Cardinal calls Chinese Catholic reaction to papal letter positive
Jul 17, 2007
The Vatican has not had any official comment from the Chinese government on Pope Benedict XVI's letter to Chinese Catholics, but the reaction has been "positive from the faithful and the bishops," said the Vatican secretary of state.
By Cindy Wooden
Catholic News Service
VATICAN CITY (CNS, 17/07/2007) -- The Vatican has not had any official comment from the Chinese government on Pope Benedict XVI's letter to Chinese Catholics, but the reaction has been "positive from the faithful and the bishops," said the Vatican secretary of state.
The 55-page letter, released June 30 in Chinese and several other languages, has led to "an extraordinary movement of meditation and reflection, especially through the Internet, by the official patriotic community and the clandestine community," said Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone.
The pope's letter urged cooperation between Catholic communities officially registered with the government and Catholic communities that have continued clandestinely since the 1950s, when the Chinese government began closing churches. While the papal letter criticized Chinese government limits on church activities, it also invited civil authorities to open a new dialogue on several key issues, including the appointment of bishops.
In a July 16 interview with the Italian Catholic news agency SIR, Cardinal Bertone said, "We still have not received precise signals from the Chinese institutions, and we are waiting."
The letter, he said, was an attempt to demonstrate "confidence in the Chinese people and in their government so that they would reconsider a bit their position toward the Catholic Church, which wants to work for the good of the Chinese people."
The cardinal also said that in drafting the letter the pope tried to tap into and build on a Chinese cultural sensitivity to moral questions that comes from Confucianism.
From the viewpoint of its moral code, Confucianism has "roots that are somewhat close to Christianity's," he said.
Confucius, the Chinese philosopher, "said that man either is a moral being or he is not a true man," Cardinal Bertone said. "The great tradition of Confucius is morality."
The Catholic Church wants to build on the strong moral code emphasized by traditional Chinese culture, showing how Christianity emphasizes not only correct behavior, but also solidarity, love and forgiveness, which benefit the entire society, he said.
Cardinal calls Chinese Catholic reaction to papal letter positive