'In China, it's time
for clear choices'
Interview with Mons. Hom Tai-Fai
by Gianni Cardinale
Translated from
April 1, 2011
Archbishop Savio Hon Tai-Fai is the first Chinese to be given a major position in the Roman Curia. On December 23, 2010, Benedict XVI named him secretary - #2 man - in the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples (propaganda Fide) which has jurisdiction over dioceses in all mission lands, including China.
A native of Hongkong, tall and lean, with the joviality typical of the Sslesian children of Don Bosco, Mons. Hon defines himself as 'a rather undiplomatic theologian'. And he has very clear ideas on the delicate situation of the Church in China, which he discusses in this interview:
Excellency, what was the reaction in your homeland to your nomination?
Very positive in Hongkong. But I also received many congratulations from communities and bishops on the mainland. They considered my nomination a real Christmas gift from the Pope.
And from the government and official organisms of China?
No reaction. perhaps it's better that way. As they say in English, No news is good news. They have not expressed any judgment one way or the other. I think their attitude is one of prudent waiting.
You have travelled much in the mainland. When was your last time there?
I was in Shanghai from Dec. 8-13.
Precisely around the time of the eighth assembly of Chinese Catholic representatives in Beijing from Dec. 7-9! What opinions did you gather about it?
The friends and students with whom I spoke were all very critical. It could be that some of them were really approving but just did not want to let me know. And I spoke with some of those who attended the assembly, and they too were critical about it, at least to me. They claimed they were all under tremendous pressure to attend.
The Holy See issued a communique that was rather severe at that time...
Yes. But I would say that not all the participants were coerced. Some came spontaneously just as they have spontaneously adhered to the official policy of the 'autonomy' of the Church in China from the Pope and the Holy See.
Even among the bishops?
Unfortunately yes, even among those recognized by Rome. In Beijing, not a few of them made it a point to make nice with the new Bishop of Chengde, who was illegitimately consecrated a few weeks earlier - to congratulate him, to be photographed with him, but they did not have to do this!
In short, 45 bishops took part in this assembly, with an average age less than 50. Some of them were forced to attend, some not.
What conclusion do you draw from this?
That unfortunately, the number of 'opportunists' has grown.
What is the reason for this?
A lack of adequate formation among the clergy. But also a discernment deficit in choosing episcopal candidates. Sometimes, the better candidates are not proposed, instead compromise candidates are chosen.
In fact, the government has understood for quite a few years now that illegitimate bishops will never be acceptable to the faithful, and that is why they are trying to have their liege priests consecrated with the approval of the Holy See.
So are you saying that in recent years there has not been adequate priest formation nor more attentive discernment on the part of the Holy See in choosing candidates for bishop? {But Hon did not say the lack of discernment was on the part of the Holy See!]
It is not just my opinion - but I often hear complaints by the faithful and priests on the mainland against compromise candidates for bishop. The Holy See itself has rightly been concerned about avoiding any illegitimate ordinations.
So it is difficult to strike a balance between this need and that of trying to avoid illegitimate ordinations and making do with compromise candidates?
It is, in effect. It is difficult to choose good candidates. The Chinese government maintains that in presenting the Vatican with lists containing names they consider acceptable, it is already making a concession. And if the Holy See refuses to give its approval, then they threaten to go ahead with consecrating their choice anyway...
That's what happened in Chengde...
Yes. I considered that a clear message. The government was saying: In my house, I command. It's almost like going back to the 1950s, as if there had never been any positive dialog, which there have been!
How can this dialog be restored?
The Chinese government has officials who are very well prepared and competent negotiators, which we should match on our part. But first, we must know whether the government really wants to come to an agreement with the Holy See or not.
In this respect and others, two China experts have different opinions - Cardinal Zen and Fr. Jerome Heydrickx. What do so say about this dispute?
Fr. Heydrickx has two premises. The first is that the Chinese government has good intentions, including that of signing an agreement with the Holy See. The second is that after the Pope's letter in 2007, the clandestine community no longer has a reason to exist.
On the other hand, Cardinal Zen, who knows both Chinese reality and mentality very well, does not trust the Chinese authorities. He maintains, rightly, that if the government is to be trusted, it must show some concrete acts to earn it but so far we have not seen that. An example would be to let the Church choose its own bishops.
On the second point, Cardinal Zen - and I agree with him on this - maintains that the underground Church continues to have reason to exist.
A last question. Why have the bishops who were illegitimately consecrated and those bishops who ordained them not been excommunicated?
In fact, excommunication would be automatic for both he who receives and he who confers an illegitimate ordination. However, there can be extenuating circumstances for those, for instance, who are forced to take a role in these acts. I think that the Holy See, before publicly declaring excommunication, looks into each individual case carefully to see if there are any extenuating circumstances. But this tends to be a long and delicate process.
