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China’s Arrest of Heroic Cardinal Shows Vatican Must Stand Up to Beijing

Posted on Saturday, May 21, 2022
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by Ben Solis
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38 Comments
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AMAC Exclusive – By Ben Solis

China

On May 11, Chinese authorities arrested 90-year-old Cardinal Joseph Zen, the Roman Catholic Bishop of Hong Kong from 2002-2009 and an outspoken critic of the Chinese Communist Party’s oppression of Christians. In targeting Cardinal Zen, the CCP is continuing a long historical pattern of socialist regimes persecuting religious leaders in order to expand political and social control over a population.

In the charges brought against Zen, the CCP accuses him of breaking China’s national security law for associating with the 612 Humanitarian Relief Fund, an organization which provided bail funds to protestors arrested during the pro-democracy demonstrations in Hong Kong in 2019.

Though the organization is now defunct, Zen could face life in prison if convicted. Cantopop singer and actor Denise Ho, ex-legislator Margaret Ng, and academic Dr Hui Po Keung were also arrested and stand accused of similar charges. Many Catholics in Hong Kong affectionately refer to Zen as “Grandpa Cardinal,” and his arrest is sure to worsen an already tense situation between Beijing and the Vatican, as well as the international community.

Born into a Catholic Shanghai family in 1932, Cardinal Zen left for Hong Kong, then a British colony, in 1948, a year before the communists took over of the mainland. In 1989, Zen and others in Hong Kong watched the student-led pro-democracy protests unfold in China before a brutal military crackdown in Beijing’s Tiananmen Square left many dead.

That started Zen on a pattern of activism and speaking out against the Chinese government. Zen has repeatedly urged the Vatican to take a tougher stance toward the CCP, and has raised concerns about the Church’s willingness to compromise its independence in order to appease authoritarian leaders – a criticism that echoes that of other church leaders in the 20th century, namely in Eastern Bloc countries under Soviet rule.

Indeed, Zen’s arrest bears eerie similarity to the targeting of religious figures by Moscow following World War II as Stalin and his successors tried to stamp out the light of Christianity on the continent.

In 1953, for example, the Polish Communist regime, a puppet of Moscow, arrested Cardinal Stefan Wyszyński, the Primate of Poland. As a Church canon law professor, a warrior who fought both the Nazis and the Red Army, and someone who risked his life to save Jews from the Holocaust, Wyszyński was a symbol of invincible and sagacious resistance.

When the Soviets took over following World War II, Moscow issued a decree that allowed it to appoint and dismiss officials in the Catholic Church administration, including parish priests. A Conference of Bishops led by Cardinal Wyszyński protested the decree, saying that “we must not lay God’s matters on Caesar’s altar.” For his transgressions, Wyszyński was imprisoned for three years and watched closely by the communist regime.

In Hungary, Moscow imposed a similarly brutal crackdown on the Catholic Church, nearly destroying it entirely. Soviet authorities secularized Catholic schools, censored the free press, and killed or arrested many priests.

In the face of this oppression, Cardinal József Mindszenty dared to defy the Soviets, urging resistance to the puppet government in Budapest. Like Wyszyński, Mindszenty was uncompromisingly anti-communist, with no illusions about the ulterior motives, designs, and nature of the Marxist adversaries. Especially when dealing with determined communists, a hesitant, irresolute attitude could prove disastrous, he wrote in his memoirs.

In 1948, Mindszenty was arrested, and after being tortured, pled guilty to treason and conspiracy. He was imprisoned for eight years before finally being freed and granted asylum at the U.S. Embassy in Budapest.

But while the persecutions of Wyszyński and Mindszenty were met with thundering condemnation by Pope Pius XII, Zen’s arrest has come with hardly a peep from Pope Francis. While the Vatican has said it is “concerned” about the arrest, it has neither said or done anything of real significance for fear of upsetting the Communist Party of China.

As Zen himself has said, compromise with evil will not save the Church in China, but only doom it to a more prolonged suffering and destruction. It has and always will be the faith of religious peoples which allow light to triumph over darkness. Today’s Catholic leaders would do well to remember this truth and forcefully condemn China’s crackdown on religion, lest the Chinese communists succeed in accomplishing what the Soviet Union unsuccessfully sought to do many decades ago.

Ben Solis is the pen name of an international affairs journalist, historian and researcher.

