Military strategist Sun Tzu once said the supreme art of war is
to subdue your enemy without fighting.
The warrior would have approved of the tactics used by Beijing
in its decades-long confrontation with the Vatican over the appointment of
Christian bishops in China.
No actual conflict was involved but victory has been gained and
the spoils of war are being reaped from the thousands of Christian churches
across the country.
Pope Francis essentially hoisted the white flag when he agreed
to accept Government approved bishops he had no role in appointing.
In a statement, the Vatican said the accord was “not political
but pastoral” and hoped it would lead to the full communion of all Chinese
Catholics.
Instead, the atheist Chinese leadership has launched a crackdown
against its Christian community, burning crosses, withdrawing bibles from sale,
banning children from churches and demanding images of President Xi Jinping and
former Community Party Chairman Mao Zedong join those of Christ on or near
altars.
Many genuine Christian leaders in China feel they have been
betrayed.
The founder
of the Christian human rights organisation, ChinaAid, Bob Fu, said millions of
persecuted Christians in China had been let down by their Pope, while Cardinal
Joseph Zen of Hong Kong said the deal only empowered the authorities in
Beijing.
“The Government
can tell Catholics: ‘Obey us. We are in agreement with your Pope’,” the
Cardinal said.
Much
was hoped of Francis when he succeeded to the papacy in 2013 with a reformist
agenda aimed at bringing the clergy in closer touch with their flocks.
However,
in recent times his reign has been dogged by a seemingly endless round of sex
abuse scandals and cover-ups that reach into the highest levels of the Vatican.
Francis himself has been widely criticised for not doing enough to make amends.
Faced
with a crisis of confidence in the Church and his own waning popularity, Francis
might have decided that rapprochement with China would remove one other
troubling problem from his plate.
Initial
outcomes suggest this may have been the biggest miscalculation of his papacy.
Other faiths
have already suffered under the Xi regime. Islamic crescents and domes have
been stripped from mosques and many thousands of China’s Uighur Muslim
community are reported to be in‘re-education’ camps.
Similar
crackdowns have been launched against Buddhist temples in Tibet.
The
size of the underground Christian community, and the support for it voiced by powerful
interests in the West, has given Beijing pause in the past. Now it could easily
become open season.
In an
amazing admission, Francis said his deal will cause suffering among orthodox
Christians in China.
“It’s
true, they will suffer. There is always suffering in an agreement,” he said.
For
the sake of those Christians his agreement has placed in the firing line, it is
to be hoped the suffering will not be severe.
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