Losing faith with China

‘HOW MANY DIVISIONS does the pope have?” Josef Stalin reportedly asked that question whenever the subject of the Roman Catholic Church’s influence arose. The leaders of the sole surviving Marxist superpower, China, might be tempted to dust off that mocking question in response to Pope Benedict XVI’s condemnation of Beijing’s decision to ordain two bishops without the Vatican’s permission.

That would be a mistake. This reproach from the Vatican underscores the sorry state of religious freedom in China, a major impediment to the international legitimacy Chinese leaders crave. Like the harassment of the Falun Gong movement, the requirement that Catholics receive sacraments from government-appointed bishops distinguishes China from states that protect freedom of conscience.

At first glance, the ordination of bishops for the government-sponsored Chinese Catholic Assn. does not seem to involve religious liberty. After all, England has an official church, and its bishops are chosen by the prime minister and the queen. The difference is that Catholics and others in England are not required to join the national church. In China, the “patriotic” Catholic Church was created to supplant the Roman Catholic Church, not compete with it.

A truly free China would allow Catholics who recognize the pope to be served by bishops appointed by Rome. Until the two unauthorized ordinations, that seemed a real possibility, as a result of negotiations between China and the Vatican. (The pope may not have divisions, but he does have diplomats.) The rapprochement was aided by indications from the Vatican that it would withdraw diplomats from Taiwan.

What went wrong? One theory is that Beijing was angered because Pope Benedict bestowed a cardinal’s hat on Bishop Joseph Zen of Hong Kong, a critic of the communist regime. Apparently, Beijing believes that it should be consulted in advance on the appointment and promotion of bishops, as some governments in Eastern Europe were in the 1960s. If that was the calculation, it seems to have backfired. The pope’s spokesman called the ordinations a “grave violation of religious freedom” and criticized the “strong pressures and threats” from China.

Coincidentally or not, a third bishop was ordained Sunday in China, with Vatican approval, suggesting either that the regime was having second thoughts or that officials are not all on the same page when it comes to the Vatican. Until China makes it clear that Catholics (and other believers) are free to order their own religious affairs, conservatives will continue to press the Vatican to abandon its dialogue with China’s “godless communists.” Such an abandonment would not be in Beijing’s interest.