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Blondie
Blondie
2 years ago

And we are headed that way, if we don’t get the perverted leaders out of DC, our schools, and TV programs that are targeting our kids. Wake up people, they want your kids, and the Dem-Soc voters are handing them over.

Frank Bort
Frank Bort
2 years ago

I have always been inspired by the great American patriot Patrick Henry who said “give me Liberty or give me Death” Our current pope,Pope Francis, needs to learn from Joshua in the Old Testament “Be Strong and Courageous “. Yes be not afraid !!! as Pope John Paul 11 said.

Mary
Mary
2 years ago

Prayers will be put before the Lord for Cardinal Zen and the persecuted church. Also praying for the Pope to hear Gods word, and not the worlds ????????

Jeanette
Jeanette
2 years ago

The Pope and Joe Biden need to address this. Just saying….

doped
doped
2 years ago

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Dan W.
Dan W.
2 years ago

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Rob
Rob
2 years ago

You have a good point. Christian including Catholic leaders should condemn loudly this arrest. Otherwise, the persecution will escalate into Hong Kong church.

Lea
Lea
2 years ago

I read Cardinal Wyszynski prison memoirs – highly recommended, and relevant especially today. Communists had no mercy on him regularly making difficult for him to say a mass. He was responsible for education of pastoral future pope, John Paul II.

They both together with two other cardinals came out with idea of reconciliation of Polish people with Germans. Wyszynski and Polish Bishop Conference authored a message “We forgive you and we ask you for forgiveness” to Germans.

Communists were offended and terrified because their control of Poles depended on the high level of fear of Germany that needed Moscow to be defended against re-invading of Polish territory. It was an absurd but the very effective one that kept a great part of population, especially leaving in the West, in an uncertainty.

Greg
Greg
2 years ago

I revere Cardinal Mindszenty for his courage to stand against the lie. His thoughts on Communism would help many politicians to characterise this White House decisions. We need more inspiration to withstand difficult times, faithful to our convictions. I wish AMAC would have more such articles. I wish, Fox would report more in this spirit rather than highly polarising or even antagonising manner.

Maria
Maria
2 years ago

Indeed, Wysynski, Mindszenty and Zen are true hereos. Ronald Reagan talked about Cardinal Mindszenty when he was Governor or even President, if memory serves. All of them had a big vision, something which our fellow Conservatives need to learn. We are facing the same tyrannies that attacked them.

Hal
Hal
2 years ago

And the DemoRot Party espouses Chinese Commie stands on personal issues!!! China is big enough from a population standpoint that their Commie gov’t probably deliberately shaves out a bog number of its citizens to keep the rest of the population from rebelling. That’s a key tactic for Communism … if the economy is causing unrest, just eliminate a portion of the population to take pressure off of shortages.

Johnson
Johnson
2 years ago

Christians around the world should protest this arrest more loudly. Where are the Church leaders statements on this in newspapers? Why Fox does not talk about it more? Don’t you think Chicoms would not intimidate HK Christians here? A Chinese opened fire in US-Taiwanese church this month.

Walt
Walt
2 years ago

Why?? They didn’t stand up to Hitler and the third Reich…….

Jeanne
Jeanne
2 years ago

How low can they go? This is for sure the result of sick, psychopathic leadership and evil, hateful, demented beliefs. The world must stand up for sanity. After all, the man is 90. How rotten can they get?

Stephen Russell
Stephen Russell
2 years ago

But will Vatican stand up??
How.

B4&After
B4&After
2 years ago

Speaking of the end times. God tells us.

For then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be. Matthew 24:21

We have been warned. It will get worse.

Mandy
Mandy
2 years ago

This is why Pope Benedict XVI “retired” and Pope Francis, who was from Socialist Argentina was put in place, is my belief.

George
George
2 years ago

Pope Francis first has to support Archbishop Codileone who has denied Nancy Pelosi communion because of her promotion of abortion. If he can face down the Queen of the Congress, he should be able to withstand the President of the Chinese Communist Party.

Walt
Walt
2 years ago

The Catholic Church appeased Hitler and lent the third Reich their cooperation before and during the Second World War……..this pope reflects the leftist agenda……no surprised to any thinking Catholic

richard
richard
2 years ago

It is one more characteristics of China under Xi. In the past, they would not persecute so openly. It is clear that Xi wants the world to see it.

And is waiting for its the reaction?

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