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Catholic World News News Feature

Top Chinese official says Pope's letter "positive" July 24, 2007

The leading figure in China's Catholic Patriotic Association has praised the Pope Benedict's message to the Church in China, and said he hopes that the Pontiff will visit his country soon.

In an interview with the Italian daily La Repubblica, Liu Bainian, the vice-chairman of the Patriotic Association, said that the papal message released on June 30 was a "positive" development.

Liu went on to say: "With my whole heart, I hope that one day, I will see the Pope here in Beijing celebrating Mass for us Chinese. Italian Catholics do not know how we very much want to see him." He asked La Reppublica to convey the message that "we pray for him continuously and for a papal visit."

Recalling visits to Rome in 1991 and 1994, Liu recalled, "I remember that in one Roman church, there were 7 Catholics at Mass, in another 4 and in yet another, I was the only one. I wanted to cry...Italy is the birthplace of Catholicism, but in China, the churches are full." He boasted that the Catholic Church is growing rapidly in China. "In 1979, there were 1,100 priests in China, the majority of them old and sick," he said. "Today we have 1,800, whose average age is 30. The Cultural Revolution destroyed 3,600 churches, all of which we have rebuilt."

The response for Liu Bianian is particularly significant because he has been the leading figure promoting the authority of the PA inside China, and insisting that the Church there should maintain its independence from Rome. In his message to the Chinese Church, Pope Benedict stressed the critical importance of communion with the Holy See.

Addressing that question, Liu claimed that the Patriotic Association, which he has served for decades, had "never strayed from the course taken by the Apostolic See." He told the Italian newspaper that the PA will "always recognize the authority of the pope in matters of religion... The Apostolic See is the only representative of Jesus on earth and we as Catholics must be obedient to Her." Nevertheless he continued, following the line consistently set by the government-approved Patriotic Association: "However, we must demand our political and economic independence, without which we would be a colonial Church."

Reporters for Italy's ANSA news service approached Pope Benedict for a response to the Chinese official's statements, but the Pontiff declined to comment, reportedly telling the reporters, "It's rather complicated."