Zen released on bail as Holy See watches 'with concern'
News: Cardinal Joseph Zen
Cardinal Joseph Zen has been released from police custody, Hong Kong journalists report, after his Wednesday evening arrest over charges related to a non-profit group of which Zen is a trustee. The cardinal is charged with colluding with foreign powers.
Zen’s arrest came Wednesday evening. The cardinal could face life in prison if convicted of colluding with a foreign government in his pro-democracy advocacy.
The charges are connected to the 612 Humanitarian Relief Fund, a now dormant charity that helped political arrestees in Hong Kong defray their legal expenses. Zen was a trustee of the charity, and was arrested alongside other Hong Kongers involved in the charity’s work.
Hong Kong journalists reported that Zen was released Wednesday after making bail; the cardinal had been held at the Chai Wan Police Station, according to Hong Kong media reports.
Zen’s passport was retained by Hong Kong police.
Shortly after Zen was arrested, the Holy See issued a statement saying that it was watching developments in Zen’s case “with concern.”
“The Holy See has learned with concern of the news of the arrest of Cardinal Zen and is following the developments of the situation with extreme attention,” the Vatican’s press spokesman Matteo Bruni said in a statement to journalists on Wednesday afternoon.
Catholics in Hong Kong had voiced concern about the possible arrest of Zen in recent months, since the cardinal was targeted by pro-government media earlier this year.
In January, Hong Kong paper Ta Kung Pao published four separate articles attacking Zen, who is a totemic figure for persecuted Chinese Catholics and pro-democracy advocates. Ta Kung Pao is owned by the Chinese Communist Party’s Liaison Office — the mainland government’s department charged with overseeing the Hong Kong government.
The government newspaper pointedly associated Zen with Jimmy Lai, the jailed Catholic newspaper publisher, and accused Zen of using his status as a clergyman to “disrupt” life in Hong Kong while lamenting that “it is difficult for the government to regulate or eliminate these religious groups or individuals, despite the fact that they have committed many crimes.”
Editorials in CCP-controlled newspapers are often used to signal forthcoming government action.
Zen’s arrest comes just three days after John Lee Ka-chiu, a Catholic, was declared the winner of a ballot to select the new head of the Hong Kong Government. Lee was the only candidate for chief executive considered by the special administrative region’s Election Commission, following electoral reforms imposed by Beijing requiring that all candidates for public office be “patriots.” Lee will assume office later this summer, succeeding Carrie Lam, another Catholic.
Thousands of riot police were deployed over the weekend to ensure there were no public demonstrations against Lee’s election. The new chief executive previously served as security minister for Hong Kong, and was responsible for attempting to pass a controversial extradition law in 2019 which would have allowed political prisoners to be extradited to the mainland — that bill triggered nearly a year of protests which brought Hong Kong to a standstill and led to the mainland government imposing a new National Security Law in 2020, criminalizing many forms of free speech and political dissent.
The arrest of the nonagenarian cardinal comes just months before the Vatican is set to renew its controversial agreement with the Chinese government on the status of the Church in China. It follows an steady stream of Chinese mainland arrests, detentions, and even disappearances of Catholic clergy, including bishops, who have refused to join the state-sponsored Chinese Patriotic Association, which requires acknowledging Communist Party authority over the Church.
Ed. note: An earlier version of this report said that Zen was arrested at Hong Kong’s airport, which was not the case. The error has been corrected.
Here's how I see it. (My qualifications: International Relations PhD specalising in Vatican Diplomacy)
I've been following this for years as well as the ebbs and flows of Holy See diplomatic approaches.
First: the Holy See MUST maintain is neutrality. It cannot be seen to be interfering or 'taking sides' in a conflict or it voids the Lateran Treaty. Even in situations like this (or Ukraine) where it's own flock are being hammered, the Lateran Treaty, already a somewhat precarious arrangement in International Law will be subject to sanction if it doesn't up hold those terms. That would be bad.
Second: One of the key tenets of the Holy See's diplomacy is don't make the situation worse for actual people living in that State territory for the sake of it. What's going on in China is not good. BUT it hasn't escalated to the scale of the Uigher genocide. That's what Pope Francis and the Holy See are trying to avoid. If they go 'on the attack' or even provide a mild 'veiled critique' of the internal matters of China, the CCP will not hesitate to tear up that agreement and round up every Catholic (or suspected Catholic) and subject them to what the Uighers (and Tibetans) have suffered by the end of the week. They will make the Catholic Church in China disappear. That would also be bad.
Third: Stop comparing Pope John Paul II to Francis. They are different men and operating in very different geopolitical worlds. The defeat of Communism in Europe was a beautiful operation of the Holy Spirit that brought the right Pope from the right people at the right time. Poland was 90% Catholic, with a rich and extensive network of resistance and a long history of doing so. They all hated the Soviet imposed communism and it was ready to blow. Communism itself was bankrupt ideologically and economically. It's thanks to Pope John Paul II that the resistance was relatively bloodless.
China's Catholic population is, at generous estimates, about 1% of the population, have always been a minority who have been hounded and pursued with the added 'bonus' of effectively being treated as 'foreign infiltrators' because of Christianity's colonial association. Even if our next Pope is Chinese, it would make very little difference and would only embolden Beijing to throw it's weight around further because it sees itself as the true governor of all Chinese people around the globe, even those who are 5th generation Australian with Chinese ancestry.
Pope Francis is in an impossible bind. China is not so stupid as to have ignored the 'lessons' from Poland. It fears religiously couched defenses of freedom and even basic preaching like God is real more than if fears political speech. Pope Francis could go full prophetic and that would be absolutely interpreted as 'interference' from Beijing which they hypocritically do not tolerate. Look at Australia's trade difficulties over the last 5 years for a SMALL taste of the pain to come should the Holy See be accused of 'interfering'. Pope Francis' personal charisma is of no use in China, they view all religious leaders with so much contempt and have begrudgingly dealt with the Holy See because it shuts them up for a while. Pope John Paul II couldn't make much headway with China in the 1980s when the Communist Party was opening up and friendlier than ever to the cultural and economic riches of the West.
I pray every day for Jimmy Lai and Cardinal Zen, and all the suffering Catholics (and others) in China. I pray that their blood cries out for justice and screams loudest at people like Hong Kong's new chief minister, and party apparatchiks.
Mmm, Cardinal Zen could not get an audience with the bishop of Rome, but now the Vatican is soooo concerned about this godly man's welfare. Brood of vipers!
Martyrs shed blood in China for Christ (Who did not abandon them) as opposed to the current regime in the Vatican (who have thrown faithful Catholics to the the "running dogs" of Beijing).
Makes me proud to be a Catholic