Catholic World News News Feature

Only one Catholic Church in China, Vatican prelate says October 29, 2003

An influential Vatican official has insisted that there is only one Catholic Church in China, denying a distinction between the "underground" Church loyal to Rome and the Patriotic Catholic Association recognized by the Communist government.

"There is only one Church with two faces," said Cardinal Roger Etchegaray. "There is not one "patriotic" Church and one "underground" Church, one legal and the other protesting. Rather, he said, the different groups constitute "two faces of the same community, which seeks to be both faithful and at the same time patriotic."

Cardinal Etchegaray-- the former president of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace, who since his retirement from that post has frequently served as a special diplomatic envoy for the Pope-- made his remarks on the Chinese Catholic Church during an October 28 reception at the Jesuit Gregorian University in Rome, for the launching of a new book on relations between the Vatican and China.

Without alluding to the recent wave of arrests of Chinese Catholics associated with the underground Church, Cardinal Etchegaray acknowledged that there have been setbacks in relations between the Holy See and the Beijing regime. He expressed his hope that "harassment" and even "persecution" would come to and end.

At the same time, the cardinal acknowledged some false steps on the part of Vatican officials in their dealings with China. He was apparently referring to the canonization of 120 Chinese martyrs on October 1, 2000; the scheduling of those ceremonies on a date observed in China as a national holiday, marking the foundation of the Chinese People's Republic, was perceived in Beijing as a deliberate slap at the Communist regime. In response, the Chinese government scheduled the installation of five new bishops for the "Patriotic Catholic Association," without approval from the Holy See, for January 5, 2001-- the same day when Pope John Paul II consecrated several new bishops in the Vatican basilica.

Cardinal Etchegaray was in China this year, from September 22 to the beginning of October. The formal reason for his visit was to participate in ceremonies honoring Father Armand Davis, a 19th century missionary and scientist who was born in the same French-Basque village as Cardinal Etchegary. But during his stay in China the cardinal also visited government leaders in Beijing, and was an official guest of the government at the celebration of the October 1 national holiday.

Cardinal Etchegary is generally acknowledged among the Church officials most intimately involved in efforts to establish diplomatic relations between the Beijing regime and the Holy See.