90-year-old Joseph Zen was arrested for “conspiring with foreign forces”. Western governments and the German Church denounced the Xi Jinping regime but the Vatican did not issue any statement
Cardinal Joseph Zen celebrates mass in Hong Kong, China, on May 24, 2022 (REUTERS/Tyrone Siu)< p class=”paragraph”>90-year-old Catholic Cardinal Joseph Zen was arrested by the Xi Jinping regime in Hong Kong on May 12 along with other pro-democracy activists accused of “conspiring with foreign forces.” The arrest was harshly criticized by Western countries, including the German Church, which raised its voice, but it went unnoticed in the Vatican.
Pope Francis, Surprisingly, he limited himself to saying that he “closely followed the often complex life of Catholics in China,” and did not refer directly to the 90-year-old cardinal’s arrest.
Pope Francis (REUTERS/Yara Nardi)
The Vatican did not issue any formal statement either.< /p>
Zen was jailed for his involvement with a defense fund that helped cover the legal and medical costs of those detained during the large pro-democracy demonstrations of 2019. And he and his colleagues, who were released on bail days after the arrest, join the more than 180 people detained under the national security law imposed by the Xi Jinping regime to suppress protests.
The cardinal can be sentenced to up to life in prison .
The arrest of the cardinal took place in a context of repression of any dissent in Hong Kong
In An analysis on the site Crux, the American Vaticanist John Allen considers that the cardinal is “increasingly marginalized” by Pope Francis. But he warned that “Francis cannot afford to ignore Zen, because his arrest, and everything that may happen to him, will generate sympathy and a mobilization around the world in favor of the cardinal.”
Zen, who fled from Shanghai before the communists came to power in China in 1949, did not lose his calm when the police came to his home to arrest him. “Don’t be afraid, God has everything planned,” he told her serenely. to the policemen who had the order to arrest him.
The cardinal’s arrest took place in a context of repression of all dissent in Hong Kong and raises fears of greater surveillance of the cults, in a city where several pro-democracy militants are Christians.
Furthermore, it happened at a delicate moment for the Holy See, which is negotiating the renewal of a controversial agreement with Beijing on the appointment of bishops, a subject of discord for decades between the Catholic Church and the Chinese regime.
In 2020, Zen had traveled to Rome to try to convince Pope Francis not to renew the agreement. He waited for several days for an audience that never came.
“The Holy See does not want the dialogue to break off,” Marco Politi, a Vatican analyst and biographer, told AFP. of the Pope. “It is clear that China is in a position of strength and the Vatican in a position of weakness,” he added.
“Those who oppose the agreement now have one more reason to oppose it” Beatrice Leung, a member of the Sisters of Precious Sandrem and a friend of Zen, told the AFP agency.
For decades, there have been two Catholic churches in China: a “patriotic” one, dependent on the communist regime, and an “underground” one, illegal in the eyes of Beijing and traditionally faithful to the Pope after China’s break with the Holy See in 1957.< /b>
The underground Church had several supporters in Hong Kong, a city where, until now, freedom of worship was guaranteed. But in recent decades, the Vatican began to forge relations with China that led to the signing, in 2018, of an agreement whose exact content has never been disclosed.
By virtue of this agreement, Pope Francis recognized several bishops initially appointed by Beijing without papal approval. Conversely, former bishops of the Underground Church have been recognized by Beijing.
Retired archbishop of Hong Kong Joseph Zen, center, attends the episcopal ordination ceremony of Bishop Stephen Chow, in Hong Kong, Saturday, Dec. 4, 2021. Zen, the 90-year-old Catholic cleric arrested by Hong Kong police on national security charges, has long been a fiery critic of Beijing, along with efforts by the Vatican to reach a working arrangement with the ruling Communist Party. (AP Photo/Kin Cheung)
Cardinal Zen had criticized this pact, considering that it consisted of “underselling” Chinese Catholics from the unrecognized Church.
And various currents within the hierarchy of the Catholic Church have criticized Pope Francis’ willingness to approach China for years. But few analysts and observers expect the cardinal’s arrest to lead the Vatican to question this rapprochement.
Zen will be tried by a Chinese court next September.