The Bishop Who Stood up to China China’S Communist Party-Backed Official Catholic Church Thought It Was Installing Its Own Man in Shanghai, the Most Important Diocese
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CHINA ORDINATION DAY: Thaddeus Ma Daqin, outside St. Ignatius Cathedral on July 7, 2012, the day of his ordination as auxiliary bishop of Shanghai. REUTERS/HANDOUT/UCANEWS.COM The bishop who stood up to China China’s Communist Party-backed official Catholic church thought it was installing its own man in Shanghai, the most important diocese. Instead, he spurned the party and sparked a crisis. BY SUI-LEE WEE SPECIAL REPORT 1 BISHOP WHO STOOD UP TO CHINA SHANGHAI, APRIL 1, 2014 t was shaping as a win in the Communist Party’s quest to contain a longtime Inemesis, the Roman Catholic Church. In July 2012, a priest named Thaddeus Ma Daqin was to be ordained auxiliary bishop of Shanghai. The Communist body that has governed the church for six decades had angered the Holy See by ap- pointing bishops without Vatican approval. Known as the Chinese Catholic Patriotic Association, it was now about to install Ma, one of its own officials, as deputy in China’s largest Catholic diocese. “The anticipation was he would be a yes man,” says Jim Mulroney, a priest and editor of the Hong Kong-based Sunday Examiner, a Catholic newspaper. Instead, standing before a thousand CONFINEMENT: Thaddeus Ma has been confined to the Sheshan monastery on a mountain outside Catholics and government officials at Saint Shanghai since repudiating the official church in July 2012. REUTERS/ ALY SONG Ignatius Cathedral, Ma spurned the party: It wouldn’t be “convenient” for him to re- main in the Patriotic Association, he said. The anticipation was he from Beijing pass messages to the Vatican Many in the crowd erupted into thun- would be a yes man. either directly to Rome or through the derous applause. People wept. Ma had Vatican’s Charge d’Affaires in Hong Kong. switched sides – and a crisis was under way. The Rev. Jim Mulroney The emissaries are in contact with govern- The priest soon disappeared from public Editor of Hong Kong Catholic newspaper, ment or Communist Party authorities in view, instructed by the late bishop Aloysius Sunday Examiner China, said Father Jeroom Heyndrickx, Jin Luxian to move to a mountainside sem- from Catholic University in Leuven, inary outside Shanghai, where he has been defied the Patriotic Association. Belgium, who has previously acted as an confined for 20 months. He was stripped The Chinese government has privately unofficial emissary between Rome and of his new title, questioned by officials for signaled it could appoint Ma as the next Beijing. weeks and required to attend communist full bishop of Shanghai, a position now “I’m a little positive this time,” the indoctrination classes. vacant, and release two long-jailed bishops Vatican source said. “If this will happen, Ma’s renunciation of the association loyal to the Vatican, according to a source certainly the Vatican will take some steps forced into the open a struggle that had close to the Holy See. This person said sev- for China. After that I think it will be pos- been playing out for years. The Catholic eral people had conveyed that message to a sible to start a dialogue.” Church in China is divided into two com- Vatican official in private meetings. China has yet to send any public signal munities: an “official” church answerable Any change in Ma’s status is likely to be that it is willing to resume a dialogue with to the Party, and an “underground” church gradual, the Vatican source said, given op- the Vatican, and some hardliners in the that swears allegiance only to the pope in position from the Shanghai government, Catholic Church oppose any accommoda- Rome. The most contentious issue between still furious over Ma’s repudiation of the tion with China. them is which side controls the ordination official church. Beijing’s impasse with the Catholic of bishops. The source declined to specify the iden- Church also coincides with a broader There are tentative signs a thaw may be tities of the people carrying the messages to crackdown against dissident groups – in- possible. New leaders have been appointed the Vatican. Since the Vatican and China cluding Christians who go to “house in both the Vatican and China since Ma have no official ties, unofficial emissaries churches”, rights lawyers, academics and SPECIAL REPORT 2 BISHOP WHO STOOD UP TO CHINA China’s faithful Catholics comprise a tiny but growing percentage of China’s population. Most Chinese profess Buddhism, Taoism or no faith at all. DOMINANT RELIGION BY COUNTY Heilongjiang Catholicism Buddhism Islam Protestant Daoism and folk religion No dominant religion or no data Shanxi Inner Mongolia Shaanxi Hebei Tianjin Shandong Sichuan Shanghai Hubei Chongqing THREE COUNTRIES IN ASIA-PACIFIC WITH Guangdong THE LARGEST NUMBER Guangxi OF