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Vatican Flirting With China?

Luis Figueroa - 6/6/2006

The Vatican excommunicated two catholic bishops who were ordained by the official Chinese catholic church -which is controled by the socialist regime of Hu Jin-tao- without the Pope's authorization. The Pope also excommunicated the prelates that performed the ordinations.

According to the Codex Iuris Canonici, both the prelate that consecrates a person as bishop, and he who is consecrated, without a mandate from the roman pontiff, deserves a lateae sentenciae excommunication; which means that both are equally excommunicated automatically.

The whole matter would not have attracted my attention, if the news have not mentioned that “The Vatican excommunicated two bishops ordained by China's state-controlled church without the pope's consent, escalating tensions as the two sides explore preliminary moves toward improving ties.] A Chinese official said, "we hope The Vatican can respect the will of Chinese church and the vast numbers of priests as well as its church members so as to create good atmosphere for the improvement of Sino-Vatican ties."

A third “illegal] bishop was installed by the Chinese authorities, short after the first ordinations.

This is a lesson that should catch the attention of those who flirt with the regime in Beijing, and in general, of those who hold hands with one of the most rabid socialist regimes alive. Even the domesticated socialists like Spain's Rodriguez Zapatero and Brazil`s Lula Da Silva, could benefit from learning from The Vatican's experience; being that, in the case of the Spanish and Brazilian energy companies , both chiefs of government have to deal, now, with the nationalist and populist sprees of their compadre Evo Morales, from Bolivia.

Having said that, what is the lesson? The lesson is that socialists do not play fair and like Jano, they have two faces. On one side they may seem to be improving ties; but on the other side they are carrying on their most important business which is acquiring total control in order to spread socialism.

Total control and socialism are a bad mixture, specially in Church. It is a bad combination because, as Hannah Arendt said, what the totalitarian ideologies try to achieve is not the transformation of the external world or the revolutionary transmutation of society, but the transformation of human nature itself; a danger that P.J. O'Rourke described as the Left does not want a world of people with better lives. It wants life in a world of better people. The socialists efforts to transform human nature, and to produce better people, can be measured in terms of dead bodies - by the millions.

The lesson is as old as it can be. Remember Neville Chambarlain trying to appease, and trying to negotiate with nationalsocialist Adolf Hitler, while the Nazi leader was planning the invasion of Checoslovaquia and Poland. Remember Gulag, and remember Laogai. Remember the killing fields, in Cambodia.

All things considered, it is of much value the advice of Hong Kong's bishop, Joseph Zen, who said that The Vatican should end the diplomatic conversations with China. Such talks, the way I see them, do not have more explanation that The Vatican's double standard for China.

What, if not a double standard can explain that The Vatican –and other governments who brag of being respectful of human dignity – flirt with Hu's regime? Certainly not the thirst for souls that some Vatican friends argue as a justification for the Holy See's policies.

I saw John Paul II visiting and being nice to Cuba's dictator Fidel Castro. I see Benedict XVI kind of condemning Nazism in Auschitz. But I do not see a clear disapproval of the dictatorship in Beijing.

In April 20th, BBC informed that the Chinese government is harvesting human organs among the prisoners that are executed in Chinese jails, and that such organs are sold for transplants. I do not oppose the idea of someone selling his organs if it is done voluntarily; but it is perverse and looks as an idea from hell that a government sell as parts, the organs of it's executed prisoners.

The Mercury News, confirmed the story of the organ sales when it informed that many foreigners visit China looking for livers, hearts and kidneys; and AFP published a similar story.

On April 17th. 2006, CBS informed that China faces a big demographic problem as a consequence of its one child policy. Due that the Chinese prefer boys rather than girls, in the country people do anything in order to ensure that the newborn is a boy. That is the reason that for every 120 Chinese boys, there are only 100 Chinese girls.

The Boston Herald, on March 27, 2006, informed that the UN asked Hu's regime to change its penitentiary policies in order to eliminate the ample use of torture among the inmates.

With patience, but sadly and too easily, one can find examples of inhuman practices by the Chinese socialist regime in dozens of journalistic reports. What, if not a double standard, explains that The Vatican and some so called Western democracies flirt with Red China?