PHNO-VATICAN VS BEIJING: A STATE-APPOINTED BISHOP, EXCOMMUNICATED

VATICAN VS BEIJING: A STATE-APPOINTED BISHOP,
EXCOMMUNICATED

MANILA, JULY 21, 2012
(INQUIRER) Passion For Reason By: Raul C. Pangalangan -

The Inquirer yesterday reported that the Vatican had objected to the
ordination in China of a local bishop without a papal mandate. This was followed
by the resignation by another bishop from the government-sanctioned Patriotic
Catholic Association (PCA) in open defiance of authorities, and he has not been
heard from since.
Bishop Joseph Yue Fusheng was ordained Friday in the northeastern city of
Harbin without Vatican blessings, and Rome responded by immediately
excommunicating him.
As if in response, the Rev. Thaddeus Ma Daqin, who was just installed
auxiliary bishop of Shanghai, announced that he was resigning from the PCA.
To the resounding applause of his congregation, he declared: "In the light of
the teaching of our mother church, as I now serve as a bishop, I should focus on
pastoral work and evangelization. … Therefore, from this day of consecration, it
will no longer be convenient for me to be a member of the patriotic
association."
I had thought that post-Mao China is no longer leery of religion and, on the
contrary, has discovered the role of faith in holding society together against
the vagaries of materialism and profit-seeking. Perhaps what Beijing wants to
ward off is the prospect of a Jaime Cardinal Sin in the making. The multitude at
Tiananmen didn't seem to need a Cardinal Sin, but what if?
Over the past years, I have been part of a team of law professors from Europe
and the United States who have been, merely to use a metaphor, spreading the
gospel of religious freedom in Asia. I have made some surprising discoveries.

First, when it comes to the pervasiveness of religious schools in the
education of children, the Philippines is actually more similar to European
countries than it is to the United States, yet our church-state doctrine is
virtually copied from American constitutional law. We have largely outsourced
elementary and high school education to private, typically Catholic, schools.
Thus, in these "denominational" or "sectarian" schools, we find the typical
problems of religion-based disciplinary action on students. They allow enrolled
students from other religions to "opt out" of religious instruction. And they
allow the teaching of their own religion as articles of faith teachable only by
their own believers, rather than as an academic discipline teachable even by
nonbelievers.
In contrast, on this point, it is China and the United States that are
similar, in that basic education is mainly state-run. In their schools, there is
no such thing as religion-based infractions of discipline. There is no need to
give parents the option to "opt out" of religious instruction because there is
no religious instruction. Instead what we have is an "opt in" clause for parents
to allow their children to be taught religion "without additional cost to the
government." And especially for college and university students, they maintain
the distinction between "teaching religion" as done by proselytizers (or
"confessional teaching") and "teaching about religion" as done by faculty
members—not necessarily the faith's own believers—in divinity schools.
Second, it seems that Beijing sees religion as a rival ideology, to be
contained, domesticated and subordinated to the official state ideology. The
irony is: What exactly is its state ideology? Certainly not Marxism-Leninism-Mao
Tse Tung Thought. I suspect the Filipino Maoists would outdo their comrades in
Beijing on ideological purity.
If China has unofficially adopted laissez faire in economics, why not in
ideology, too? If precisely what their one-party state fears most is the rise of
a countervailing group, shouldn't the multiplicity of religions precisely
guarantee that the Communist Party remains paramount over all the fragmented
groups, religious or not, and that the more the proliferation, the more
entrenched the Party?
In contrast, we Filipinos have assumed that it is possible "to give to Caesar
what is Caesar's, and to God what is God's." We adopted the liberal duality that
secular and religious world views can coexist, both affirming in their own way a
communal identity larger than the self, the first in the public sphere, the
second in the spiritual world.
Third, perhaps what truly riles Beijing is that Vatican-appointed bishops are
not beholden to the Party, the way even big-time bureaucrats bow before middling
party secretaries. In other words, it is not ideology but organizational loyalty
that matters. Perhaps Beijing has a point. It took me a while to grasp the
military-like discipline and hierarchy of the Catholic Church that starts at the
apex with the papacy at the Vatican.
Thus seen, an independent Chinese clergy poses a secular threat to the
Communist Party no different from a Cardinal Sin to a Marcos. But again there is
one element that makes an independent cardinal a bigger threat in Manila than a
renegade bishop in Beijing. It is that in our system, the cardinal's power over
his flock is especially protected by the Constitution. It relies upon a belief
system beyond the reach of worldly powers, to quote the philosophers,
epistemologically privileged, reachable only by revelation rather than by man's
reason. There is no such privileging in the Chinese setup. For them, it is just
another body of beliefs and the fact that it purports to speak to an invisible
god makes it no more a threat than an economic system run by an invisible hand.
Why be so guarded with such humdrum perils?
In a Beijing church, I noticed they were big on stopping worshippers from
stepping on the pew's kneelers. There were big signs on the wall, and watchers
patrolling the pews. It felt like Big Brother was watching, even if it wasn't
him I came there to talk to.
* * *
Comments to passionforreason@gmail.com

BLOG WATCH From Theology
and Society:
Newly Ordained Chinese Bishop Excommunicated; Joseph Yue
Fusheng Ordained Without Vatican OK
The Catholic San Francisco website reports today (July 11, 2012) that Chinese
Father Joseph Yue Fusheng has been excommunicated for allowing himself to be
illicitly ordained a bishop, despite repeated warnings from the Vatican.
"The Holy See does not recognize him as a bishop of the apostolic
administration of Harbin, and he lacks the authority to govern the priests and
the Catholic community in the province of Heilongjiang," the Vatican said in a
written statement July 10.
Father Yue was ordained bishop of Harbin on July 6 without papal mandate -- a
rite the Chinese government has been using in recent years.
Five Vatican-approved bishops took part in the rite -- held at the Sacred
Heart of Jesus Church in Harbin -- capital of Heilongjiang province. The Vatican
said those five bishops who took part in the July 6 ordination would also be
excommunicated.
Posted by George Patsourakos at 6:58 PM


Chief News Editor: Sol Jose Vanzi
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