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发帖数: 42116 | 1 Pope Francis' deal with China is a disaster
The Vatican and China have reached a deal that would be a major step towards
normalizing relations between the Catholic Church and the world's largest
formally atheist regime, The Wall Street Journal reports. All that's needed
for the deal to go through is the final nod from Pope Francis and President
Xi Jinping. To call this a bombshell would be an understatement.
In this deal, the Catholic Church would recognize eight bishops who have
been ordained by the Chinese government without the Vatican's permission.
China's regime has set up a state-run and state-sponsored "Catholic Church"
that competes with the underground Church, recognized by the Vatican.
Although in practice the boundaries between these two bodies tend to blur,
in reality they are very distinct. After all, Catholicism isn't Catholicism
without obedience to the pope. The move would be a major coup for Pope
Francis, who has made no secret of his conciliatory attitude toward China
and eagerness to reach some sort of live-and-let-live settlement with China'
s still-formally-communist regime. This comes at a time when Christianity is
growing by leaps and bounds in China and, under Xi Jinping, the country's
authoritarian government is further cracking down on liberal expression and
dissent.
The pope surely thinks of such a deal as a coup. But, if approved, it would
be an unmitigated catastrophe. It would not only be morally indefensible, it
would also amount to nothing less than a dynamiting of Chinese Catholicism. |
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