Vatican Bishop: ‘China is the best implementer of Catholic social doctrine.’
If anyone doubted the Church has took a leftward turn since Pope Francis took up the reigns at the Vatican, the decision to alter the catechism to condemn capital punishment should leave you in no doubt and now a senior bishop is singing the praises of the Communist regime in China...
Right now, those who are best implementing the social doctrine of the Church are the Chinese,” a senior Vatican official has said.
Bishop Marcelo Sánchez Sorondo, chancellor of the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences, praised the Communist state as “extraordinary”, saying: “You do not have shantytowns, you do not have drugs, young people do not take drugs”. Instead, there is a “positive national conscience”.
The bishop told the Spanish-language edition of Vatican Insider that in China “the economy does not dominate politics, as happens in the United States, something Americans themselves would say.”
Bishop Sánchez Sorondo said that China was implementing Pope Francis’s encyclical Laudato Si’ better than many other countries and praised it for defending Paris Climate Accord. “In that, it is assuming a moral leadership that others have abandoned”, he added.
He accused US president Donald Trump of being “manipulated” by global oil firms, and said that, as opposed to those who follow “liberal thought”, the Chinese are working for the greater good of the planet.
The Vatican and China have been holding talks in recent years over the status of the ‘underground’ Church and the appointment of bishops. In November, the Vatican Museums also organised joint exhibitions with China in what was called “diplomacy of art”.
With Catholic priests under permanent surveillance, churches raided and destroyed, the Bishops statement is truly remarkable. Secular crackdowns are part and parcel of life for Christians in China, but despite the hardships they persevere, the persecution only cementing the faith for " Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven (Matthew 5:10)."
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