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IC XC NIKA
A very important article! Please read the following excerpt and then continue on The Catholic Register's website:
Cardinal Zen:
Vatican appeases Chinese government
Compromise has led to communists making 'slaves of the bishops'
TORONTO - At 81 years old, the bishop who once led hundreds of thousands through the streets of Hong Kong — defying Beijing, demanding democracy and an accountable government — is not holding his tongue.
Hong Kong's retired Cardinal Joseph Zen warns of an impending schism in the Chinese Catholic Church and blames the Vatican for allowing Communist Party officials to run roughshod over China's bishops.
"For years they (the Communist Party of China) had everything their way. The Holy See adopted a policy of appeasement and compromise," Zen told The Catholic Register while in Toronto to deliver an early February address to Convivium magazine subscribers. "So they were happy that they could control more and more the Catholic Church, and they could make slaves of the bishops."
Chinese Catholics on the mainland are split between the underground Church and officially registered churches, while the Chinese government interferes in the appointment of bishops. There is a serious risk of a Chinese schism, said the cardinal.
"Do you know what I write to the Holy Father?" Zen asked. "I say it is only because of your kindness that the official Church is not called schismatic. It is actually schismatic without being named. It's risking being a schismatic Church with the blessing of the Holy See, because the Holy Father cannot command that Church. The whole command is in the hands of the government."
The full article may be found at this link: http://www.catholicregister.org/home/item/15857-vatican-appeases-chinese-government-zen
+Domine, audi nos.
