CHINA AND VATICAN - Compendium ‘will not set back China-Vatican relations’

Published Date: May 27, 2009

Church-in-China observers believe the compendium to Pope Benedict XVI’s 2007 letter to Chinese Catholics will not adversely affect China-Vatican ties. They feel that the new document actually clarifies the ambiguities in the letter.

Chinese Catholics praying at the Sheshan Marian
Shrine in Shanghai on May 23. The Vatican’s
compendium was released the following day

The compendium, with its 23 questions and corresponding answers, was released on the Holy See’s website (http://www.vatican.va) on May 24, the World Prayer Day for the Church in China, in both English and Chinese.

Anthony Lam Sui-ki, senior researcher at Hong Kong diocese’s Holy Spirit Study Centre, told UCA News that the compendium aims at clarifying doubts and misunderstandings about the papal letter, as well as emphasizing other points.

“The compendium reaffirms that mainland Catholics should maintain the same faith within the universal Church community. While moving toward reconciliation and communion, they should hold fast to the Church’s holy structure,” Lam said.

The compendium highlights the value and meaningfulness of suffering for the faith, as shown in Question Seven, and stated by the Pope in his letter. But it does not aim to pacify the “underground” or non-government approved Church community, he noted.

Before and after the papal letter was published in June 2007, some underground Catholics had expressed their disappointment that the Vatican had ignored their needs for the sake of improving relations with China.

Kwun Ping-hung, another Hong Kong-based China Church observer, told UCA News he believes the Vatican specially chose to release the compendium on May 24, the special day of prayer for the China Church as declared by the Pope in his letter.

Kwun highlighted “five questions (numbers seven, nine, 10, 11 and 12), three footnotes (numbers two, four and five) and one appendix (Appendix I)” as being most significant in the document. He said these items could help remove controversies about the papal letter. There have been different interpretations among the “open” and “underground” communities, as well as the Church outside mainland China, he said.

To achieving true communion within a diocese, the Vatican, in Question Nine and Footnote Two, said that “a spiritual reconciliation” can and must take place before “a structural merger” between open and underground Catholic communities in mainland, noted Kwun. Question Nine deals with tense relations and divisions between the clergy and their followers.

On the process of reconciliation, Question 11 and Footnote Five suggests that the fact that a government-recognized bishop was legitimized by the Vatican is not a condition for underground Catholics to join the open community, but “the maturation and conscience of individual Catholics must always be respected,” said Kwun, quoting from the footnote.

The non-Catholic researcher said Question 10 and Footnote Four reiterate Church principles and the Pope’s non-recognition of the Beijing-recognized Chinese Catholic Patriotic Association and Bishops’ Conference of the Catholic Church in China.

“This part would help mainland bishops consider seriously if they should attend the National Congress of Catholic Representatives, which would meet in the second half of this year to elect new leaders for the ’state agencies’,” he said.

Commenting on Question 12 that articulates the Pope’s view on mainland bishop appointments, Kwun said it reiterates Church’s principles.

Kwun noted the compendium did not stray from the framework of the papal letter. “Thus, the compendium would not adversely affect China-Vatican relations much,” he said, adding that the two states have developed “ongoing dialogues and interactions within the last two years” since the papal letter was released.

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