“In dialogue, the Holy See has its own respectful style of communicating with representatives of the Chinese government, but which never ignores and indeed always makes present the situations of suffering of Catholic communities, which sometimes arise from inappropriate pressures and interference.”
The Vatican announced that it had renewed its agreement with China for an additional two years on the same weekend that Chinese President Xi Jinping secured a third term as the leader of the Chinese Communist Party.
China’s National People’s Congress confirmed a constitutional change eliminating term limits granting Xi the possibility of lifelong rule in 2018, six months before the Holy See first signed its deal with Beijing.
Under Xi’s leadership, respect for human rights and religious freedom has deteriorated. Xi has come under mounting international condemnation for China’s brutal persecution of Uyghur Muslims in the northwest Chinese region of Xinjiang, and state officials in different regions of China have removed crosses and demolished church buildings.
Tagle, who was called to Rome in 2019 to head the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples, said that the open channel for dialogue with Chinese government authorities has been good in itself.
“Listening to the arguments and objections of the government also leads us to take into account the contexts and the ‘mindset’ of our interlocutors. We discover that things that are absolutely clear and almost obvious to us can be new and unknown to them,” he said.
Credit: Source link