CHRISTIANS 2010 estimates Percentage of Total population that Catholic Protestant Christians is Christian Philippines 75.9 million 86.8 million 93.1% China 9.0 67.1 5.0% India 10.6 31.9 2.6% Source: Professor Fenggang Yang, Center on Religion and Chinese Society, Purdue University; Pew Research Center’s Forum on Religion & Public Life SPECIAL REPORT 3 BISHOP WHO STOOD UP TO CHINA activists – that have resulted in a spate of trials and detentions. China’s State Administration for Religious Affairs did not respond to re- quests for comment. “THERE ARE RELATIONS” Pope Francis has been silent on the stand- off, but he told the Italian daily Corriere della Sera this month he has exchanged let- ters with Chinese President Xi Jinping, the first acknowledgment of communication since both men took office in late 2012. “There are relations,” Francis said, without elaborating on the exchange. Vatican watchers speculate Francis could visit Beijing this summer during a tour of Asia. If so, it would be the first by a pope to Chinese territory since the Communists took power in 1949. Since then, there have GROWING RELIGION: Christmas Mass at an official Catholic church near the city of Taiyuan in Shanxi been no bilateral diplomatic relations. province. Catholicism is one of the fastest growing religions in China with an estimated 9-12 million The Vatican’s new Secretary of State, members. REUTERS/JASON LEE Pietro Parolin, has also sounded an opti- mistic note. In February, he told Avvenire, the newspaper of the Italian Bishops’ and met with Ma, who said that while he authority, especially those tied to a foreign Conference, that he is hopeful “trust and is allowed to chat with visitors as part of entity. understanding among the parties might his pastoral duties, he cannot accept media The Communist Party tried to force increase.” He added: “This might be con- interviews. Catholics to join the Catholic Patriotic cretely realized in the resumption of a con- Association when it was established in HUNGER FOR SPIRITUALITY structive dialogue with political authorities” 1957. Clergy and laity who refused to re- in China. For the Vatican, the stakes in China are nounce ties with the Vatican were impris- The Vatican did not respond to requests enormous: A population of nearly 1.4 bil- oned, beaten and some were even killed. for comment. lion lives in a society that hungers for spiri- The campaign drove Catholics loyal to the The enduring rupture, however, suggests tuality at a time when Catholicism’s tradi- pope underground, causing a split that re- any end to the standoff over bishop ap- tional stronghold in Europe is flagging. mains today. pointments may be a long way off. Ma’s re- The stakes are high for the Communist But nearly six decades of state control buff still stings, says Anthony Liu Bainian, Party, too. The Catholic Church is per- and sometimes brutal oppression has failed the layman who is the honorary chairman haps the largest non-party institution in to eradicate the underground Catholic of the Patriotic Association. Communist-led China. The church has community. Membership today is about “He deceived the bishops and cheated been in China since Jesuit missionaries first evenly divided between those who attend the government as well as the public,” Liu arrived in 1534, longer than the party, and China’s official and underground churches. said in an interview, in his first public re- it is growing. The number of Catholics has risen from an marks on the Ma case. “How can you then China officially recognizes five religions estimated 8 million in 1988 to about 12 take on the responsibility for such a large - Buddhism, Taoism, Islam, Christianity million today, according to Anthony Lam, diocese as Shanghai? This clearly shows and Catholicism - and supervises them a senior researcher at the Holy Spirit Study that (Ma) was under the influence of through state-run associations. The of- Centre in Hong Kong, an organ of the foreigners.” ficially atheist government is wary of any Diocese of Hong Kong. Reuters went to Sheshan Seminary organisation that might challenge its moral China’s State Administration for SPECIAL REPORT 4 BISHOP WHO STOOD UP TO CHINA Religious Affairs counts 5.3 million Catholics as belonging to the Patriotic The underground resistance Association, which oversees 70 bishops and approximately 6,000 churches nationwide. But the lines are beginning to blur. TIANJIN, CHINA, APRIL 1, REUTERS his church, which is 120 kms (75 miles) Many underground churches are allowed southeast of Beijing. State security agents to operate with the tacit approval of local “Come in and have a look.” The welcoming and local police stop by every two weeks, officials. A new generation of Catholics, sign on the gates of a ramshackle building asking him to detail his activities, the priest less angered by a bitter past, will go to Mass with metal walls off a highway near this said.