Special Report: Why China Ordained an Illicit Bishop

I am not suggesting that Guo is an underground member of the Chinese Communist Party, although it would be surprising if the Chinese Ministry of State Security, like the former Soviet KGB, did not have some agents posing as priests.  More likely, he has merely proven a willing accomplice to CCP longstanding desire to create a schismatic church in China answerable not to Rome but to Beijing.  This, after all, was the reason the Patriotic Association was set up in 1957. 

P>FRONT ROYAL (PRI) - On November 20th, the Chinese Communist Party broke its tacit agreement with the Vatican not to attempt to ordain bishops without papal approval.  The outrage occurred in the county town of Pingquan in northern Hebei province, where Father Joseph Guo Jincai was installed as the "Bishop"-note the quotes-of the Diocese of Chengde.   

Attempting to give a semblance of legitimacy to the illicit proceedings, the government went to great lengths to assemble as many bishops as possible to conduct the ordination.  Days before the event, a number of North China bishops in communion with Pope Benedict XVI were placed under house arrest, then taken under guard to the Pingquan church.  Eight laid hands on Father Guo during the sham ordination, reported the Asian church news agency UCA News, though with what mental reservations we can only imagine.  Others, like Bishop John Liu Jinghe of Tangshan, refused to attend despite all the pressure, and was removed from his post by the government as a result.  

Hong Kong Cardinal Joseph Zen Ze-kiun, who attended the pope's creation of 24 new cardinals at the Vatican Nov. 20, said he was saddened that some bishops had been forced to participate in "Bishop" Guo's ordination.   I remember what he told me about the bishops who had carried out the last illicit ordinations.  "They were not there by choice, and most contacted the Holy See as soon as they could to apologize and ask forgiveness for their actions."

It was a strange ceremony in other respects as well.  A good many of those present were government officials and plainclothes police.  The laity in the congregation were subdued, which may have had something to do with the fact that the church was surrounded by about a hundred uniformed and plainclothes police, that cameras were banned in the church, and that mobile phones were electronically jammed.

I visited this area last year, and I have no doubt that the laity and the priests are strong in their faith and loyal to the Pope.  Still, it would be dangerous for them to in any way protest Beijing's heavy-handed actions.  One Pingchuan Catholic did offer a veiled protest to UCA News by saying "After all, Guo's reputation among the local faithful is not bad."  In Chinese, saying someone or something is "not bad" is tantamount to damning it with faint praise.  Note also his omission of the ersatz bishop's new title.  In a country where titles are extremely important, such lapses do not happen by chance.  It suggests some skepticism as to Guo's legitimacy.  

Why would Beijing proceed with actions that Jesuit Father Federico Lombardi, Vatican spokesman, had criticized in a statement released on November 18th "as grave violations of freedom of religion and freedom of conscience [and] as illicit and damaging to the constructive relations that have been developing in recent times between the People's Republic of China and the Holy See."

First, it is fairly clear that Beijing trusts Father Guo and has been grooming him for some time for higher office.  One reason why the government suddenly elevated him to a bishopric without a papal mandate became crystal clear two weeks later on December 8th, when he was unanimously elected the secretary general of the Bishops Conference of the Catholic Church in China (BCCCC).  Since this position is normally held by a bishop, Beijing decided to make him one, with or without Rome's approval

As secretary general, Guo will be based in Beijing and will run the day-to-day operations of the Bishops Conference.  Note that, unlike bishop's conferences elsewhere, the BCCCC is what is called in Chinese Communist parlance a front organization.  Like its sister organization, the Chinese Catholic Patriotic Association (CCPA), the Bishops Conference is for all intents and purposes run by the Chinese Communist Party.  This is why neither organization is recognized by the Vatican. 

Guo has a long history of collaboration with the party.  Previously, he served as vice secretary-general of the Chinese Catholic Patriotic Association.  Pope Benedict's letter to Chinese Catholics of 2007 indicates that holding the CCPA position was incompatible with Church doctrine. He was also appointed to the National People's Congress, China's rubber-stamp parliament, as a "Catholic representative." All in all, an impressively meteoric rise for a young man only ordained in 1992.

I am not suggesting that Guo is an underground member of the Chinese Communist Party, although it would be surprising if the Chinese Ministry of State Security, like the former Soviet KGB, did not have some agents posing as priests.  More likely, he has merely proven a willing accomplice to CCP longstanding desire to create a schismatic church in China answerable not to Rome but to Beijing.  This, after all, was the reason the Patriotic Association was set up in 1957. 

His election took place at the recently concluded Eighth National Congress of Catholic Representatives, which was as carefully choreographed as a Broadway musical.  Aside from the 45 bishops present, there were 268 carefully selected and vetted priests, nuns and laypersons.  The Party had done its work well.  There was only one candidate for each position, and the voting, which was by a show of hands, was nearly unanimous.

Those few who abstained from voting for the Party-approved candidates will undoubtedly have to account to their Party handlers for their actions.  But their problems are minor compared to those of Bishop Joseph Li Liangui of Cangzhou, who went missing rather than participate in this charade.  We must pray for him.    

The extraordinary control imposed on this year's meeting is of a piece with the larger crackdown on home churches that is underway in China.  People of all Christian faiths often meet in people's homes because of a shortage of churches, which the government is reluctant to give permission to build.  Such meetings will now be subject to a higher degree of scrutiny, with meetings scrutinized and participants arrested. 

This will have a chilling effect on evangelization, since many parishes send out missionaries to meet in peoples homes and share the Gospel.  If the Chinese Communist Party is not trying to drive Chinese Catholics back into the catacombs, it is trying to keep them corralled in the state churches, cutting them off from people who are hungry for the faith, hope and love that the practice of the authentic Catholic faith provides.

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Steven W. Mosher is the President of the Population Research Institute. He has lived in China and visits regularly. He is also an expert on matters concerning China, the Catholic Church in China, the regime and the Chinese people.
 

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