VATICAN ON ALLEGED UNAUTHORIZED EPISCOPAL ORDINATIONS IN CHINA – THE SITUATION OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH IN CHINA EXPLAINED

VATICAN ON ALLEGED UNAUTHORIZED EPISCOPAL ORDINATIONS IN CHINA

(Vatican Radio) The director of the Holy See Press Office, Greg Burke, has clarified the Vatican has not authorized any episcopal ordinations in continental China.

“Should such episcopal ordinations have occurred, they would constitute a grave violation of canonical norms,” Burke said in a statement.

He reiterated “it is not licit to proceed with any episcopal ordination without the necessary papal mandate, even by appealing to particular personal beliefs.”

The declaration of the director of the Holy See Press Office, Greg Burke, concerning the  purported episcopal ordinations without the Pontifical Mandate in Continental China:

“In recent weeks, there has been a series of reports regarding some episcopal ordinations conferred without papal mandate of priests of the unofficial community of the Catholic Church in continental China.  The Holy See has not authorized any ordination, nor has it been officially informed of such  events. Should such episcopal ordinations have occurred, they would constitute a grave violation  of canonical norms. The Holy See hopes that such reports are baseless. If not, it will have to await reliable information and sure documentation before adequately evaluating the cases. However, it is reiterated that it is not licit to proceed with any episcopal ordination without the necessary papal mandate, even by appealing to particular personal beliefs”.

THE SITUATION OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH IN CHINA EXPLAINED

By Rome Reports, with Fr. Bernardo Cervellera, Editor, AsiaNews

The communist regime in China considers Rome and the pope as foreign influences in their country, that might promote dissent from the government.

That is why the Chinese government created the Catholic Patriotic Association in 1957, an official body to name, coordinate and manage all Catholic bishops in China.

Many of those bishops, considering that the CPA does not follow Christian teachings and interferes in their allegiance to Rome, refuse to recognize its authority. They constitute the “unofficial Church.”

Fr. Bernardo Cervellera, a long-time missionary in China, claims however, that there is one Church in China.

BERNARDO CERVELLERA, director, AsiaNews

“No, one cannot say that there are two churches in China. In fact, there is an official Church, in which all of the bishops, except eight, are in communion with the pope. In the “unofficial Church” there are around 40 bishops that pledge allegiance to the pope.”

The challenge for Vatican diplomats is to convince the Chinese government to soften the anti-Vatican agenda of the Catholic Patriotic Association, so that the Church loyal to Rome might be able to operate freely.

However, if the government concedes this, they might ask for something in exchange, and will most likely be that the Vatican recognize eight bishops who have been excommunicated but are still active and are members of the CPA.

Fr. Bernardo Cervellera thinks this is the main obstacle in the way towards full communion between China and the Vatican.

“I do not think that the Church can accept embracing the excommunicated bishops all at once, because amongst them there are bishops who have a wife and children. There are bishops who refuse to ask for reconciliation. There has to be a screening, one by one, to see if it is possible to bring them into communion. I think it will be difficult…”

Fr. Bernardo Cervellera thinks that cozying up to the CPA is a red line for Parolin and the Vatican diplomatic corps, that is why he thinks a possible agreement between the Vatican and Beijing might go along the lines of improving religious freedom for the underground Church and ending persecution.

“The Holy See is seeking an agreement that does not threaten Catholic doctrine, while at the same time protects the underground bishops and pushes for the release of those imprisoned. This makes me think that Cardinal Parolin does not want to ‘sell’ the Catholic faith and imprison it in the hands of the Catholic Patriotic Association, but rather he wants to cooperate with the government to improve religious freedom for the Church.”

Recently, there was a small but significant gesture that could be a good omen for relations between the Vatican and China. Pope Francis spoke about it in his return flight from Azerbaijan.

POPE FRANCIS: “For example, there was two-day conference, in the Academy for Science, about Laudato si’, and there was a Chinese delegation there, and the Chinese president sent me a present… The relationship is good…”

The gift the pope is talking about is a replica of the Nestorian Stele, a symbol for Christianity in China. In Chinese culture, a present is a message, and this one seems loud and clear.

 

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The following was going to be my lead news in today’s column but all that changed with the appointment of a new director for the Holy See Press Office – see that story below. However, I think it is noteworthy that the world’s oldest priest turns 107 today! Here is a Reuters story from Belgium:

NALINNES, Belgium (Reuters) – A strict daily routine is the recipe for a long life, according to the world’s oldest priest, Belgian Jacques Clemens, who will celebrate his 107th birthday on Monday.

