{"id":4193,"date":"2006-12-06T09:39:40","date_gmt":"2006-12-06T09:39:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/viamedia\/2006\/12\/next-minefield-please.html"},"modified":"2006-12-06T09:39:40","modified_gmt":"2006-12-06T09:39:40","slug":"next-minefield-please","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/2006\/12\/next-minefield-please.html","title":{"rendered":"Next minefield, please…"},"content":{"rendered":"

On to China. What’s happened the past few days, after the ordination of that bishop, unapproved by the Vatican and the apparent forced participation by other clerics.<\/p>\n

Cardinal Zen on the general situation:<\/a><\/p>\n

\n
\n

The Vietnamese Church is \u201cdynamic and vital, not least thanks to recent concessions by the government, which is moving ever closer towards full religious freedom.\u201d This \u201cshould serve as an example to the Chinese government, which should distance itself from the work of the Patriotic Association and grant full freedom to its Catholics.\u201d<\/p>\n

This is what Cardinal Joseph Zen Ze-kiun, bishop of <\/span>Hong Kong<\/span>, told AsiaNews<\/em> on his return from <\/span>Ho Chi Minh City<\/span>, where together with three other Asian cardinals, he concelebrated mass to mark the 500th anniversary of the birth of St Francis Xavier, patron of missionaries. <\/span><\/p>\n

The bishops of Hong Kong, Manila and Ranchi \u2013 Cardinals Zen, Rosales and Toppo \u2013 went to Vietnam at the invitation of the archbishop of Ho Chi Minh City, Cardinal Jean-Baptiste Pham Minh Man. The visit took place between 2 and 4 December. <\/span><\/p>\n

Cardinal Zen immediately said the visit \u201cwas really beautiful. We were treated with the utmost hospitality. I noticed that the government is truly opening up to religious freedom: it has removed all limits on priestly ordinations and recruits to the seminary. This is very important, because it is precisely these limits that created many problems for the local Church. Now there is much more freedom, even in this respect. The Chinese government should take <\/span>Vietnam<\/span> as an example.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Throughout the visit, \u201cwe felt the very strong faith of the people. The church hierarchy has a solid foundation on which to work, and as soon as the government gave a bit of freedom, this faith was released. With intelligent leadership like that of Cardinal Pham Minh Manh, the Church grows. Apart from Sunday Mass, we participated in an evening for youth, a magnificent moment. We were really touched by what we saw: the great affection they showed us was moving.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Cardinal Bertone says there’s still…er…dialogue.<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

\n
\n

Asked about the state of diplomatic relations between China and the Holy See, Cardinal Bertone added that "the diplomatic relations are ‘in menti Dei’ [in God’s mind], in the future, and I think that they are in the future plans of the Chinese leaders, though they have their own times and rhythms for the framing and realization of them." <\/p>\n

"Talks continue; therefore, the dialogue with China on this point continues," the Vatican secretary of state added. <\/p>\n

He revealed that the new ordination of a bishop without papal approval "is an act that checks and does not favor good relations with the Holy See and the Catholic Church. They are accidents on the way." <\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On to China. What’s happened the past few days, after the ordination of that bishop, unapproved by the Vatican and the apparent forced participation by other clerics. Cardinal Zen on the general situation: The Vietnamese Church is \u201cdynamic and vital, not least thanks to recent concessions by the government, which is moving ever closer towards…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":180,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4193","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"yoast_head":"\nNext minefield, please... - Via Media<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/2006\/12\/next-minefield-please.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Next minefield, please... - Via Media\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"On to China. What’s happened the past few days, after the ordination of that bishop, unapproved by the Vatican and the apparent forced participation by other clerics. Cardinal Zen on the general situation: The Vietnamese Church is \u201cdynamic and vital, not least thanks to recent concessions by the government, which is moving ever closer towards…\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/2006\/12\/next-minefield-please.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Via Media\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2006-12-06T09:39:40+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"awelborn\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Next minefield, please... - Via Media","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/2006\/12\/next-minefield-please.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Next minefield, please... - Via Media","og_description":"On to China. What’s happened the past few days, after the ordination of that bishop, unapproved by the Vatican and the apparent forced participation by other clerics. Cardinal Zen on the general situation: The Vietnamese Church is \u201cdynamic and vital, not least thanks to recent concessions by the government, which is moving ever closer towards…","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/2006\/12\/next-minefield-please.html","og_site_name":"Via Media","article_published_time":"2006-12-06T09:39:40+00:00","author":"awelborn","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/2006\/12\/next-minefield-please.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/2006\/12\/next-minefield-please.html","name":"Next minefield, please... - Via Media","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/#website"},"datePublished":"2006-12-06T09:39:40+00:00","dateModified":"2006-12-06T09:39:40+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/#\/schema\/person\/aea2dcda1635c9c2d6030d9c7595725a"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/2006\/12\/next-minefield-please.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/2006\/12\/next-minefield-please.html"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/2006\/12\/next-minefield-please.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Next minefield, please…"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/","name":"Via Media","description":"Amy Welborn","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/#\/schema\/person\/aea2dcda1635c9c2d6030d9c7595725a","name":"awelborn","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/9f2\/9f2100183464289fedc5b8a621c15110x96.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/9f2\/9f2100183464289fedc5b8a621c15110x96.jpg","caption":"awelborn"},"description":"Amy Welborn was born in 1960, the only child of a now-retired professor of political science, a teacher-librarian-artist mother,deceased since 2001, was a teacher, librarian and artist. 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\/4193","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=4193"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4193\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4193"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4193"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4193"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}