Rome, Italy, Jul 23, 2009 / 13:33 pm
The bishop emeritus of Hong Kong, Cardinal Joseph Zen, this week denounced the "false interpretation" of Benedict XVI’s 2007 letter to Chinese Catholics, which has resulted due to the restrictions imposed and maintained on the document by the Chinese communist government.
According to Vatican analyst Sandro Magister, the papal letter has been misunderstood "in favor of the communist authorities, and their plan to subjugate the Church."
Magister reports on the assessment Cardinal Zen has made of the letter in which he says, "The Patriotic Association has prohibited its distribution. A number of priests who distributed it have been arrested. The Chinese websites that posted it have had to remove it. The complete Mandarin language version of it on the Vatican website is still inaccessible in China."
"It was also difficult and complicated to have a follow-up letter, from Vatican secretary of state Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, delivered personally to every bishop in China. In some cases this took months. Nor did this letter - the contents of which were ambivalent, in Cardinal Zen's view - help to bring clarity," Magister writes.