HONG KONG: 6th January 2006 -- If there are two
names that turn up in the world press with almost monotonous regularity
they are Bishop Zen and Cardinal Rodriguez (though the latter sometimes
gets 'Maradiaga' which I believe he does not prefer). They are
not loose cannons, but their voices do reverberate around the world and
explode uncomfortably close to certain realities. One of those
realities is China. 'Big', continental China, where Joseph Zen
was born in 1932, Shanghai, and left in 1948 for the then independent
Hong Kong, a year before Mao came on the scene.
The Holy Spirit Study Centre in HK, an acknowledged
and authoritative source of useful information about things Catholic in
China, has recently published 'unofficial' figures of the Church in
China. As the Vatican-published figures tend to run at least two
years late, the Holy Spirit figures are of passing and current
interest: 12 million Catholics in a population of 1.2 billion.
138 dioceses; number of Bishops: - in the Open Church 64, in the
Underground Church 39; number of Priests
- in the Open Church 180 (Old); 1,620 (Young), in the Underground
Church 200( Old); 900 (Young); number of Sisters
- in the Open Church 3,600, in the Underground Church 1,200; number of
Seminaries
- Major 14, Minor 18, in the Underground Church 10; number
of Seminarians
- in the Open Church 640, in the Underground Church Circa 800;
Minor seminarians in the Open Church 500; number of Novitiates
- in the Open Church 40, in the Underground Church 20;
number of Sisters in Formation
- in the Open Church 600, in the Underground Church 600.
Just yesterday, Bishop Zen had a full page interview
published in the Italian daily, L'Avvenire. It is to be
hoped that this newspaper has got the interview correct, because it
publishes what it purports to be the Holy Spirit Study Centre figures
for China also, but they are plainly wrong! The ones above are
the actual figures published by HSSC. Anyway, L'Avvenire points
out that 'this Salesian has become an authoritative leader not only for
the 300,000 Catholics in Hong Kong but for everyone in the democratic
movement'. The interview is too long to repeat here, but its
major points we can list easily enough.
Bishop Zen is asked what he thinks of China's economic development - he
didn't answer the question as asked but commented on the heavy 'yoke'
(and that became L'Avvenire's headline) that China's Communist
Party structure and methods have imposed on all its citizens. It
is a yoke he believes the Church is actually beginning to shift a
little. 'We are winning back some significant spaces for freedom',
because the government might control structures but it can't control
hearts and minds. He is asked the obvious question about the so-called
open and underground distinction, but the interviewer assumes the
answer and asks what is being done about reconciliation. To some
extent the response assumes the answer too and goes on to point out
that the official Church is headless, both the Episcopal Conference and
the Patriotic Association. One died, the other is sick and
discredited in the eyes of the faithful. But on the other hand,
he points out, 85% of official Bishops have also sought and gained
Vatican recognition. The Taiwan question is the next Bishop Zen
is asked about: His reply is that 'we have to explain it well to the
faithful in Taiwan that it [Holy See diplomatic relations with China]
is not a betrayal but imposed necessarily by circumstances'. But
nor is he sanguine that this will happen overnight. The Vatican's
insistence on the granting of religious freedom will be the sticking
point.
The final question is about Bishop Zen's personal
support for the democratic movement. Is he afraid of involving
the Church in strictly political questions? The answer is
unequivocal, even a touch blunt: 'Listen here! The Catholic Church in
Hong Kong took part two years ago in demonstrations about the famous
article 23....now universal suffrage is in question....it is the
citizens' right. It is a right that the Church cannot NOT defend'.
_______________
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