A few words with a Vatican-China expert
Cardinal Fernando Filoni talks about the China Church
Cardinal Fernando Filoni
- Alessandro Speciale, Vatican City
- Vatican City
- June 21, 2012
The prefect of the Vatican’s Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples, Cardinal Fernando Filoni, has given a rare, wide-ranging interview to the Italian Catholic monthly 30 Giorni (30 Days).
Filoni is now the Church’s point man on China, not only because of his role as head of the department for regional missions, but also for his experience in Hong Kong in the 1990s, where he worked to open the Vatican’s “study mission” there – the Church’s unofficial diplomatic bridge to mainland China.
The interview is a fascinating read. Cardinal Filoni has been all over the world, not lastly in Iraq in 2003, and has been recently presented by respected Vatican analyst John Allen as a possible papal candidate.
In the interview, Cardinal Filoni recalls his early years in Hong Kong, which coincided with the era of Deng Xiaoping’s economic reforms. It was then, as indeed it is now, a time when diplomacy was called for. “The Holy See didn’t want its international position to be identified with Taiwan’s, where the Vatican has an embassy,” he says, “so we opened a study mission in Hong Kong, which concerned itself with China as well as Macau.
“At that time, the Church in China was being reorganized. The Holy See wanted to know how the situation was evolving and to show solidarity with the Chinese Catholics who had shown a great desire to live their faith in communion with Rome.”
But Cardinal Filoni doesn’t only reminisce about the past. He also has something to say about the current state of China-Vatican relations.
Quizzed on the hot issue of illicit episcopal ordinations, the cardinal says that the Chinese government should abandon the idea that a bishop “is an official.” He goes on to explain that the qualities needed to be a good bishop – “spiritual fitness” and “psychological maturity” – are not the same as those needed to be a government official.
“Of course,” he adds, “we know that bishops are also citizens of their country, and thus must be loyal towards their country, rendering unto Caesar the things which are Caesar's, but not taking from God the things that are God's.”
Filoni is now the Church’s point man on China, not only because of his role as head of the department for regional missions, but also for his experience in Hong Kong in the 1990s, where he worked to open the Vatican’s “study mission” there – the Church’s unofficial diplomatic bridge to mainland China.
The interview is a fascinating read. Cardinal Filoni has been all over the world, not lastly in Iraq in 2003, and has been recently presented by respected Vatican analyst John Allen as a possible papal candidate.
In the interview, Cardinal Filoni recalls his early years in Hong Kong, which coincided with the era of Deng Xiaoping’s economic reforms. It was then, as indeed it is now, a time when diplomacy was called for. “The Holy See didn’t want its international position to be identified with Taiwan’s, where the Vatican has an embassy,” he says, “so we opened a study mission in Hong Kong, which concerned itself with China as well as Macau.
“At that time, the Church in China was being reorganized. The Holy See wanted to know how the situation was evolving and to show solidarity with the Chinese Catholics who had shown a great desire to live their faith in communion with Rome.”
But Cardinal Filoni doesn’t only reminisce about the past. He also has something to say about the current state of China-Vatican relations.
Quizzed on the hot issue of illicit episcopal ordinations, the cardinal says that the Chinese government should abandon the idea that a bishop “is an official.” He goes on to explain that the qualities needed to be a good bishop – “spiritual fitness” and “psychological maturity” – are not the same as those needed to be a government official.
“Of course,” he adds, “we know that bishops are also citizens of their country, and thus must be loyal towards their country, rendering unto Caesar the things which are Caesar's, but not taking from God the things that are God's.”
