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Melting Molt's avatar

When the texts don't do the work you send the "spirit" to do it!

Vatican 2, the S on S, and now the CCP has just borrowed from the books written by some in our church.

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Bisbee's avatar

Rome should have thought about illicitly

and validity of acts of bishops without papal mandate before signing the agreement. They could not have been so stupid to believe the CCP would be doing this.

Yet because the agreement is SECRET who knows what Rome approved.

Such is the Church of synodalism, transparency and truth. The Vatican is more like an espionage agency.

But then motu proprio rules the day in this papacy.

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Matthew K Michels, OblSB's avatar

The Holy See has only themselves to blame.

And it is at the expense of the People of God in the land of China.

Who could've imagined that an anti-Catholic government, proven to be a bad actor, and with no evidence to support their credibility to honor an agreement... would end up acting in bad faith and abusing the whole arrangement?

This deal was signed off in 2018, when it was already very clear China cannot be trusted to not abuse anything it can to control internal and domestic matters. This was not some "hope-filled" booming China of the 1990s.

If there's one thing the current ponitifcate ought to be remembered for, it should be absolutely horrid management - policy, personnel, priorities, etc.

But I'm glad the Holy See is hard at work mandating what TLM Mass times cnan and cannot be published in parish bulletins.

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Marc M's avatar

If I were leading a holier life, maybe more graces would be going around, and things in the Church and China would be going better. Sorry guys. Will begin again.

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Michael's avatar

Somewhere Esther Ballestrino de Careaga is smiling and laughing.

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Kenneth Jones's avatar

There should be no confusion about this. The CCP is evil. It will never permit sharing what it sees as the allegiance of the people with any other entity. It will sign any document to the contrary, but make no mistake, the CCP is god in China. Note Father Ma's appointment in 2012 as auxiliary bishop of Shanghai. At his installation, he publicly resigned his membership in the CCP and was placed in custody, then exiled to the seminary in Sheshan where he remains. There is an underground church in China which remains faithful. Over time, the members will pass on, and the CPCA will be the only, albeit illegitimate, church in China. God help us.

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Sue Korlan's avatar

Our Lady of Fatima told us to pray the rosary every day for world peace and the conversion of Russia, and to make the First Saturday devotions in reparation for sins. Might I suggest that we all do so. The world really needs it.

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KP's avatar

Frankly I think the Holy See should just go ahead and ‘accidentally’ leak the signed agreement. There apparently seems to be no benefit to keeping the exact text a diplomatic secret and it’s basically the last card the HS has. It seems like a mistake borne out of a certain optimism that China was taking its place as a rightful and responsible world power in a multi power world, checking the excesses of the US and Europe. That time has long passed and that kind of China is impossible under Xi’s rule. It would probably be seen as embarrassing for the CCP and Xi in particular who is NOT amenable to any hint or perception of being beholden to anyone else in his control over national sovereignty and life in China, however minor or subtle. If Paul Gallagher wants an idea of how China treats its ‘friends’, especially ones that dare to assert their sovereign rights without bowing and scraping to Chinese interests, look at how Australia has been treated in the last 5 years.

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