Vatican Office in Venezuela Attacked

Thursday, January 22, 2009

On Jan. 21, attackers hurled tear gas canisters at the Vatican's diplomatic mission in Caracas. It was on of several attacks made against critics of the Venezuelan government and President Hugo Chavez. The Catholic Church in Venezuela opposes changes to the constitution that would eliminate term limits, allowing Chavez to run for a third six-year term of office in 2012. A similar proposal was defeated in 2007, but Chavez called for another referendum last November.

On a related note, El Cardenal, the Spanish version of The Secret Cardinal, is well into its 17th month atop the best seller list in Venezuela, according to the Associated Press. The novel's premise of a church-state conflict mirrors in many ways the situation in Venezuela, which may explain its appeal to readers in the predominantly Roman Catholic country. 

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posted by Tom Grace at 8:37 PM 0 Comments

Zen Asks Mainland Bishops for Courage and Loyalty

Tuesday, January 20, 2009

Drawing inspiration from the martyrdom of St. Stephen, Hong Kong's Cardinal Joseph Zen called on mainland bishops in China's patriotic church to show courage in refusing to compromise with the Communist Regime. Zen's remarks, made in a Jan. 4th article in Kung Kao Po, build on statements made in both Pope Benedict XVI's 2007 Open letter to the Church in China and a 2008 letter from Cardinal Bertone to all mainland bishops that the time for a public show of unity with Rome has come. Most of the bishops in China's state-run church have privately sought and received Rome's blessing, but only one is known to have publicly expressed his loyalty to Rome. China's few remaining Roman Catholic bishops are either in prison, under house arrest or in hiding.

The timing of Zen's remarks coincides with the quinquinnial National Congress of Catholic Representatives, which will be called sometime in 2009. Bishops attending the congress elect chairpersons to run the Chinese Catholic Patriotic Association (CCPA) and the Bishops Conference of the Catholic Church in China (BCCCC). Rome does not recognize either organization and views both as detrimental to the Church in China. Zen has specifically called for the mainland bishops to boycott the congress, demonstrating the irrelevance of the CCPA and BCCCC. 

Should the state-run apparatus running the Catholic Church in China fail, then the patriotic organizations controlling the other four legal religions might also falter and Beijing would lose control of the practice of religious faith in China. 2009 could be a very interesting year for religion in China.

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posted by Tom Grace at 5:34 PM 0 Comments