Cardinal Zen and HK Catholics
pray for Mons. Ma and
the suffering Church in China
by Eugenia Zhang
Hong Kong, July 17 (AsiaNews) - More than 800 Catholics in Hong Kong packed St. Margaret's Catholic Church last night to pray for the early release of heroic Auxiliary Bishop Ma Daqin of Shanghai, who is under restriction after he openly left the Patriotic Association at his Episcopal ordination on 7 July.
[The good news yesterday was that Mons. Ma had resumed his blog, publishing three poems by an 18th century Chinese Jesuit expressing 'solitude and sorrow'. His last entry before this was July 6, the day before his episcopal ordination.]
Cardinal Joseph Zen, bishop emeritus of Hong Kong, presided over the Mass, and Fr Dominic Chan, vicar general, and other priests concelebrated.
In his homily, Cardinal Zen accused China's atheist and Communist regime of interference in Church activities, calling it unwarranted.
He also criticised some Church officials on the mainland for yielding to profits and rewards, thus becoming slaves of evil.
The prelate led the assembled faithful in prayer for the early release of Bishop Ma Daqin and the restoration of his Episcopal ministry. The congregation also prayed for the release of other jailed members of the clergy.
Before the Mass, about 200 Catholics recited the rosary outside the China Liaison Office, Beijing's de facto office in Hong Kong, calling on the mainland to release of Bishop Ma and other jailed and missing clergy, including Bishop Cosmas Shi Enxiang of Yixian (Hebei) and Vicar General Fr Lu Genjun of Baoding (Hebei).
Regarding unlawful ordinations, the Diocese's Justice and Peace Commission also prayed for two priests who are now forced to stay away from their Church because they refused to take part in the unlawful ordination in Harbin (Heilongjiang).
Catholics prayed for the communion and solidarity of the Church, as well as for Chinese authorities, that they may respect freedom of religion in China and allow the Catholic Church to operate normally and freely in the country.
Their hope is that Beijing and the Vatican will start a genuine dialogue, with openness and sincerity.
Earlier, AsiaNews editor Fr. Bernardo Cervellera wrote this tribute to Mons. Ma:
Shanghai's new auxiliary bishop
A prophet and a hero
by Fr. Bernardo Cervellera
- ROME, July 10 (AsiaNews) Bishop Ma Daqin, by refusing the imposition of hands from an excommunicated bishop and quitting the Patriotic Association, is upholding the very religious freedom that the Chinese constitution guarantees, but that is betrayed by religious regulations.
His rejection of the Patriotic Association has theological reasons (the PA is "incompatible with Catholic doctrine"), but also pastoral and social. For months, pastors are kept at a distance from their dioceses, on 'official tours' with government-sponsored banquets while their faithful have to face poverty. The "opportunist" bishops are like tasteless salt. The value of the lay faithful in reconciliation with the pope.
Vatican City (AsiaNews) - ]A prophet and a hero' is how many Chinese Catholics - and we with them - define the first steps of the newly elected auxiliary bishop of Shanghai, Msgr. Ma Thaddeus Daqin. In just one day, the day of his consecration on July 7, he rejected the imposition of hands by an excommunicated bishop; did not drink from the same cup of the illicit bishop, and publicly resigned from the Patriotic Association (PA), considering this an obstacle to his "pastoral and evangelization work."
The Religious Affairs Bureau did not like this perfectly aimed blow and has confined him to house arrest in the Sheshan seminary, for a forced period of "rest".
In carrying out these gestures Msgr. Ma simply claimed religious freedom for his commitment as a bishop, a principle which the Chinese Constitution states. But overriding the Constitution are provincial and national regulations that subject the life of Christian community and their pastors to controls, threats, flattery, bribery, putting up every possible obstacle to the commitment to evangelization.
Through these gestures Msgr. Ma also affirms that the ordination of a pastor is not a political issue manipulated by those in power, but a religious act in which the Pope and his instructions are to be respected for the sake of truth.
From this point of view, Msgr. Ma has made the same choice which the Church's unofficial communities and bishops (underground) have been struggling to uphold in the name of safeguarding the freedom to evangelize, risking imprisonment, detention, isolation and marginalization.
But he is a hero because the pollution in the political life of the Church in China has reached dangerous levels. After the 1977 Letter of Benedict XVI to Chinese Catholics - in which the Pope declared the basis of the Patriotic Association (to build a Church independent of the Holy See) "incompatible with Catholic doctrine", the leaders of the Association launched a campaign to defend their existence.
Faced with bishops who affirmed their loyalty to the Pope, they began to choose bishops easy to compromise with the Party, engaged in politics, government representatives. At the ordination of bishops approved by the Pope, they began to impose the participation of excommunicated bishops; they also began to force bishops in communion with the Pope to participate in illicit ordinations. All this to say that 'legitimacy' does not belong to the Roman Pope, but to the presidents and secretaries of the Patriotic Association.
Amidst this miasma of ambiguities and equivicocies, the prophetic gesture of Daqin Ma has arisen, like "a ray of sunshine in a dark sky."
Bishop Ma is the first official bishop to resign from the PA and many Chinese Catholics hope that others will follow him.
Moreover, being a member of the PA has now become counterproductive, for religious reasons. First of all ideological ones and then theological ones: a Church separated from the Pope is not the Catholic Church, but just another Protestant church which is likely - as has happened many times in history - to become a sect increasingly emptied of its spiritual character and which survives only thanks to the good will of political power.
Belonging to the PA is also an obstacle to pastoral work: the bishops are obliged to continue to travel, to attend meetings and formation programs, staying away from their dioceses for months at a time, to listen to lectures about the control of religion and the benevolent power of the PA, and to forced to express "profound gratitude" to the almighty association that allows them to survive. When they finally get to be in their diocese, their every encounter, or personal relationship, is authenticated, verified, registered, permitted or cancelled by the PA.
Being a PA prop has also become socially embarrassing. While the Chinese people suffer from a deep economic crisis, with inflation making it increasingly difficult to scrap together a meal every day, PA secretaries and presidents are famous for their spending and largesse at the expense of the government and the diocese, in luxury hotels, banqueting at up to 24-course meals, while the faith ful of the dioceses, especially those in the rural areas, are strugglin for three meals a day, or even just to get drinkable water or a minimum of medical care.
A statistical report by the Chinese government denounces that every year Party members spend around 31.5 billion Euros on banquets, a sum capable of feeding at least one hundred million people for a whole year. Conscientious bishops can only try to distance themselves in order to fulfill their mission placing themselves of the side of Christ and the poor.
Bishop Ma's decision is prophetic and destined to make history. It is probable that some bishops remain attached to the PA, because it enables them to have a chauffeur-driven car, s new episcopal palace, money and other treats. Benedict XVI has referred to them as 'opportunists'.
It must be pointed out that even now many faithful are putting pressure on their bishops to pay more attention to living their Episcopal ministry, rather than their political role. In the years after Mao Zedong, the lay faithful forced many fearful bishops to contact the Holy See to be reunited - after decades of ambiguity - with the One Catholic Church.
Even today, the lay faithful demonstrate their faith and their love for Christ and the bishops by deserting Masses where the pastors are illegal and transmigrating into other dioceses loyal to the spiritual bond with Benedict XVI.
[Modificato da TERESA BENEDETTA 18/07/2012 18:55]