[In any case, it has been reported that almost all of the official bishops have been legitimized by the Vatican, so there cannot be too many under investigation now. I think Cardinale should have researched the numbers or asked the archbishop about it.]
What do you think about these illegitimate bishops?
There are candidates who allow themselves to be consecrated illegitimately, thinking that not long afterwards, if they ask the Holy See, it will pardon them and give them legitimacy. The Vatican must be vigilant about this kind of calculation and oppose it.
However, one must also keep in mind that the Church is the Body of Christ, and if a little part of this body is breaking off, then we should not just let it go but seek to take it back with justice but also with mercy.
It is encouraging that Mons. Hon is able to speak bluntly without sounding abrasive or belligerent. For someone who calls himself undiplomatic, he manages to keep a moderate tone. It escaped me two days ago when I was impatient about Cardinal Zen's hard line, especially in seeming to attack Cardinal Dias at Propaganda Fide, that Mons. Hon is now the #2 man to Cardinal Dias, and would have been the right and obvious channel for a behind-the-scenes mediation before venting in public.
Sandro Magister's take on this:
The Vatican has a new strategist on China
The new #2 man at Propaganda Fide speaks
for the first time about the situation in China.
He is more moderate than the hawkish Cardinal Zen,
but neither does he advocate 'dialog at any cost'
ROME, April 4 – This weekend, almost simultaneously, two important representatives of the Catholic Church, expressed their views on the difficult situation faced by the Church in China.
The first is Cardinal Joseph Zen Ze-kiun, former Archbishop of Hong Kong, who has retired but is still very vigilant over what is happening in his country.
On April 1, Cardinal Zen published in AsiaNews, news agency of the Pontifical Isntitute for Foreign Missions, a vehement act of accusation against a 'triumvirate' he accuses of trying to replicate in China the Ostpolitik practised by the Vatican with Communist regimes during the Cold War.
[Apparently, the Vatican thought Ostpolitik was Realpolitik enough at the time in order to save Catholics behind the Iron Curtain more grief than they already had - even if part of the 'cost' was not to say anything about Communism during the Second Vatican Council! Would Cardinal Zen condemn John XXIII and Paul VI for that? ]
Zen called that policy one of 'dialog at any cost' which he said was 'disastrous then and even more disastrous now', and whose only outcome would be to "drive the Chinese Catholics deeper into the swamp of slavery".
The triumvirate he accuses is composed of Cardinal Ivan Dias, prefect of the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples, a 'minutante' [in the Curia, someone who edits official documents and even drafts them] of the Congregation, and Fr. Jerome Heydrickx, a renowned Sinologist, for their strategy.
Zen accuses them of acting against the line taken by Benedict XVI in his letter to Chinese Catholics in 2007, and against the opinion of the overwhelming majority of the commission the Pope appointed to monitor the China situation, of which Zen is a member.
[As I commented yesterday: Since the latter part of 2010, Benedict XVI has made Cardinal Dias the third Curial head with whom he meets once a week. If the Cardinal - whose dicastery has jurisdiction over the dioceses in mainland China - and his people were doing anything so flagrantly against the Pope's wishes, would the Pope not have set him right by this time????]
The second high-ranking prelate who spoke about China on the same day was Archbishop Savio Hon Tai-fai in an interview with
Avvenire, the newspaper of the Italian bishops' conference.
[Magister then picks up Cardinale's opening paragraphs about Mons. Hon before the interview above...]
In this interview, which is the first ever given in Rome by Archbishop Hon, he expresses his opinions very frankly and does not elude any questions. He describes the positions of Cardinal Zen and Fr. Heydrickx in simple terms, and does not hide the fact that his position is closer to the former thought not following him in everything.
I am reproducing the interview here, but to frame it better, here is a brief summary of what has happened in the past three months between the Vatican and the Chinese government.
On March 30, a new bishop, Paul Liang Jian-sen, 46, was ordained in Jiangmen. His nomination was 'approved' by the Holy See and 'authorized' by the Chinese government.
From April 18 to November 15, 2010, another 10 bishops were ordained in China with such joint approval in the dioceses of Hohot, Haimen, Xiamen, Sanyuan, Taizhou, Yan'an, Taiyuan, Yuncheng, Nanchang,and Zhoucun.
But on November 15, an illicit ordination took place in Chengde, without the Pope's approval. The last such ordination in China had been in 2006.
Shortly after, from Dec. 7-9, the government summoned to Beijing a so-called national assembly of Catholic representatives, with the attendance of 45 bishops, many of them recognized by the Vatican. Some were even elected officers of the government-sponsored bishops' conference and the Patriotic Association, neither of them recognized by the Vatican.
On November 24 and on December 17, the Holy See issued two very strongly-worded communiques denouncing the Chengde ordination and the Beijing assembly.
[He then reprints Cardinale's interview with Mons. Hon.]
[Modificato da TERESA BENEDETTA 05/04/2011 02:41]