Rome looks with hope at 'Church of the shadows'

By Frances Gumley The Vatican is looking on with new hope as the Church in China emerges from the shadows.
But the growing spirit of religious tolerance has presented leading China-watchers in the Vatican with a dilemma: it is becoming increasingly obvious that the Vatican will have to come to terms wtih the "schismatic" patriotic Association of Chinese Catholics (PACC). It must also face the problem of Taiwan,
Ever since formal relations with the Vatican broke down more than forty years ago, the Church in China has been made up of the government inspired Patriotic Association of Catholics, whose leaders have been elected without reference to Rome, and the bishops and priests on the mainland who have been imprisoned for their refusal to recognise the supremacy of the PACC.
Cardinal Sergio Pignedoli, the head of the Vatican's Secretariat for non-Christians and one of the leading members of the Sacred Congregation for the Church in the East confirmed this week that he was personally monitoring developments in China with growing interest.
The bishops and priests of the PACC are all approved members or the Chinese communist party, who have chosen compromise with the regime in return for a limited degree of pastoral responsibility. The PACC has evolved outside the Church for the last thirty years and so has only heard of the great changes of Vatican II at second hand.
Catholics who have visited China recently have commented that its doctrine is still fully orthodox although the sermons delivered by its priests tend to have "an astonishingly high political content But now reports are filtering through to the west indicating that a new climate of religious freedom is dawning in China. Churches are being renovated and Christian delegates have been granted permits to attend an international religious confernece in America at the end of this month. Fr Michael Chu SJ is now visiting China reestablishing links with other Jesuits.
Vatican officials admit that the dream of a free Church in China is still remote but they insist that it is no longer impossible.
The unresolved status of the PACC may not be an insurmountable problem. Pope Paul VI let it be known that he would be willing to confirm most of the new bishops provided it could be proved that their consecrations were doctrinally valid.
One Vatican spokesman commented optimistically: "If these new bishops have managed to maintain an apostolic succession in China we would welcome them back to the fold with joy — subject, of course, to their recog nising the jurisdiction of the Holy See.
"In all realism we must recognise that it may be difficult for them to do this immediately if relations between the Vatican and Peking remain non-existent. But we ha
have faced
overcome situations in east Europe."
The Taiwan question poses a more intractable problem. The Vatican is fully aware that he island's many Catholics would feel betrayed if Rome recognised the Peking regime.
The Taiwanese bishops have already appealed to the international community to recognise their fears that their religious freedom will be curtailed when the island is taken over by the mainland. Any future compromise with Peking would have to take into account the Taiwanese Christians' terror of being forgotten by the west.
Nobody pretends that rapprochement between the Vatican and Peking will be easy but at least it is now a long term goal rather than a pious fantasy. Much will depend on whether pro-government and antigovernment Church leaders in China have the courage to seek reconciliation.