Christianity: Details about 'Chinese Patriotic Catholic Association'
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The Chinese Patriotic Catholic Association (Chinese: 中国天主教爱国会, pinyin: Zhōngguó Tiānzhǔjiào Àiguó Huì), abbreviated CPA, CPCA, or CCPA, is a division of Beijing's Religious Affairs Bureau, and has oversight over China's Catholics. According to the American Catholic magazine, ,
CPCA and the Beijing GovernmentOfficially, religious organizations in mainland China must be Government-recognized and approved, though many illegal unregistered organizations do in fact exist. The Communist Party of China wants no organization in mainland China owing allegiance to "foreign influence". The CPCA was created precisely to establish state control over Catholicism in China. CPCA - under pressure of the Communist government - had to declare rejection of papal authority and non-acceptance of formulations of Catholic teaching and instructions issued by the Holy See after 1949. Thus it could not recognize the dogma of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary (1950) by Pope Pius XII, nor the Second Vatican Council (1962-1965) neither could it accept the 1969-1970 revision of the rite of Mass. Only two decades later did CPCA alter the Mass liturgy to a modern form modelled closely on that in general use by then in the Catholic Church (Novus Ordo Missae). Though the twenty-first century has seen some signs of a slight relaxation of the attitude of the Government, CPCA still cannot speak out against laws that contravene Catholic moral teaching, such as those enforcing abortion and sterilization, and its clergy have been forced to declare their support for these measures. CPCA and the Roman Catholic ChurchThe setting up of CPCA in 1957 brought about a division from the Holy See. However, despite the difficulties that have confronted China's Catholics over the last sixty years, the Vatican has never declared China's Church to be schismatic, despite by organizations outside of China. The separated group was considered as not heretical and as conserving valid Holy Orders, passed on, within a Christian community, by bishops who themselves had been validly ordained. Consequently, the other sacraments also that require a priest as minister (in particular the Eucharist) were also considered valid. According to canon law (canon 2314 of the 1917 Code of Canon Law then in force), Catholics who join a schismatic group are automatically excommunicated. In consequence, Pope Pius XII immediately declared, with regret, that this applied to the bishops who set up CPCA. Many CPCA members have accepted the Government-imposed formalities without intending to break in any way their relationship of full dependence on the Pope, and the Holy See has, from the 1980s on, granted the request for recognition that many of the present CPCA bishops have presented, generally in secret, because acceptance of a connection with Rome is illegal. By one estimate, as many as 70% of the CPCA clergy have thus been reconciled. It is also said that of seventy CPCA bishops, all but nine have secretly declared their allegiance to Rome. By receiving them, as individuals, into full communion, the Holy See hopes to prepare for future reunification of CPCA with the many Chinese Catholics (often referred to as an "underground Church") who, in spite of harassment and full-scale persecution, and the repeated jailing of their leaders on political grounds, refused to join CPCA and generally do not attend its services, preferring to remain clearly faithful to Rome. Estimates of their number differ widely: some put it at less than that of CPCA, others put it at three times the CPCA number. The ordinations of Peter Feng Xinmao in 2004 as coadjutor of Hengsui, Joseph Xing Wenzhi as auxiliary of Shanghai on 28 June 2005 and Anthony Dang Ming Yan as coadjutor of Xian on 26 July of the same year were all papal appointments, which were followed by the Government-imposed procedures of the appointee's election by representatives of the diocese and consequent approval by the Government itself. The Holy See has refrained from making any statement, and no papal document of appointment has been read at the ordination rites. However, it was noted that at least Bishop Xing swore to be "faithful to the one, holy, catholic, apostolic Church, with Peter as its head." In a further highly significant gesture, Pope Benedict XVI invited three CPCA bishops, together with one "underground" bishop, to the October 2005 assembly of the Synod of Bishops as full members, not as "fraternal delegates", the term used for representatives of non-Catholic Churches invited to attend. Government permission for them to travel to Rome was withheld. Effects on China-Holy See relationsAt the time of the definitive Communist victory in mainland China, the papal diplomatic representative did not move to Taiwan, the island to which the Nationalist Government withdrew. This fact might have made it possible for the Communist Government to continue diplomatic relations as most often happens when a country's government is changed by election, coup, revolution or overthrow by rebel forces. Instead, the Communist Government expelled the papal representative, whose delay in leaving then made him unacceptable to the Taipei Government. His successors were accepted, and maintained relations with the Government that at that time was still recognized by the United Nations as the Government of China. When the United Nations gave recognition instead to the Beijing Government, the Holy See decided to appoint no further head of its diplomatic mission in Taipei, leaving it from then on in the care of a chargé d'affaires. Although, in the case of countries like the United States of America, a break of diplomatic relations with the Taipei Government accompanied, rather than preceded, the establishment of relations with the Beijing Government, the Communist Government has several times declared that, in the case of the Holy See, such a break is a necessary preliminary condition. On the part of the Holy See, a normal condition for establishing diplomatic relations with a country is a satisfactory level of freedom of religion, a condition that hardly any independent observer claims exists today in mainland China. However, the same condition could be seen as not required for appointing a papal representative, resident in Beijing, to continue, after an interruption, the diplomatic relations established with China in the 1930s. On the other hand, it is difficult to imagine that the Holy See would agree to this without some loosening of the Government ban on religious links between Catholics in China and Rome. A New York Times article estimated that the status of Taiwan is not a major obstacle, and appointment of bishops can be handled with the Vatican picking from a list pre-screened by the government. Most reports, it said, indicate that the main obstacle is the PRC Government's fear of being undermined by the Catholic Church, especially since Pope John Paul II was widely seen as having influenced the ending of Communist regimes in Poland and other Eastern European countries. When Pope John Paul II died in 2005, churches throughout China held special services to commemorate and mourn his passing. Many Chinese Catholics, often with no awareness of any political implications, declared that they would have liked him to visit China, as he indicated was his desire. The canonization in 2000 of 120 Chinese and foreign martyrs in China, beatified much earlier, was harshly criticized by Beijing, claiming that many of the non-Chinese among the martyrs had perpetrated abuses and crimes against the Chinese people. It also criticized the Vatican for proceeding with this action without securing Chinese input, putting on the Holy See the blame for the non-existence of the diplomatic channels that would have facilitated input. A similar accusation of Holy See unilateralism (which some would interpret instead as Beijing Government refusal to distinguish between religion and politics) was made when Pope Benedict XVI invited four bishops from mainland China - three of whom were government approvied - to the October 2005 assembly of the Synod of Bishops in Rome. Other "patriotic" ChurchesCPCA was only one of three "patriotic" religious organizations set up in China after 1949. The other two were the Three-Self Patriotic Movement for Protestants, and the Chinese Patriotic Islamic Association. These, however, did not have the complication of a link with a religious authority geographically outside mainland China. The same tactic was also employed by the Communist Governments in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe, generally with less apparent success, though the true feelings of CPCA members are hard to gauge. The Governments tried to ensure replacement of less pliable clergy by those loyal to the regime and so enable the Communist party to hold sway over Church matters. Similar Church divisions for political rather than religious reasons occurred even before the rise of Communism. Examples are:
See also
中国天主教爱国会
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