{"id":7383,"date":"2014-11-28T17:24:41","date_gmt":"2014-11-28T17:24:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/acnmalta.org\/?p=7383"},"modified":"2014-11-28T17:24:41","modified_gmt":"2014-11-28T17:24:41","slug":"china","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/2014\/11\/28\/china\/","title":{"rendered":"Chinese government has intensified the persecution recently"},"content":{"rendered":"<style type=\"text\/css\"><\/style><p>By Marta Petrosillo, Aid to the Church in Need<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Rom, 24.November &#8211; \u00abWe shouldn\u2019t get our hopes up. I don\u2019t see any sign of an immediate improvement in China-Holy See relations\u00bb, cardinal Joseph Zen Ze-kiun, former bishop of Hong Kong, told Aid to the Church in Need after speaking at the Asia News Symposium held on November 18<sup>th<\/sup> at the Pontifical Urbaniana University in Rome.<\/p>\n<p>The eighty-two-year old bishop believes that, \u00ab as every relationship, it depends on both ends\u00bb and it\u2019s not possible to expect any improvement until the Chinese government makes a real change of its policy. \u00abThe Holy Father is conscious of the situation \u2013 stressed the Cardinal \u2013 he is patient and ready to work hard to improve the relationship and the situation of the Chinese Church, but he is also aware that the path can be long\u00bb.<\/p>\n<p>Speaking about the situation of the Catholics in China, Cardinal Zen criticized the government. \u00abChinese government has intensified the persecution recently. We have seen demolished churches, crosses taken away from the buildings, therefore there\u2019s not much we can hope for immediately. The Church is still enslaved to the government\u00bb.<\/p>\n<p>Cardinal Zen also believes that this is not the time for the Pope to visit China. \u00abIf asked about it, I\u2019ll strongly recommend him not to go, because the current circumstances are not the right ones\u00bb. According to the Cardinal, the Chinese government doesn\u2019t seem to make any effort to improve the Church situation nor the relationship with the Vatican, and a Papal trip will probably been manipulated by Beijing. \u00abThey won\u2019t let the Pope meet the people he would like to meet and they will try to force Francis to meet the people they want him to meet. The only outcome of such a visit will be good people suffering and the Pope\u2019s good will being misused\u00bb.<\/p>\n<p>The Cardinal also talked to Aid to the Church in Need about the current situation in Hong Kong, where protests against China\u2019s new plan for Hong Kong\u2019s 2017 are still ongoing. Protests started as authorities tried to mar next elections by restricting the list of \u201cacceptable\u201d candidates. Cardinal Zen strongly supported the so called Occupy Central protests, and he even marched himself on the streets among the students who started the peaceful occupation of the city\u2019s financial district. \u00abWe cannot expect to win immediately \u2013 he told Aid to the Church in Need \u2013 but as long as we have freedom of speech, we should keep fighting, even though victory is not close\u00bb. Cardinal Zen also criticized the students\u2019 leaders who \u00abwent too fast\u00bb and who believed they can easily win. \u00abWe should stay united as we were at the start of the protest, but the students\u2019 leaders began to run on their own without listening to us\u00bb.<\/p>\n<p>Speaking at the Asia News Symposium, the Cardinal said that when Pope Francis greeted him after Paul VI\u2019s beatification Mass, he told him: \u00abThis is the one who fights with a &#8216;sling&#8217;\u00bb, referring to his participation in the protests. \u00abHe didn\u2019t mean to make fun of me, but to encourage me. When he was in Buenos Aires, he always fought for freedom and for the poor. So he understands our position\u00bb. Then Cardinal Zen highlighted the strong support of Hong Kong\u2019s Church to the people. \u00abThe Church, thanks to a competent Commission for Justice and Peace, is backing the population in their fight for democracy, following to the letter the Church\u2019s social teaching\u00bb.<\/p>\n<p>Then he ended his speech by ironically saying: \u00abWhen I\u2019m back in Hong Kong, I might hand myself over to the police for having committed an act of civil disobedience. Hopefully they\u2019ll jail me for a few days, so I&#8217;ll have time to pray for all of you\u00bb.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Marta Petrosillo, Aid to the Church in Need &nbsp; Rom, 24.November &#8211; \u00abWe shouldn\u2019t get our hopes up. I don\u2019t see any sign of an immediate improvement in China-Holy See relations\u00bb, cardinal Joseph Zen Ze-kiun, former bishop of Hong Kong, told Aid to the Church in Need after speaking at the Asia News Symposium&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":7388,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"video","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7383","post","type-post","status-publish","format-video","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-e-newsletters","post_format-post-format-video"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v24.2 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Chinese government has intensified the persecution recently - Aid to the Church in Need (Malta)<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/2014\/11\/28\/china\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Chinese government has intensified the persecution recently - Aid to the Church in Need (Malta)\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"By Marta Petrosillo, Aid to the Church in Need &nbsp; Rom, 24.November &#8211; \u00abWe shouldn\u2019t get our hopes up. 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