China and Vietnam don’t have official diplomatic relations with the Holy See, but in December 2023, Pope Francis appointed the primary resident papal representative to Vietnam, Archbishop Marek Zalewski, paving the best way toward official recognition.
Relations between Beijing and the Vatican remain more complex, but Francis has long sought to construct a bridge with the nascent superpower and second most populous country on the planet. In 2018, the Vatican signed a provisional agreement for the appointment of bishops in China, which has led to mixed results and is up for renewal in October.
The deal hoped to fix the fracture between the officially recognized Catholic Church in China and the so-called “underground Church” that’s loyal to Rome. The two ecclesial realities have been at odds for a long time, and the brand new agreement hopes to finally unify them by appointing bishops who’ve the stamp of approval from each Beijing and the pope. But critics of the deal argue that the agreement has pushed the pope right into a corner where he can not call out human rights infringements by China.
Francis’ trip through Asia has been heavily scrutinized by Chinese authorities, in line with theologian and anthropologist Michel Chambon, research fellow on the National University of Singapore. In an interview with LaCroix International, Chambon said that the Chinese Communist Party allowed for the pope’s speeches and events to be streamed live to tell the tale social media.
Especially in Singapore, where 75% of the population is ethnically Chinese, Francis had the chance to project his kind of papacy, which is respectful of other religious realities and willing to “render out to Caesar what’s Caesar’s.”
On Thursday, Francis met with the civil and political authorities in Singapore, where he underlined the necessity for Singapore to be a mediator in the present context of war and conflict. While the pope made no specific reference to a specific conflict, the Vatican has sought to barter peace in Ukraine following the Russian invasion in 2022.
Pope Francis appointed a peace envoy, the Cardinal Matto Zuppi, to fulfill with political leaders in Ukraine, Russia, the U.S. and China to try and promote a peaceful resolution to the conflict.
Francis also addressed the particular challenges of Singapore following its rapid growth into an economic powerhouse. The population of 6.2 million is characterised by religious diversity, especially because of economic migrants: 31% of Singaporeans discover as Buddhist, 18.9% as Christian, 15.6% as Muslim, 8.8% as Taoist and 5% as Hindu. Around 20% of the population doesn’t subscribe to any religious belief.
“I would really like to focus on the chance entailed in focusing solely on pragmatism or placing merit above all things, namely the unintended consequence of justifying the exclusion of those on the margins from benefiting from progress,” he told political leaders on Thursday.
The pope also urged politicians to provide special attention to the poor and the elderly while also “protecting the dignity of migrant employees” who “contribute a terrific deal to society and needs to be guaranteed a good wage.”
On the last day of his visit on Friday, the pope met with local clergy for a personal meeting before visiting a centre for the sick and elderly. His final event in Singapore was the Interreligious Meeting with Young People on the Catholic Junior College. There, the pope engaged in vigorous conversation with young people and heard three testimonies — from Hindu, Sikh and Catholic young people engaged in interreligious dialogue — that addressed issues starting from religious tolerance to artificial intelligence.
“All religions are a journey resulting in God. They are, to make a comparison, like different languages, different idioms, to get there. But God is for everybody. And since God is God for everybody, we’re all children of God,” Francis said, speaking off the cuff.
On Friday afternoon, the pope departed to return to Rome following a two-week journey that led him the farthest he’s ever been from the Vatican. The trip has been arduous for the 87-year-old pontiff, who nonetheless shrugged off the struggles of moving from podium to pope-mobile to wheelchair. In his latest state of vulnerability, Francis made some extent of meeting with disabled people, and particularly children, at every stop of his trip.
“Each of us has his abilities and disabilities. Do all of us have abilities? Do all of us have some disability? Even the pope?” Francis said preachingly to Singaporean children, who answered with a loud “yes!” to his questions.
“Yes, all, all! And just as we’ve got our disabilities, we must respect the disabilities of others,” the pope added.
© Religion News Service
