China. A Patriotic Church ever more in the pay of a merciless Communist Party
The press agency EDA reports that the seminary at Shijiazhuang, the "official" major seminary of the patriotic Church, serving the six dioceses of the province of Hebei, has resumed normal activities following a "period of evaluation" concerning the political education and the management of the institution, begun seventeen months earlier by the authorities of the Hebei province.
According to the Catholic information service Xinde, the evaluation conducted at the major seminary, which began on 3rd September 2001, was originally due to have lasted just two months. Its objective, drafted from a document of the Central Administration for Religious Affairs, consisted of "reinforcing in correcting" the direction of the seminary, "improving the contents of its political education program and verifying the procedure for the recruitment of seminarians."
According to Xinde, the seminarians began this program with nine days of military training. They were then sent to visit Xibaipo, in the district of Pingsham (Hebei), the place where Mao Tse-tung and his troops installed their first base before taking power and moving into Peking in 1949. The report by the Catholic information service specifies that the seminarians studied the "theory of the three representations" of President Jiang Zemin.
According to this same source, the students at the "intense education" stage went to Beijing to assist at a ceremony of the raising of the national flag, and to visit various monuments from the last century in order to understand "how the Chinese people can only liberate themselves from oppression when the nation is rich and powerful." During the third phase, "of evaluation", a Buddhist monk came to speak to them about the adaptation of religion to society and the importance of this process.
One understands why the majority of Catholics belong to the underground Church (10 million), whereas only 4 million frequent the patriotic Church. But one also grasps the danger of a reconciliation with this church, a reconciliation which is strongly advocated in certain circles of the Curia.
