Coronavirus: Vatican lauds China, snubs Taiwan over aid

Both nations donated coronavirus aid to Italy and Holy See but in an undiplomatic move, only Beijing’s help was acknowledged.

Italian Police stands guard at St. Peter's Square. Picture; AFP.

In a blatantly undiplomatic move, the Vatican has lauded China and snubbed Taiwan after both nations made generous donations of medical and other supplies to Italy and to the Holy See to help with the COVID-19 pandemic.

From mid-March, as Italy’s caseload began to soar, China sent specialist doctors and medical equipment to Italy and Chinese charities, including the Red Cross donated health supplies to the Vatican Pharmacy.

The Vatican responded with a statement on April 9: “The Holy See appreciates the generous gesture and expresses gratitude to the bishops, Catholic faithful, institutions and all other Chinese citizens for this humanitarian initiative, assuring them of the esteem and prayers of the Holy Father.”

Pope Francis appears at the window of the Apostolic palace in the Vatican. Picture: AFP.

On April 14, the Taiwanese embassy to the Holy See donated 280,000 medical masks to the Vatican pharmacy, to three Roman hospitals and to Italian religious communities caring for the sick. The Vatican made no public response. Taiwan has also donated 600 cans of tuna for residents of a shelter for homeless people run by one of the pope’s charities, a gift received and welcomed by the Polish Cardinal who leads the charities, Konrad Krajewski.

Vatican-based US cardinal Raymond Burke told The Australian “something is badly wrong’’ with China seemingly enjoying “a place of privilege with the Vatican’’.

“The Holy See made a point to praise the People’s Republic of China for sending masks and medical equipment to the Vatican, while it has not acknowledged in any public way the generous help received from Taiwan,’’ Cardinal Burke said.

“The agreement which the Vatican made with the People’s Republic of China in 2018 – of which there is still no public record – has been, in practice, a repudiation of the tremendous suffering of countless Chinese confessors of the faith and martyrs for the faith at the hands of the atheistic communist government and has only resulted in a greater ongoing persecution of faithful Chinese Catholics.’’

As of Tuesday, the Vatican had reported nine cases of coronavirus. But Church hospitals and medical staff are heavily involved in caring for tens of thousands of COVID-19 patients around Italy, which has recorded more than 180,000 cases and suffered 23,300 deaths.

Even the liberal London-based religious magazine, The Tablet, normally a strong supporter of Pope Francis, noted: “The Vatican failure to thank Taiwan publicly has certainly raised eyebrows, and prompted accusations that it is afraid to offend Beijing. This may be the case.

“Since the unpublished September 2018 agreement between Beijing and the Vatican, Rome has held back from criticising the draconian measures on the part of Beijing against the formerly ‘underground’ Church in China and the ‘sinicisation’ measures imposed on the newly unified Patriotic Church, that require loyalty to the party and President Xi Jinping before loyalty to the Church and indeed to the Gospel.’’

As Matthew Lee, the Taiwanese ambassador to the Holy See told the Vatican media, Taiwan has been one of the most successful nations in the world at dealing with the pandemic.

Its success, however, has been ignored by the World Health Organisation. WHO has lavished praise on China – where the virus began in Wuhan’s wet markets in December but was covered up by the Chinese government in a series of brazen deceptions.

Cardinal Burke recently led a mass at Stamford, Connecticut in the US to mark the 20th anniversary of the death of Cardinal Ignatius Kung, the former Bishop of Shanghai who spent 30 years in prison in China, mostly in solitary confinement.

“As Cardinal Kung understood so well, the Church cannot make a covenant with a government which is atheistic in its founding principles and which, in fact, worships itself alone,’’ Cardinal Burke said in his homily.