The Man who could be Pope, Part 3

In Part 2, I laid out that it was quite possible that the two African papabile is out of the running for the papacy. Does that increase the probability that Cardinal-bishop Tagle could be the Asian man who could wear the red shoes? From what has taken place in Tagle’s life, his meteoric promotions, and Pope Francis’ fondness of him, it is quite possible that Tagle’s fortunes might just align. The biggest question to overcome is, will the red shoes fit his billing?

The quickest answer is maybe to no, unless Tagle does something outside the box. There are currently 21 Asian cardinals who can sit in the conclave. Three of these cardinals could be in the running: William Goh from Singapore, Charles Maung Bo (Myanmar), and You Heung-Sik, the new prefect for the dicastery for the clergy from South Korea.

William Go and Charles Maung are critics of the pope’s China deal. That to me, automatically takes them out of the running because China is the motherlode, prize catch, if you will, if Catholicism can make a significant breakthrough with its billion population. South Korea’s Cardinal You has a great story to tell about his and his family’s conversion, but he’s too junior and still wet behind the ears. And so are Cardinal Sebastian Francis of Penang, Malaysia, and Cardinal Stephen Chow Sau-Yan SJ of Hong Kong getting their red hats last year.

According to Vatican estimates, there are more than 100 million Christians who worship underground. Many of these forbidden churches trace their roots from early Jesuit conversion efforts, thus, they recognize the Catholic Pope. China has a repressive rule when it comes to worship. China’s constitution recognizes “freedom of religious beliefs” but under very strict terms. As a matter of fact, only five religious faith groups are sanctioned by Communist China. One of them, the Catholic Patriotic Association (CPA) as the Vatican’s legitimate partner per se, but their followers do not recognize the pope’s authority.

China is an unfinished business for the Society of Jesus, or the Jesuits, who first attempted to reach China in the 16th century during the Ming Dynasty – three centuries after Marco Polo. Their missionary efforts and work that century and the century following, enriched both cultures – China and the West – and allowed the transmission of knowledge, science, and cultures to flourish. They saw China as equally sophisticated as Europe and saw the value of collaboration both in theory and practice.

The early Jesuits, however, viewed Buddhism and Taoism as simply “corrupted ideals of Christianity” proliferated by false priests (Buddhist monks). This is rich given that Taoism was a much-established religion long before the coming of Jesus Christ, and Buddhism (from India) was centuries older than Christianity. These perceptions are probably influenced by Marco Polo’s observations and beliefs during his travel along the Silk Road.

How the Jesuits successfully penetrated Chinese society is a great story in itself, but that is not the point. The point is that Jesuits view of Chinese religion has evolved from accommodation (that Chinese public rites and ancestor worship were civil and not religious in nature) to their current missionary thrust of resistance. China is trying to avert Vatican influence over Chinese Catholics by state decrees and eradicate the underground Catholic churches.

The Holy Father is well aware of the Jesuits’ history of conversion in China and their success stories. He is trying to pick up from where the Jesuit prelates left off when they were kicked out from China in the 18th century a year after the Jesuits order was dissolved in Europe courtesy of a conservative Pope Clement XI.

Pope Clement did not like the Jesuits’ collaboration with the Chinese because he viewed the Chinese honoring their ancestors as heresy and idolatrous. The pope sent Franciscan and Dominican missionaries to China to do his bidding and without fail, they snitched to the pope that the Jesuits were involved in superstitious indulgences (adopting Chinese words that referred to a higher existence and participating in their rituals) in what would become the Chinese Rites Controversy.

Pope Clement XI issued an edict prohibiting Chinese converts from keeping ancestral shrines or observing Confusion holidays. The tit for tat began. The Chinese Emperor who was sympathetic to the Jesuits changed his tune and labeled the European missionaries as troublemakers. The next emperor went further and started prosecuting the Franciscan and Dominican proselytizers including the Jesuits.

Pope Benedict XIV declared the controversy over and practically shut down any further efforts to debate the matter and signaled drawdown of Catholic missions in China. Pope-emeritus Benedict XI in his capacity as Prefect (head) of the Dicastery of Faith, Cardinal Ratzinger issued the “Declaration Dominus Iesus, On the Unicity and Salvific Universality of Jesus Christ and the Church” practically reinforcing the notion of the religious supremacy of Catholicism.

In Dominus Iesus (The Lord Jesus), Ratzinger prefaced the Declaration as a necessity “to correct the problems it believes from relativism that regards all religious positions as equally valuable and legitimate.” In truth, Dominus Iesus was issued as a dogmatic approach aimed at Asian bishops who were struggling with issues of pluralism and fidelity in largely non-Christian contexts – like what the Jesuits faced many centuries before them. Ratzinger’s declaration was triumphalist while denigrating other religions.

Cardinal Ratzinger’s work practically ushered Pope Benedict XVI’s conservatism and a kick in the face to Vatican II’s trust of interreligious dialogue, that Pope Francis now pursues through Synodality. Without interreligious dialogue, there is no basis for theological discourse. Religious diversity is a fact of life and to label it as “relativism” misses an opportunity to bring people together in a universal Church. When Jesus told His disciples to “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations,” he didn’t just mean Catholics.

Except for the Philippines and East Timor, Christianity is a minority religion in Asia. Many of the Asian countries are products of turmoil, dynasties, wars and famine that helped shape their cultures. It is truly a big challenge for missionaries to capture such diversity in traditions and cultures while trying to export a European idea of religion. The three-dimensional theme of the Synod of Bishops on Synodality that Pope Francis convened are communion, participation, and mission.

When one looks at religious history of China, the Jesuits understood it fully well that the Western concept of a Higher Being as a Christian requires nuance. When the Communist Party took over China in the aftermath of Mao’s Cultural Revolution, Chinese Catholics have become the canary in the coal mine of how well their Catholic faith has rooted. Especially under Xi Jinping’s cruel persecution of Christians in the country, one cannot underestimate the value of Pope Francis’ entente and entreaties with the Chinese authoritarian.

The historic agreement signed between the Chinese government and the Holy in 2018 concerning the appointment of bishops where China appoints, and the Vatican approves. This agreement was not welcomed by Chinese prelates as “selling out” to the Communist Party. (To be continued)