(The Pillar. ED. CONDON).
Chinese Catholics can be their country’s best citizens, Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin said in a speech Tuesday at a conference in Rome. Parolin, the Holy See’s foreign minister and the architect of the controversial Vatican-China deal on the appointment of bishops, used the example of a 19th century papal envoy to China to outline a vision for Church-state relations and enculturation for the local Church. Key to a flourishing Church in China, according to Parolin, is making the local Church “missionary” but not foreign, and stripping back the Holy See’s engagement with the government to the level of ecclesiastical affairs only. While indicating that the Vatican-China deal was almost sure to be renewed later this year, the cardinal also repeated the Holy See’s ambition for a permanent presence on the mainland, with a dedicated Vatican envoy in China. But, Parolin stressed, that envoy would have to be a purely pastoral presence, shorn of the diplomatic role of Vatican’s global emissaries. The cardinal’s speech, given May 21 at a conference hosted by the Pontifical Urban University in Rome titled “100 years since the Concilium Sinense: Between the Past and the Present” offered an interesting view of the roadmap being pursued by the Vatican in China.