Posted on 06/05/2018 5:00:32 AM PDT by Mrs. Don-o
Pope Francis has urged Chinese Catholics on Wednesday to show they are in full communion with the Holy See.
The appeal is coming amid what appears to be another stall in the Vatican’s longstanding attempts to reach a deal with Beijing over bishop nominations.
Francis made the comments during his general audience, noting that many Chinese Catholics will be marking a feast day dedicated to the Virgin Mary this week in Sheshan, near Shanghai.
Francis prayed that all Chinese faithful “can live their faith with generosity and serenity, and can make gestures of fraternity, harmony and reconciliation in full communion” with the pope.
China’s estimated 12 million Catholics are split between those belonging to the government-backed Chinese Catholic Patriotic Association and an underground church loyal to the pope. These underground priests and parishioners are frequently detained and harassed.
Francis, and before him, Pope Benedict XVI, have tried to unite the two communities, and in recent months, Vatican officials had expressed hope that a deal to resolve the key stumbling block to reconciliation was nearing completion.
Under the deal, the Vatican would recognize seven bishops not chosen by the pope who have been appointed over the years by Beijing, and two underground bishops named by the pope would step aside. Going forward, the pope would have effective veto power over Beijing-nominated bishops, according to a Vatican official familiar with the talks.
But since the beginning of the year when word first emerged that an agreement was near, China appears to have hardened its position. In February, the government introduced new regulations on religious affairs and has hardened attitudes toward any organization outside the direct control of the Communist Party.
Recent propaganda posters have been popping up around China, saying God can’t solve problems, only the party can. “Go to church each day to study God, no way the spirit can relieve your hardship,” reads one in Henan province south of Beijing. “Go with the party, don’t believe in God, the party will bring us so much happiness.”
Supporters say the Vatican-pushed deal would help the Holy See achieve its years-long goal of bringing all of China’s Catholics ostensibly under the pope’s wing. Critics say the deal is selling out China’s long-suffering underground Catholics to an authoritarian regime.
This article includes details of the Chinese Communist Party's hardening line against religion.
The Vatican has been working toward a merger of the Chinese Catholic Patriotic Association (the Party-controlled church) and the underground Church which has always heroically remained in communion with the Holy See. The Vatican's rationale for union is that the Communists would then for the first time acknowledge a Vatican role in the unified Church's right to appoint bishops.
A whole *lot* of observers, including retired Cardinal Joseph Zen of Hong Kong, say that this would be catastrophic, since the Chicoms will never, ever recognize anything like freedom of religion, and have for the past 5 months been clamping down even harder on all religious believers. They say "unity" would be a diabolical deal which would allow the Communist Party to swallow and then annihilate the remaining suffering remnant of faithful Chinese Catholics.
As of now, it seems this proposed merger into "one Catholic Church" has stalled --- from the Party's side.
Let's continue to pray hard that Bergoglio and Parolin back off from this disastrous "unity" proposal.
It seems a gift of God that the "unity deal" is, as of now, indefinitely delayed. Dear Christ, rescue your Bride!
It’s a shame that Chinese Catholics have to look to this anti-pope for solace while living in a godless communist state.
Too many people forget this is RED China.
And some people know it, but still tout it as the governmental solution to pursue.
RED China. They are tyrants who have figured out how to steal more money is all they are.
He sure can allow me to stay away from scumbags and false populism
Good laugh for the morning.
“God can’t solve problems, only party can,” read posters in China”
This is an old communist line, starting with the Soviets in the 1920s (posters showed people praying to God for rain, with no result; then the Party arrived and started irrigation; etc.)
In China the Christians pray for the sick and they recover, and those with incurable diseases are healed (including some incredible results).
Conclusion: the Party is wrong about the God stuff...
We see in 2 Thessalonians 2:9-12:
9 The coming of the lawless one by the activity of Satan will be with all power and with pretended signs and wonders, 10 and with all wicked deception for those who are to perish, because they refused to love the truth and so be saved. 11 Therefore God sends upon them a strong delusion, to make them believe what is false, 12 so that all may be condemned who did not believe the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness.
and the catechism explains:
677 The Church will enter the glory of the kingdom only through this final Passover, when she will follow her Lord in his death and Resurrection.578 The kingdom will be fulfilled, then, not by a historic triumph of the Church through a progressive ascendancy*, but only by God's victory over the final unleashing of evil, which will cause his Bride to come down from heaven.579 God's triumph over the revolt of evil will take the form of the Last Judgment after the final cosmic upheaval of this passing world.580
and I would focus your attention on the following:
"The kingdom will be fulfilled, then, not by a historic triumph of the Church through a progressive ascendancy"
Note: "progressive ascendancy" is exactly the kind of liberal compromise many are proposing as a solution to our problems.
see my tagline.
Not God, but government.
That’s the progressive way. We have it here too.
I pray daily for Pope Francis, that he may have what I would want for myself, too: to be converted in heart, to be restrained from doing evil, to be strengthened in doing good.
And for a repentant and peaceful death in God's perfect timing.
The continued courageous resistance of the underground Chinese Catholics is a miracle in itself.
We are careening toward a bear trap called "progressive ascendency." Be awake and alert and pray always.
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