Cardinal Zen Asks the Pope to Appoint “Good Shepherd” Bishop of Hong Kong

Cardinal Joseph Zen Ze-Kiun is openly against the Vatican’s “Provisional Agreement” with China. (Wiki Commons)

Cardinal Joseph Zen, former bishop of the Hong Kong diocese, returned to Hong Kong from the Vatican after failing to meet with the Pope on October 2. He traveled to the Vatican last week to remind Pope Francis that Hong Kong has not had an official bishop appointed since Bishop Michael Yeung died in January 2019. Zen was unable to meet with Pope Francis, but he left a letter in which he asked the Pope to leave Chinese political pressure out of the decision process. “People in Hong Kong deserve a good bishop,” he said.  

Zen’s plea comes during a time of persecution of the Catholic Church in China.  This June, Beijing approved a New Security Law, which gives guidelines on how to punish “subversion” and “terrorism” in Hong Kong. Many Catholics worry the guidelines will make it easier to persecute members of the Church. Several members of the underground Church have been arrested, and the Chinese government has been disappearing bishops for years. The atheist Chinese government also appointed its own Catholic bishops, who were all excommunicated from the Church by Pope Benedict XVI.  

In September 2018, the Holy See and Beijing approved the Provisional Agreement, which aimed to “normalize the life of the Church as much as possible,” said Cardinal Pietro Parolin, the Vatican’s Secretary of State. The terms of the Provisional Agreement have never been published, so bishops like Zen feel apprehensive about what compromises the Vatican has made with Beijing. The known part of the agreement includes Pope Francis agreeing to “readmit to full ecclesial communion” the excommunicated bishops, even though they were part of “objectively a schismatic Church,” Zen said. The Provisional Agreement also required priests and members of the Church to register with the government, which many bishops see as dangerous. The last known provision is that the rest of the agreement is a secret between Beijing and the Pope.  

After the agreement was approved, Cardinal Zen sent a letter to every Cardinal, stating his concerns about the danger in which the agreement could put the Chinese Catholic Church.  Zen received little response—and even some criticism. However, Monsignor Carlo Maria Viganò, a former archbishop from Italy,  sent a letter of support, writing, “the Vatican has done everything and more to deliver the Chinese Martyr Church into the hands of the enemy: it did so by signing the Secret Pact.”

In his open letter, Cardinal Zen criticized Cardinal Parolin for trying to accept a schismatic Church as legitimate.  “I have strong evidence to believe that Parolin is manipulating the Holy Father, who always shows so much affection to me when we meet, but never answers my questions,” he wrote.  

Cardinal John Tong Hon, the current interim bishop of Hong Kong, has taken a different approach to handling China’s treatment of the Church. Tong wrote in a letter to the diocese that priests should avoid making their homilies political in any way. Cardinal Tong and other diocesan officials also sent letters to Catholic schools and other Catholic institutions in Hong Kong asking that they accept the New Security Law. Cardinal Tong promoted the Vatican II teaching that Catholics should “take account of the common good of the Church, even when exercising their own rights.” Cardinal Zen agreed that his advice to the people of Hong Kong is, “don’t provoke the government, because it is dangerous now.”