The Man who could be Pope, Part 4

In Part 3, we took a deep dive into the Jesuits’ history of conversion in Asia, with China in particular, because of its significant import to the ongoing papal effort of accommodation and moving away from the previous confrontational approach with the Communist nation. Any cardinal entertaining a papal ambition needs to follow the Silk Road and go through the Jesuits’ crown jewel accomplishment exporting European Catholicism in Asia.

That is the best way to contextualize the 2018 agreement between China and the Holy See. Besides being the pope, Francis is a master politician who has his ear to the ground. Some Chinese Catholic bishops took the papal outreach as “selling out” to the Communist regime of Xi Jinping. Perhaps, but they don’t understand the pope.

In chess, a player can sacrifice the queen in exchange for a checkmate, here Pope Francis was willing to ignore a retired Chinese cardinal’s plight who was arrested for his role in the 2019 pro-democracy protest in Hong Kong, in exchange for a “legal way” to address the issues of Chinese Catholics. Zen’s arrest “coincidentally” dovetailed at a critical junction where the agreement between China and the Holy See was up for renewal. Pope Francis was silent on Cardinal Zen’s arrest (perhaps not to antagonize President Xi), and so was Cardinal Tagle, the Prefect of the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples.

The case of Cardinal Zen carries a lot of significance because he and the other Chinese clergy are trying to establish their own identity as Catholics, and not just be canaries in a coal mine. Millions of underground Chinese Catholics recognize the papal authority in matters of faith, but their journey is a perilous one. Whereas, the duly authorized Catholic association promoted by the Chinese government, does not recognize the papal authority and could just be part of Communist propaganda.

Chinese Catholics are much like Filipino Catholics who still cling to the devotions as part of their inherited tradition. European Catholics sneer at them for practicing such pagan traditions. In Pope Francis’ concept of a new way of soaking up the joy of the Gospel. This is the challenge that Cardinal Tagle is facing in his capacity as the pope’s topman in the evangelization of Asia. It could make or break his chances for the papacy.

Tagle is saying the right things but may not necessarily be doing enough about the things he talks about other than listening and making use of the pulpit. At some point, he needs to show some boldness, maybe a break from his mold. For example, Philippine bishops heard him when he encouraged them of “spiritual listening to God, to neighbors, and to the sign of the times.” Yet, in practice they continue to miss the sign of the times, while cozying up to the elites and the wealthy at the expense of poor Filipino Catholics who constitute the majority in the country.

People are forgetting the long history of how Catholicism beached the Asian shores. For East Timor and the Philippines, they both enjoy a big majority share of Catholics in their respective countries. They also share a similar history of being colonized by foreign powers. Remember that the colonizers came and rendered judgments that the locals were pagans, and they denigrated their religions, their cultures because theirs, as they assert in triumphalist manner, is the center of the universe.

To back their judgments, they brought the force of empire or brute colonial power, employed religious crusades and inquisitions, or rendered threats of excommunication. As history shows, their coming had lethal consequences where people in great numbers, cultures, and tradition disappeared. Ideas were suppressed, and for those who tried to resist, they died by the worst imaginable way – all in the name of what they called the truth.

The trial of Cardinal Zen reminds us of and should remind Cardinal Tagle of these truths that are incompatible with our understanding of who God is. Cardinal Zen and others wanted to journey together with the peoples of Asia, and they were making headways as Asia found itself with high rates of conversion to Catholicism.

Being products of wars and conflicts, however, many of these countries like what they are hearing from the pope, to “creatively develop ‘different ways’ to proclaim the joy of the Gospel, to form new generations of missionary disciples, and to labor for the extension of Christ’s kingdom of universal holiness, justice, and peace.” They view this as Vatican II’s thrust of moving forward. The theological ecclesiology needs to be in harmony with the vision of that council (i.e., Latin Mass, role of the laity).

The Asian People of God are saying, “God has reached us and told us not to return to Herod,” but that is exactly what the agreement with Communist China is telling us to do.” Why not go “a different way,” as Matthew put it in the Scriptures, with God warning the magi in a dream. Clearly, there is a need to “creatively develop different ways to proclaim the joy of the Gospel” because Vatican II in essence, ended the Constantinian era.

With Pope John Paul II’s imprimatur on the document on religious freedom (Dignitatis Humanae), forced conversion and coercion should now belong in the past. Ecumenism (communio et missio) has been a key element of Vatican II for a living church that Pope Francis keeps reminding bishops towards a universal church, to follow Jesus’ dictum to “go out there and make disciples of nations.”

In his lead role in the evangelization of peoples, Cardinal Tagle should start holding many feet to the fire, particularly in the Philippines. He needs to proclaim that the Catholic Church idiom “Church of the Poor,” does not literally mean embracing poverty to fill the pews. Rather, embracing Christ’s poverty means to be an instrument of God for the liberation and promotion of the poor. Stated differently, the growing number of billionaires in the Philippines (or other Asian countries) must be held accountable for their financial (greed) and ecological sins that’s driving many people to leave their families for overseas employment or be victims of human trafficking.

Will Cardinal-bishop Tagle embrace liberation theology and pull the trigger on recalcitrant bishops? Will he ask himself, “what would Pope Chito say or do regarding the fate of poor Filipinos and Chinese Catholics, both of his ancestry? Will he speak truth to power? Will he walk his talk:

“It is sad that those who worship idols sacrifice other people while preserving themselves and their interests. How many factory workers are being denied the right wages for the god of profit? How many women are being sacrificed to the god of domination? How many children are being sacrificed to the god of lust? How many trees, rivers, hills are being sacrificed to the god of ‘progress’? How many poor people are being sacrificed to the god of greed? How many defenseless people are being sacrificed to the god of national security?” (To be continued)