No rift between Pope and advisors: Vatican
For consensus, each side should understand each other’s system: expert
The Pope fully controls all contacts by his intermediaries with China’s authorities, a senior Vatican official said late Wednesday, bolstering a denial by a Vatican spokesman of any rift among high-level clergy over their approach to the issue.
“The Holy Father personally follows current contacts with the authorities of the People’s Republic of China. All his collaborators act in concert with him,” Cardinal Pietro Parolin, Secretary of State of His Holiness, said in an interview with Vatican Insider on Wednesday.
“No one takes private initiatives. Frankly, any other kind of reasoning seems to me to be out of place.”
In response to criticism of dialogue, Parolin said that “the Holy See works to find a synthesis of truth and a practicable way to respond to the legitimate expectations of the faithful, inside and outside China.”
The path started with China through current contacts was “gradual and still exposed to many unforeseen events, as well as new possible emergencies,” he said.
Greg Burke, director of the Holy See press office, denied allegations the Pope and his advisors in the Vatican were divided on Tuesday.
On Monday Cardinal Joseph Zen of Hong Kong wrote on his blog that he believed the Vatican was “selling out the Catholic Church in China.”
Zen confirmed that a Vatican delegation had asked two underground church Chinese bishops loyal to the Pope to stand aside and be replaced by two others recognized by the government – but excommunicated by the Holy See.
Burke’s statement apparently rebuffed Zen, explaining “the Pope is in constant contact with his collaborators, in particular in the Secretariat of State, on Chinese issues.”
People in the church were “fostering confusion and controversy,” Burke said.
Negotiations between the Vatican and Beijing have already lasted four years and the two sides have different focuses and perceptions of the issue, Wang Meixiu, a research fellow at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences in Beijing, told the Global Times. And both face massive pressure, Wang said.
The Holy See has a moral obligation to lead and care for Catholics in China while the Chinese government must supervise religious activities within its jurisdiction to safeguard domestic stability, she said.
It is expected both parties can find a balancing point to bring long-term benefits to both, Wang said.
To achieve consensus, each party should better understand each other’s “very different system,” she said, including the appointment of bishops and operation of Catholic churches.