Beijing thumbs nose at Vatican

The fine of $HK4000 ($758) imposed on Cardinal Joseph Zen, 90, by a Hong Kong court on Friday for raising funds for the territory’s democratic protest movement was relatively small, but that does not detract from the symbolic importance of his conviction, and that of his co-accused, in a case that goes to the heart of what little remains of religious freedom in China.

He and four other trustees of the now-defunct 612 Humanitarian Relief Fund were convicted for failing to fulfil registration requirements. The fund, set up in July 2019 as pro-democracy demonstrations swept Hong Kong, raised $HK450m. Its secretary, Sze Ching-wee, was fined $HK2500 and has been arrested under the National Security Law. Cardinal Zen is facing further investigation into possible “collusion with a foreign country or with external elements to endanger national security”.

The developments reflect China’s effort to intimidate its 12 million Catholics, despite the renewal in October of its secret pact with the Vatican, which allows the atheistic Chinese regime to nominate Catholic bishops. The Pope has been its main proponent. The agreement is strongly opposed by Cardinal Zen. Coinciding with his conviction, signs have emerged of problems for Rome over the pact. Chinese officials have installed a new bishop as head of a diocese unrecognised by Rome. A Vatican statement meekly expressed “surprise and regret” over the installation, in the city of Nanchang, of Bishop John Peng Weizhao. It decried “ breaking the spirit of the agreement’’. Beijing’s high-handedness will not surprise those who regard the pact with the Communist Party as a sellout. The Pope recently refused to describe China as “undemocratic’’. He also complained that Cardinal Zen “says what he feels, and you can see that there are limitations there’’.

Beijing’s installation of the new bishop reflects the attitude it showed in dragging China’s leading Catholic into court. He could soon face more serious charges that could send him to prison for the rest of his life. German Cardinal Gerhard Mueller was right in September when he called on Francis and fellow cardinals to do more to help their brother in Hong Kong. As China would have noted, that plea fell on deaf ears.