After constantly receiving heat from the entire globe for the Vatican’s pro-China stance–for the first time ever, Pope Francis has referred to Muslim Uighurs in China as a “persecuted” community.”I think often of persecuted peoples: the Rohingya, the poor Uighurs, the Yazidi,” said Pope in his new book titled “Let Us Dream: The Path to A Better Future” that is expected to hit the bookstands early next month. This marked the first time that the Pope spoke about the persecuted Uighurs who are being tormented and tortured in the intermittent concentration camps in the name of culling radicalization.
While Pope calling Uighurs as persecuted is laudable but it should also be understood that Pope might just want to sell his book to the international audience and what better clickbait than using Uighur Muslims as the preview. The Pope and his Vatican off late has sold its credibility to the Chinese in exchange for some Yuans and therefore his statements do not exactly carry the weight that they once did.
Reported by TFI earlier, China and the Vatican renewed a secretive agreement signed two years ago. It allows both Beijing and the Vatican a say in appointing Bishops in China. The agreement gives Pope a final say in the appointments of the Bishop in China, but Beijing is the one that will have to come up with the choices. The deal was described as a ‘sell-out’ but the Vatican had hailed it by calling it “the fruit of a gradual and reciprocal rapprochement”.
Within China, the Catholic priests are worried, for the renewed secretive deal will help the CCP crackdown on the Catholics, find a legitimized role in Bishop Appointments, and also buy the Pope’s silence.
In an interview to WION, the former bishop of Hong Kong, Cardinal Joseph Zen, has spoken up about the issue. Cardinal Zen says this deal is a betrayal to the 12 million Catholic population.
“The agreement is very bad because any agreement should be fair to both sides. And so both sides should gain something, but we gained nothing and the Chinese Government gained everything. I think in the negotiations, they should mention the Bishops and the arrest but nothing happened, even more, harsh persecution.” said Cardinal Zen who was born in Shanghai 88 years ago and came to Hong Kong in 1948, just before the Communists took power in China.
The Vatican may try to portray itself as an apostle of righteousness and truth, but the reality is far away from it. The pope is seeking to maximize his own interests. In the context of all that we have discussed the morality of the Pope is pretty low.
TFI also reported the papacy’s compliance in Beijing’s anti-religion crusade is surprisingly obvious. Not only has the Holy See abandoned the Chinese Catholics, but it has conveniently toed China’s line. Barring the aforementioned statement of calling Uighurs a ‘persecuted’ community, the Vatican has skirted away from condemning gross human rights violations in Tibet, Hong Kong or the ethnic Mongolians by a dictatorial-atheist regime seeking Hanisation of entire China.
As per an article published in DNA India, the dissidents claim that CCP pays Vatican 2 Billion USD to keep silent. During a recent interview on The War Room on June 20, Guo Wengei, an exiled Chinese dissident revealed that the CCP earmarks massive budget each year as part of its foreign policy, to secure the allegiance of foreign nations including the Vatican and Italy.
The Pope is simply in a damage control mode so that his love for China that so far has been hidden doesn’t come out in the open. If the Vatican cannot even protect the Catholics in the communist state of China then it would be hyperbole to expect that a single statement about Uighurs is going to make a major dent in China’s plan of ethnic cleansing of an entire populace.
