Abstract
After 1978, given China’s Open Door Policy for national modernization, the Vatican adopted a pro-leftist Ostpolitik policy aimed at normalizing the disrupted Sino-Vatican diplomatic relations. However, such a possible Sino-Vatican rapprochement threatened the severing of Taiwan-Vatican diplomatic relations. Taiwan bishops led by Archbishop Lokuang interacted with the Pope and the Vatican officials to voice their frustration and grievances consequent on the Vatican’s pro-leftist approach. When meeting the Taiwan bishops in the Vatican, the Holy Father skillfully turned their frustration to satisfaction by entrusting to them the duty of becoming a “Bridge” to assist the revival and growth of the Church in the Mainland. In this chapter the Bridging Endeavor activities are discussed and its implications and prospects evaluated.
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Notes
- 1.
Msgr. Paul Russell, the Charge d’Affaires of the Holy See to Taiwan, on 23 September 2014, expressed this view to one of the authors who had learned the phrase “Sister Church” for the first time from a conversation with a Vatican official in Taipei, 23 September 2013.
- 2.
Since 1981, on various formal and informal occasions, Beijing‘s officials announced the Party’s policy eventually written down in a Party document known as “Document 3” 1989.
- 3.
The Roman Curia is the administrative center of the Vatican headed by the Pope.
- 4.
Lokuang held an anti-Communist view partly because he was originally from Hengyang, Hunan Province. After 1949 Civil War, his family in the Mainland due to religious reasons was persecuted. He stayed in Rome to work for the Propaganda Fides in the 1950s and 1960s until he went to Taiwan and was ordained as the first bishop of Tainan in the 1960s. Also he followed the orthodox teaching of Pius XII with his three papal letters not only to condemn Communism but to condemn the harsh treatment inflicted on Chinese Catholics. These were Cupimus Imprimis (1952), Ad Sinarum Gentem (1954) and Ad Apostolorum Principis (1958).
- 5.
It reflected that the Catholic world including the Hong Kong Catholics would like to be opened to the progressive views on pro-socialist scholars in church matters for discussion. It did not mean that they all accept the pro-leftist view. In the political campaigns like the Great Leap Forward and the Cultural Revolution, even the traditional Communists in Hong Kong quietly deserted Communism and defected to the free world, not to mention the Hong Kong young Catholics.
- 6.
“Ad Limina” in English means “to the door”. According to the regulation of the Roman Curia, local bishops throughout the world have to come to Rome (to the door) of the Roman Curia and the Holy Father to report on the ecclesiastical management of their dioceses every five years.
- 7.
Lokuang’s statement revealed that he has little understanding of the Hong Kong Catholics, when only a very tiny small group of Catholic university students were interested in Liberation Theology which had been colored by socialism. For Lokuang they were disloyal to the church. In fact Lokuang wrongly took this cohort of Catholics to represent Hong Kong Catholics.
- 8.
One of the writers visited the Radio Vatican Chinese Section in 2006, receiving this positive impression.
- 9.
Revealed by Bishop Ti Kang who was one of the seven Taiwan bishops who went to meet the Holy Father in 1984.
- 10.
Beatrice Leung and Chan Shun Hing’s book had a discussion of the development of the Catholic church from 1950 to 2000.
- 11.
For the Taiwan Catholics traveling to the Mainland, see Beatrice Leung and Kuo Wen-ban 2014 “The Vatican-China-Taiwan Relations and Taiwan’s Bridging Endeavour” in Cindy Chu (ed) The Catholic Church in China 1900–Present. New York: Palgrave, pp. 16.
- 12.
For the Three Links cf. http://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E4%B8%89%E9%80%9A
- 13.
The establishment of the “Committee of the Bridging Church” did not appear in the year 1988 as “notable dates and events of the Church in Taiwan” in the Catholic Church Directory Taiwan 2014. See Taiwan Regional Bishops’ Conference ed. Catholic Church Directory 2014. Taipei: Taiwan bishops Conference. p.(53–54). However, it appeared in the “Information Summary of Important Issues from the Service Center of the Committee of the Bridge Church” (Qiaoliang jiaohui fuwu zhong zhongyao xunxi zhaiyao biao) (A Table of Summary).
- 14.
11 Revealed by the Sister responsible for the Service Center who worked in the Service Center for more than ten years. She was interviewed on 1 July 2014 in Kaohsiung.
- 15.
Revealed by the Sister responsible for the Service Center who worked in the Service Center for more than ten years. She was interviewed on 1 July 2014 in Kaohsiung.
- 16.
Revealed by the Sister responsible for the Service Center who worked in the Service Center for more than ten years. She was interviewed on 1 July 2014 in Kaohsiung.
- 17.
Revealed by a staff member of the CRBC involved in the program of invitation of Mainland priests to visit Taiwan (Interview held on 2 July 2014).
- 18.
Fr. Lucien Schmidt was interviewed in Hong Kong on Sept. 1992 after his trip to China.
- 19.
One of the Committee members who preferred to remain anonymous told the author when they met in Hong Kong at Christmas time, 2004.
- 20.
Liu Bainian, a Catholic layman to be posted as the vice chairman of the Catholic Patriotic Association. In reality he is member of the Chinese Communist Party sent by the Beijing government to monitor the Catholic Church in China when he was vested with full power to manage the Catholic Church in the Mainland.
- 21.
Revealed by a religious Sister who was a staff member of the CRBC’s Service Center. She was the coordinator of the program of Sister Formation (Interview held on 2 July 2014).
- 22.
Ibid.
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Leung, B.K.F., Kuo, Wb. (2018). Taiwan Catholic Bishops and the Bridging Endeavor: Origins and Development. In: So, F., Leung, B., Mylod, E. (eds) The Catholic Church in Taiwan. Christianity in Modern China. Palgrave Macmillan, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-6665-8_6
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