Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies since 1927
by Gianni Valente
Rome (Agenzia Fides) - The Holy See and the People's Republic of China have announced today the decision to extend the validity of the Provisional Agreement on the appointment of bishops in China for four years, signed for the first time on 22 September 2018 and already renewed in October 2020 and October 2022.
In its formal brevity, the statement on the extension of the Agreement released by the Vatican Press Office contains details that are useful to understand the phase that the dialogue between the Holy See and the People's Republic of China has gone through, and the very horizon in which it is moving.
The validity of the Holy See -China Agreement is extended not for the usual two years, but for "further four years", "given the consensus reached for a fruitful application of the Provisional Agreement". This shows that the dialogue between the Holy See and the Chinese authorities - after a slow start and a "running-in" phase - continues as a gradual process, which step by step sees its horizons widen and new opportunities emerge to verify the growth of sincerity, loyalty and mutual trust in the relations between the two parties.
The path of dialogue, through the instrument of the Agreement, has contributed to favouring concrete changes that affect the life of the Chinese communities. It is always worth remembering that today all the Catholic bishops of the People's Republic of China are in full and public hierarchical communion with the Bishop of Rome. At the same time, illegitimate episcopal ordinations, that is, those celebrated without papal consent, no longer take place in China: events that for decades, from the end of the 1950s until 2011, had wounded ecclesial communion and opened up rifts among Chinese Catholics. In the past six years, amidst impasses and difficulties (including those related to the time of the pandemic), nine new Catholic episcopal ordinations have been celebrated in mainland China, while eight so-called “unofficial” bishops, consecrated in the past outside the procedures imposed by the Chinese apparatus, have been publicly recognized in their episcopal function even by the political authorities in Beijing at their request (one of them, the elderly Peter Lin Jiashan, bishop of Fuzhou, who died later in April 2023).
In parallel with the conclusion of the Agreement and its implementation, dialogue between the parties on the life of the Chinese Church in general is systematically continuing. In recent years, for example, efforts have been made to initiate processes of reconciliation within ecclesial communities that have been divided for decades, with a view to greater normality in the life of Catholics. Certainly, having a pastor recognized by both parties helps greatly in this path of reconciliation. Even though the situation remains complicated, elsewhere this process is helping to restore stability after many years of uncertainty and division.
Two bishops from the People's Republic of China are also present at the General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops taking place this year in the Vatican: Vincent Zhan Silu (Bishop of Funing/Mindong) and Joseph Yang Yongqiang, Bishop of Hangzhou. "The Church in China is the same as the Catholic Church in other countries of the world: we belong to the same faith, we share the same baptism and we are all faithful to the one, holy, catholic and apostolic Church," declared Bishop Joseph Yang Yongqiang in his address in the Synod Hall. The bishops of the People's Republic of China had participated in the synodal assemblies only in 2018 and then in 2023. "We have experienced a miracle. "We are here to give thanks, we have waited so many years for this moment and it has finally arrived," said Bishop Joseph Guo Jincai in October 2018, on the occasion of his participation in the Synod on Youth. Previously, no bishop from mainland China had been able to participate in the Second Vatican Council or in the subsequent General Assemblies of the Synod of Bishops.
In recent seasons, moments of greater tension and difficulty have been overcome, and others have given signs of renewed cooperation. On May 21, for example, several Chinese ecclesiastics and academics participated, together with Cardinals Pietro Parolin and Luis Antonio Tagle, in the Congress on the centenary of the first Concilium Sinense (1924/2024), organized in Rome by the Pontifical Urbaniana University in collaboration with the Dicastery for Evangelization and Fides Agency.
In the statement released today, the Holy See reiterates its intention to "continue the respectful and constructive dialogue" with the authorities in Beijing "in view of the further development of bilateral relations for the benefit of the Catholic Church in China and the Chinese people as a whole." With simple and clear words, it once again recalls the main concern that drives and guides the choices of the Apostolic See in the dialogue with the Chinese Authorities. The main intention that guides the Holy See in its dialogue with the People's Republic of China is not the desire to reaffirm "political primacy" over an ecclesial community that for decades has guarded the gift of faith, crossing impenetrable paths and times of trial, even bloody ones. The criterion, also in relations with civil authorities, is to make the appropriate decisions so that the journey of the ecclesial community in history continues to proceed in the wake of the Catholic tradition, facing the difficulties and real points of suffering.
The ordinary chronicles of the ecclesial life of the Chinese Catholic communities, recounted and described also by Fides Agency, attest that, moving necessarily within the political and legislative framework of their country, the Catholic communities succeed in putting into practice the breadth of their mission, in its essential aspects: liturgy, prayer, administration of the sacraments, catechesis and proclamation and participation in the Gospel, works of charity and formation initiatives for young people and adults. Adapting to the context, the Church always finds ways to live and bear witness to her faith in China.
The works and gestures of salvation and healing can find forms of legitimation also in the political and social context of the current People's Republic of China. In this determined commitment, hope rests simply on the harmony, on the "genetic" affinity between the work of the Apostolic See and the sensus fidei of the People of God in China. "The journey of the Church throughout history has passed and continues to pass through unforeseen paths, even through times of patience and trial. The Lord, in China, has maintained the faith of the People of God along the way" (Pope Francis, Video message to the Conference on the Concilium Sinense. Rome, Pontifical Urbaniana University, May 21, 2024).
(Agenzia Fides, 22/10/2024)