Clemens, who has also celebrated his 80th anniversary as a Catholic priest, gets up every morning at 5.30 a.m. and goes to bed at 9.00 p.m.

When Clemens was about to retire at 75, his bishop asked him to remain in service until they found a successor – he only stopped holding regular church services at his parish in the southern Belgian village of Nalinnes last year.

At Mass yesterday –

Father Jacques Clemens attends a mass at St. Benoit church in Nalinnes, Belgium, July 10, 2016. REUTERS/Francois Lenoir

Happy Birthday, Fr. Clemens!

POPE NAMES AMERICAN TO HEAD HOLY SEE PRESS OFFICE

Today’s big news story at the Vatican is the nomination of a new director for the Holy See Press Office, Greg Burke, a long time friend and colleague, and the naming of a female laywoman, also a journalist, to be the assistant director. History in the making in Vatican communications.

Pope Francis has named American journalist Greg Burke as the new director of the Holy See Press Office, effective August 1^st. In another big appointment at a Vatican communications office, Francis also named a laywoman, Spanish journalist Paloma Garcia Ovejero, as assistant director of the press office. (N C Register photo)

The press office was headed by another Opus Dei numerary, Joaquin Navarro Valls, for 22 years during the papacy of John Paul II. Named in 1984, Navaro-Valls served as the papal spokesman until July 2006. Burke is thus the second layperson to head the press office but today’s nominations indicate the first time that two lay people head the sala stampa.

Paloma Garcia Ovejero –

Pope Francis has spoken for several years about women having a bigger role in the Church had many have noted that he had done little to implement that in the Roman Curia. Today’s nomination changed that perception, at least a little.

Another perception that the Pope changed in some way with Burke’s nomination is the idea there has been an anti-American feeling in the Curia. In fact, a number of Americans have been given other positions and moved out of the Roman Curia while none have been appointed to high-ranking positions inside the Vatican as they were with St. John Paul and Benedict XVI. At one point, Americans were second only to Italians in the Curia in numbers.

Both Burke, a native of St. Louis, and Garcia Ovejero speak multiple languages. She was the Vatican correspondent for the Spanish broadcaster COPE, and has ties to the Spanish Episcopal Conference.

I have known Greg since the mid-1980s when I was covering the Vatican as the Rome Bureau Chief for the National Catholic Register. I had that position until returning to the U.S. in December 1985, at which point Greg’s was a name I suggested to my superiors at the Register as someone who could succeed me.

Most of the news stories today about these appointments point to Greg Burke’s last position before being tapped as a communications consultant for the Secretariat of State – his work as the Fox News correspondent in Rome. He had also been a correspondent for TIME magazine.

I remember hearing Greg’s name being bandied about as a successor to Joaquin Navarro- Valls in May 2006 during Pope Benedict’s trip to Poland to honor his late predecessor, John Paul II. I mentioned it in either a blog or on air and did hear from Greg rather quickly – where had I heard that, he asked. I told him that, with the imminent departure of Navarro-Valls, his name had come up among journalist colleagues as an able, affable, competent, unflappable successor to the popular Spaniard who held the office for so long.

Exactly ten years ago, on July 11, 2006, a little over a month after Benedict’s Poland trip, the Pope named Jesuit Fr. Federico Lombardi as the successor to Navarro-Valls.

And now we have that able, affable, competent, unflappable successor to Fr. Federico Lombardi!

Will there be a successor to Greg Burke as a senior communications adviser in the Secretariat of State? Will there still be that office? Burke was the first to occupy that newly-created position four years ago. He was named deputy director of the press office in January 2016.

I cannot close without praising Fr. Lombardi’s leadership at the helm where he sailed a ship for ten years in waters that would have capsized a better boat!

He has been such a wonderful presence over the years – his calm, his knowledge, his availability, his extraordinary thoroughness on any topic he had to tackle – his truly encyclopedia knowledge! He had the knack of telling the world – especially vis-a-vis Pope Francis – what the Pope meant to say when his words created doubt or confusion, without every saying “What the Holy Father meant was…..”

I wonder if anyone else at the Vatican has lost as much sleep – and surely countles meals! – as Fr. Lombardi!

These words are altogether too few to express ny heartfelt thanks to this great and very humble man who has been our guide, guardian and mentor for ten years!