The Church and China: Can Catholics serve two masters?

[Mercedes]

In an interview published August 12, Parolin, who oversees the Holy See’s diplomatic relations, said that dialogue with the Chinese government over the Church in that country will resume after some pause caused by coronavirus pandemic.

“We hope to be able to resume the meetings as soon as possible, and to deal with the many other issues that are on the table and that concern the life of the Catholic Church in China,” Parolin said, while praising the example of Chinese Catholics.

“We are proud of the witness of faith they give. We hope that they will always be good citizens and good Catholics,” said Parolin, adding that it is important for Chinese Catholics to “express this twin dimension in their concrete life.”

But both Chinese Catholic and Vatican watchers have expressed skepticism that it is possible to be both a good Chinese citizen and a good Catholic — suggesting that Chinese Catholics been asked, in the words of the Gospel, to be the servants of two masters?

Many, including bishops, living a life of faithful adherence to the Church while also conforming to ever-tightening state requirements since the signing of the 2018 Vatican-China deal, which gave the Communist Party a say in the appointment of bishops and brought the state-sponsored Chinese Patriotic Catholic Association into formal communion with Rome.

As part of the deal, bishops and priests in the “underground Church” were ordered by Beijing to register with the CPCA, to affirm the state’s authority over the Church in China, and assent to Communist party doctrine, in line with a national policy toward the “sinicization of religion,” announced by President Xi Jinping in 2015.

Bishops who had been loyal to the government, ordained illicitly and in schism with Rome until the 2018 deal, have emphasized publicly that being a “good citizen” must come before being a Catholic.

In 2019, Bishop John Fang Xingyao, president of the CPCA said that "love for the homeland must be greater than the love for the Church, and the law of the country is above canon law."  Read on here. 

I would say this conundrum is similar to a child with a less than ideal parent trying to balance out their loyalties.  The etymology of the word 'patriot' is 'of the father'.  We are commanded to honour our father and mother in this earthly life so there must be a way to balance these loyalties, which I believe the Vatican is trusting in.

[ZeroM]

Fun fact, did you know that the Latin Mass could be found throughout China until squashed by the Communist authorities.  Saying Mass in Latin instead of Mandarin seems very subversive and contrary to public cohesiveness.  

Edited August 14, 2021 by ZeroM

[Nihil Obstat]

On 8/13/2021 at 8:11 PM, ZeroM said:

Fun fact, did you know that the Latin Mass could be found throughout China until squashed by the Communist authorities.  Saying Mass in Latin instead of Mandarin seems very subversive and contrary to public cohesiveness.  

There have been rumours floating around for some time that the traditional Mass was at one point translated into (and approved for use in) Literary Sinitic. Which is an archaic, formal Chinese that is kind of analogous to our use of Latin, but not quite. Also sort of analogous to Old English (maybe more accurately middle English) in the sense that it is not really intelligible to a modern speaker.

I have looked, bit have never been able to find a copy of that missal. And if anyone knows where to find one, please let me know.