibility of support for Zen, warning the deal “does not serve the interests of the Holy See and the Vatican State to the ecclesial dimension and the truth”.
According to Nina Shea meanwhile, writing in National Review: “Zen’s arrest is widely understood as political – a reprisal for his vocal opposition to the regime’s crackdown on religious rights and democratic freedoms.” As for the deal, Shea warned, “there have been only six new episcopal appointments, the last one made over a year ago.” Meanwhile: “Vatican observers point to credible evidence that Pope Francis accepted two of the six after the fact, playing no role beyond giving his approval. Moreover, eight of China’s bishops appointed with a papal mandate are now detained, disappeared, on trial, or forced from their ministries because they reject the Patriotic Church and criticize its pledge of “independence” from the Vatican – a pledge to which Vatican guidelines in 2019 permit conscientious objection.”
In fact, argued Shea, “there has been a net loss in the number of China’s bishops since 2018, and one-third of China’s 90-plus dioceses are estimated to remain in need of episcopal appointments.” Meanwhile, “authorities have exploited the secrecy of the agreement’s contents to falsely tell Chinese Catholic clergy that the Vatican requires them to join the Patriotic Church and submit to its pledge of “independence” from foreign powers, which would implicitly renounce fealty to the pope.” In addition to a snub of Pope Francis by CCP leader, Xi Jinping, “the Vatican has offered to move its valued study center in Hong Kong to Beijing” and has hinted “that it would withdraw diplomatic recognition of Taiwan.” Shea drew attention to the other Chinese bishops being persecuted:
Bishop Vincent Guo Xijin,Fujian province
Bishop Augustine Cui Tai,Hebei province
Bishop Julius Jia Zhiguo, Hebei province
Bishop Peter Shao Zhumin, Zhejiang province
Bishop Melchior Shi Hongzhen, Tianjin city
Bishop James Su Zhimin, Hebei province
Bishop Joseph Zhang Weizhu, Henan province
It is surely now or never for Pope Francis. He is being given opportunity after opportunity to speak up for Zen, tear up the CCP deal, or at least attach condition to the deal such as the release of the aforementioned clergy. Catholics the world over should be appalled this is allowed to continue. Cardinal Zen, other persecuted clergy, and Chinese Christians should be in the prayers of all Catholics today.
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