Exclusive: Cardinal Zen Says Chinese Church Without Vatican's Help Will 'Die Out Soon'

Bishop Joseph Zen prayed with Catholics before the protest against Hong Kong Basic Law Article 23 legislation. Creative Commons image.

WASHINGTON — Cardinal Joseph Zen Ze-kiun, a pro-democracy leader from Hong Kong outspoken against China’s human rights abuses, railed against upcoming changes to Catholic Church appointments in mainland China that he called “not legitimate” and “schismatic” in an exchange with Religion Unplugged.

New regulations for the Catholic Church in China, made by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), are set to go into effect on May 1. Many of these new rules appear to directly block the Church hierarchy outside the nation’s borders from influencing Church governance within China.

Cardinal Zen stated that if the CCP were to pull out of cooperation with the Vatican and attempt to maintain an entirely Chinese Catholic Church without the pope as its head, the entire organization will be rejected by the laity.

“This schismatic Church will not be self-perpetuating,” Cardinal Zen told Religion Unplugged.

Last month, the CCP announced new regulations on the selection and appointment of bishops within the country. The CCP, which autocratically controls Chinese politics, culture and civil society, released a document titled, “Administrative Measures for Religious Clergy.”

According to Bitter Winter, a magazine covering religious freedom issues in China, the new rules state that all high clergy of organized religions (particularly Tibetan Buddhists and Roman Catholics) are required to accept the CCP’s right to appoint and approve holders of office in their respective institutions.

Catholic high clergy in China must “abide by the rules and regulations established for religious groups, and accept the management of the religious groups, religious institutions, and religious activity sites where they are located,” according to Bitter Winter’s translation of the Administrative Measures.

Additionally, the Catholic Church’s intrinsic hierarchical structure, which places the pope of Rome at the top as a head administrator and teacher, is directly attacked by the new regulations which outlaws religious institutions “being dominated by foreign forces, accepting the appointment of teaching positions by foreign religious groups or institutions without authorization, and other acts that violate the principle of independence and self-administration of religion.”

The Administrative Measures directly address the Catholic Church, stating:

“Catholic bishops are approved and consecrated by the Chinese Catholic Bishops’ Conference. The Chinese Catholic Patriotic Association and the Chinese Catholic Bishops’ Conference shall, within twenty days after the consecration of the bishop, fill out a Catholic bishop reporting form and report it to the State Administration of Religious Affairs for the record…”

Notably absent from the document is any mention of the pope, Vatican or the worldwide Catholic Church.

“A schismatic Church put up by the communists, whom we suppose will be rejected by the Chinese people, will die out soon,” Cardinal Zen told Religion Unplugged. “There is no foundation in the culture, in a tradition. Their leaders have no credibility, respectability… They will have no market.”

These new regulations seem to completely sever Roman influence from management of the Chinese Catholic Church — a move that would intrinsically make the CCP’s regulated church schismatic and no longer part of the Catholic communion.

However, some Chinese church officials have been quick to defend the new rules, stating that they do not violate the increasingly fragile Vatican-China deal that seeks to preserve a working relationship between the Holy See and the CCP in appointing high clergy within the country.

“We make a real mistake if we think this is ‘all about us’,” a cleric in China said about the new measures, according to The Pillar. “By and large, [Catholics] are not seen as a national problem by the government, with the exception of particular locales and individuals.”

The senior clergyman went on to say that the Vatican was omitted from the text simply because the CCP would not want to publicly identify a foreign power in any way, though they may be open to working with the Vatican under the table.

Worth noting is that the cleric spoke to The Pillar on condition of anonymity in order to avoid negative consequences for speaking on the situation.

Cardinal Joseph Zen. Creative Commons image.

Cardinal Zen claims that individuals defending the announcement are completely misguided, calling the Chinese Catholic Church, “for the moment a schismatic Church with the blessing of the Vatican.”

A zombie-like CCP Church cut off from the worldwide hierarchy and uncontrolled by Catholic canon law has been a fear among Church officials for years.

In recent months, accounts from China have reported an increasing hostility to Catholic religious icons and images. Two Marian shrines were destroyed by the CCP, and Catholic nuns have been forced out of their convents by the Chinese government.

Churches have been forced to place patriotic and nationalistic imagery and monuments inside religious spaces, including replacing images of Christ and the Holy Family with portraits of CCP leader Xi Jinping and Chairman Mao.

This is not the first nor the only current national branch of the Catholic Church to flex its muscles and obscure its loyalty to the clerical hierarchy.

The German Catholic Church has similarly attempted to push back on Roman control, pushing for the ordination of female priests, same-sex marriages and other social changes that are in direct opposition to canon law.

In a response to German Catholic leaders published in 2019, Archbishop Filippo Iannone, the head of the Pontifical Council for Legislative Texts, wrote, “Synodality in the Church, to which Pope Francis refers often, is not synonymous with democracy or majority decisions.”

“The synodal process must take place within a hierarchically structured community,” he added.

Catholic bishops worldwide are traditionally regarded as the normal working authority of their diocese, and are encouraged to operate inside their areas as autonomous leaders instead of middlemen for a central power. Bishops draw their authority from the original apostles, not directly from the pope or Vatican.

The pope, however, as the successor of St. Peter and the Bishop of Rome, holds the authority to correct, manage and hold accountable clergy worldwide without exception. 

All modern candidates for the episcopacy are expected to be presented to and approved by the pope, who holds total authority over all other members of the Church. This expectation briefly frayed relations between the Holy See and China after a number of bishops were ordained without the pope’s blessing, leading to multiple excommunications and grasping for the reigns within the nation.

Eventually, those rogue bishops were brought back into the Church, and the CCP agreed to allow the Holy See a hand in future selections.

The actual praxis of China and the Holy See’s agreement are as of yet unknown, but each new regulation and public expression of authority pushes the needle further in the CCP’s direction.

If the CCP-sanctioned, patriotic Church in China were to lose the support of the Vatican and the Holy See were to revoke the Chinese bishops’ authority to preach or lead, it would put forth a major gamble: will the Catholic laity who have thus far refused to rock the boat have enough courage to leave the schismatic church in protest?

Cardinal Zen’s outlook is positive.

”The people deceived by those fake bishops will be welcome back into the real Catholic Church,” he said.

Timothy Nerozzi is a writer and editor from northeastern Pennsylvania. He covers religious issues with a focus on the Catholic Church and Japanese society and culture.