Pope Francis urged Chinese Catholics on Wednesday to trust the Vatican’s deal with China, despite criticism that the Vatican has conferred too much authority to…
Pope Francis urged Chinese Catholics on Wednesday to trust the Vatican’s deal with China, despite criticism that the Vatican has conferred too much authority to Beijing.
Francis clarified that he, not the Chinese government, would name bishops to Chinese dioceses and that those appointed as bishops would not be puppets of China’s communist government, but would be “true shepherds.”
Chinese Catholics expressed misgivings about the new provisional deal between China and the Vatican, which includes the Vatican’s acceptance of seven bishops previously appointed by Beijing without papal approval, especially since it made no mention of the fate of some 40 bishops of the underground church that the Holy See previously suggested should be officially recognized by Beijing in return for accepting the seven state-approved bishops. (RELATED: China Goes Digital In Crackdown On Religion, Online Religious Instructors Forced To Register And Qualify As ‘Politically Reliable’)
Francis acknowledged that news of the deal, which was signed Saturday morning, had caused “a certain confusion and prompted different reactions in the hearts of many.”
“Some feel doubt and perplexity, while others sense themselves somehow abandoned by the Holy See and anxiously question the value of their sufferings endured out of fidelity to the Successor of Peter. In many others, there prevail positive expectations and reflections inspired by the hope of a more serene future for a fruitful witness to the faith in China,” Francis said in a letter to the faithful, according to Crux Now.
