Pope Francis insisted Monday that the Vatican’s relations with China were going wel, but said work must still be done to indicate Beijing that the Catholic Church isn’t beholden to a foreign power.
Francis spoke in regards to the Holy See’s dealings with China during a press conference en route home from Mongolia, where Beijing and its crackdown on religious minorities overshadowed an otherwise historic first papal visit to the bulk Buddhist nation.
Francis sent a telegram of greetings to Chinese President Xi Jinping as his aircraft flew through China’s airspace coming and going to Mongolia. The pontiff also gave a special shout-out to the Chinese people at the top of his essential Mass in Ulaanbaatar. He brought as much as the altar the present and retired bishops of Hong Kong to display his “warm” affection for the Chinese people.
But relations remain strained, particularly over a 5-year-old agreement on nominating Catholic bishops. The 2018 accord aimed to unite China’s estimated 12 million Catholics, who’ve been divided between an official church and an underground church loyal to Rome. The latter emerged when the Communists got here to power and diplomatic relations between the Holy See and China ruptured.
On Monday in Beijing, Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning was asked in regards to the pope’s Sunday greeting to the Chinese people. “We have seen relevant reports, and my colleagues have introduced China’s position earlier. China has all the time taken a positive attitude towards improving relations with the Vatican and has maintained contact and communication with the Vatican.”
The terms of the 2018 deal were never released. But Beijing has made a handful of unilateral bishop appointments without papal consent, an apparent violation of the accord. The Vatican gave in and recognized the appointments after the actual fact.
Francis insisted that relations were “very respectful” and said he retained “great admiration for the Chinese people.”
“I feel there’s more work to be done on the religious aspect to grasp ourselves higher, so the Chinese residents don’t think that the church doesn’t accept their culture or values, or that the church relies on one other foreign power,” he said. “So the relations are like this, underway.”
Francis also was asked about Russia and a recent comment extolling Russia’s imperial past that sparked the ire of Ukraine’s Catholics. During Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Francis has tried to take care of a balancing act with Russia and Ukraine according to the Vatican’s tradition of diplomatic neutrality. He has expressed frequent solidarity with the “martyred” Ukrainian people but avoided calling out the Kremlin or Russian President Vladimir Putin for condemnation.
In his recent comments, Francis told a gathering of Russian Catholic youths in St. Petersburg via video conference that they have to remember their history and the inheritance of the “great Russia,” citing specifically imperial rulers Charles the Great and Catherine II.
Ukraine’s Catholic archbishop said such historical references recalled the worst of Russia’s bloody imperial past and encouraged Moscow’s current aggression in Ukraine.
Francis acknowledged his reference to the imperial leaders was “perhaps not joyful.” But he said he cited them because he learned about them at school and desired to make a degree that he makes ceaselessly: that young people should embrace their heritage and culture.
“This inheritance of ‘Great Russia,’ Russian culture is of a beauty and profoundness that’s great,” Francis said Monday.
Francis’ comments were also a mirrored image of his longstanding admiration for Russian culture. He ceaselessly cites Dostoevsky as one among his favorite authors. During the flight to Mongolia, he really helpful that journalists hearken to the nineteenth century Georgian-Russian composer Alexander Borodin and his “Steppes of Central Asia” to raised understand and appreciate the vastness of the region.
The 86-year-old Francis appeared to carry up well throughout the four-day visit to Ulaanbaatar, which required an overnight flight and a complete day of rest upon arrival. But he suggested such trips were taking a toll.
“To let you know the reality, for me doing a visit now, it’s not at easy because it was at first,” he said. “There are limitations to walking that limit it. We’ll see.”
Francis, who has used a wheelchair for over a yr due to strained knee ligaments, has yet one more trip confirmed this yr, an overnight visit to Marseille, France, at the top of the month. He said there could also be a visit to a different “small European country,” but was noncommittal about future travel.
He said that Vietnam, which recently agreed to a latest level of diplomatic relations with the Vatican, warranted a papal visit.
“If I don’t go, surely John XXIV will,” he said chuckling, referring to a future pope who may be named for the progressive, Vatican II-era pontiff, John XXIII.
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