The Vatican Secretary of State, Cardinal Pietro Parolin, assured that if there were “an opening” on the part of China, Pope Francis would go to the Asian country “immediately.”
This was indicated by the Italian cardinal in statements to journalists on Thursday, June 20, at the Pontifical Urbaniana University in Rome, within the framework of the presentation of the book Cardinal Celso Costantini and China: Builder of a bridge between East and West.
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“Certainly the Pope is available to go to China, and he also wants to go there. But I do not believe that at this moment the conditions are met for this wish of the Pope to come true,” the cardinal highlighted, according to reports. Vatican News.
“The Pope really has great appreciation and there is no lack of opportunity to express it to the Chinese people and nation. Maybe because he is a Jesuit, and he has all the heritage of the past… certainly they are all steps that help to always understand more, to get closer. We hope that this path can reach a positive conclusion.”
“China is truly in the heart of Pope Francis and his collaborators,” added the Secretary of State.
One of the most important milestones in the relationship between the Jesuits and China is the missionary Matteo Ricci, an Italian priest, mathematician and cartographer who died in 1610 in Beijing, after having announced the Gospel in Asian lands. He is currently in the process of beatification.
Another important aspect that now links the Society of Jesus with China is the new Bishop of Hong Kong, Stephen Chow, appointed by Pope Francis in May 2021, created cardinal in the consistory of September 2023.
The agreement between China and the Vatican to appoint bishops
Regarding the agreement signed between China and the Vatican in 2018 for the appointment of bishops in the Asian country, and whose content has not been made public, Cardinal Parolin commented that “we are in dialogue with China as we have been for some time, we are looking for the best procedures for the approval of the agreement signed at the time and which will be renewed at the end of this year” 2024.
The agreement, whose renewal this 2024 will be the third after those of 2020 and 2022, is “provisional” because “it is indicated that it is a starting point. Confirmed on two occasions in recent years, it has had an important role in specific cases.”
Through the agreement, the Vatican Secretary of State highlighted, “all bishops in the land of Confucius are in full communion with the Church of Peter.”
With the agreement in 2018, Pope Francis decided to readmit to the full communion of the Catholic Church eight bishops – one of whom had already died – who had been consecrated illicitly, that is, without a pontifical mandate.
Perhaps one of the biggest critics of the agreement has been Cardinal Joseph Zen ze-kiun, who has suffered harassment from the regime, being tried and convicted after being accused of collaborating with pro-democracy protesters in Hong Kong, who were part of the 2019 protests.
Walter Sanchez Silva
I have been a husband since 2008. My wife and I have three children here and one who went to heaven in 2023, before he was born. Since I joined ACI Prensa in 2005, I have had the opportunity to cover various events of the Catholic Church. Among them, the World Youth Days in Cologne, Madrid and Rio de Janeiro and the apostolic trips of Pope Benedict XVI to Mexico and of Pope Francis to South Korea. I have been sent to the Vatican to cover the Family synods, in 2015; of the Amazon, in 2019 and that of Synodality, in 2023. I closely follow the situation of the Catholic Church in Nicaragua, which suffers persecution from the dictatorship of Daniel Ortega, as well as current ecclesiastical events in the region.