{"id":3360,"date":"2007-01-20T12:34:38","date_gmt":"2007-01-20T12:34:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/viamedia\/2007\/01\/china-news.html"},"modified":"2007-01-20T12:34:38","modified_gmt":"2007-01-20T12:34:38","slug":"china-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/2007\/01\/china-news.html","title":{"rendered":"China News"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Pope will write a letter to Chinese Catholics:<\/a><\/p>\n

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Benedict XVI has decided to shortly \u201caddress a letter to the Catholics of China\u201d: this was the important conclusion contained in an official statement released by the Holy See press office at the end of a 2 day meeting held at the Vatican January 19 and 20.  Participating in the meeting which had as its theme \u201cThe situation of the Catholic Church in China\u201d were Chinese bishops from Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan and the most important representatives from the Secretary of State and the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples.  The meeting was presided over by Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, secretary of state. The statement affirms that \u201cThe will to continue on the journey of a respectful and constructive dialogue with the governing authorities in order to overcome past difficulties, emerged. More over, the hope was expressed that a normalization of relations on all levels would come to pass\u201d.<\/em><\/p>\n

The statement notes that the meeting was called at the express wish of the Pope \u201cin the desire to deepen his knowledge of the situation of the Catholic Church in China\u201d.<\/p>\n

The meeting \u201cwas animated by a frank and fraternal cordiality\u201d and examined \u201cthe most serious and urgent ecclesial problems, which call for adequate solutions based on the fundamental principles of the Church\u2019s divine constitution and religious freedom\u201d. In the last few months in China there have been a series of arrests of priests loyal to the underground Church as well as the ordination of priest without the approval of the Holy See, facts judged by the Vatican to be \u201ca grave violation of religious freedom\u201d.<\/p>\n

The statement highlights the \u201ctroubled history of the Church in China\u201d and recalls the heroism of many faithful, priests and bishops of the underground church who have suffered persecution: \u201cThe Church expresses its profound gratitude for the inspiring witness of the bishops priests and lay faithful, who without compromise, have maintained their loyalty to the see of peter, often paying a grave and painful price by doing so.\u201d <\/p>\n

According to AsiaNews <\/em>data at least 17 underground bishops have disappeared, been arrested or are detained in isolation; 20 priests have been arrested.  The latest arrest took place on December 27th in Hebei.  Of the 9 priests arrested, 5 remain in prison, 4 have been released.<\/p>\n

At the same time the statement highlights that the official Church (\u201calmost in it\u2019s totality\u201d) is in communion with the Pope. \u201cThe Church notes with particular joy that almost all of the bishops and priests are in communion with the Holy Father\u201d.  At least 85% of the bishops from the official Church \u2013 registered and recognised by the government \u2013 have been for years now in contact with the Holy See, contrasting the work of the Patriotic Association bent on creating a Church independent of Rome.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/blockquote>\n

More from AsiaNews:<\/a><\/p>\n

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Compared to what happens in churches all over the world \u2013 where authority rests with the Bishops and the Episcopal conference \u2013 in China the supreme authority of the official Church is a \u201cUnitary Assembly of the AP and the Chinese Bishops Council\u201d formed by representatives of the catholic organisations (chosen by AP), secretaries of AP and bishops, where the latter is in the minority. All decisions \u2013 at least according to the statute- are taken \u201cdemocratically\u201d. \u201cThis democratic aspect \u2013 says another Catholic \u2013 is false: in reality the AP decides and enforces its decisions. In Beijing, where they are preparing to replace the gravely ill Patriotic Bishop Fu Tieshan, the AP has already established the manes of candidates as successors and has made clear that it will not accept others\u201d.<\/p>\n

The point is that the Assembly also deals with theology, liturgy and Church sacraments, among which the ordination of bishops. In this way, the life and heart of the Church are submitted to political decisions and also to a \u201cdemocratic\u201d method which corrupts and risks destroying the apostolic dimension and sacramental faith of Catholicism.  <\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/blockquote>\n

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The Catholicism comes from her side. Amy grew up in a number of places - Indiana - Washington, DC - Lubbock Texas - Arlington, Virginia - DeKalb, Illinois - Lawrence, Kansas - and Knoxville, Tennessee, where the family settled in 1973. She attended Knoxville Catholic High School, then the University of Tennessee where she majored in history. She received an MA in Church History from Vanderbilt University, where she wrote a thesis on the changing role of women in 19th century American Protestantism, and the ways Scripture was used to justify those changes. She worked as as a teacher in Catholic high schools and a Parish Director of Religious Education and started writing for the diocesan press - the Florida Catholic - in 1988. Amy has written columns for Our Sunday Visitor and Catholic News Service at times over the past twenty years. Her articles have been published in venues ranging from Our Sunday Visitor to the New York Times to Commonweal. She has written 17 books. 18, if you included the as yet tragically unpublished novel. Amy has five children, ranging in age from 26 to 4 and was married to Michael Dubruiel, who died unexpectedly in February 2009. She lives in Birmingham, Alabama.","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/author\/awelborn"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3360","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/180"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3360"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3360\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3360"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3360"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3360"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}