We all remember with great embarrassment the abject apology to Red China for the unspecified sins of dead Catholics which the Pope gave last October. It’s all part of the pursuit of Ostpolitik by the Vatican Secretary of State, Cardinal Sodano, who also coordinates the persecution of Father Nicholas Gruner.

        As I have noted in several columns, the immediate fruits of this apology were increased persecution of the loyal "underground" Catholics in China, the destruction of the last Catholic diocese, and the arrest and imprisonment of "underground" priests and bishops.

        On February 13, 2002 Fides news agency reported that since the great apology to China, the Jiang regime has cracked down on "33 bishops and priests, some who have disappeared altogether, others unable to minister, confined to strict house arrest."

        According to Fides, "Several observers, contacted by Fides, say these men were arrested for refusing to join the CCPA [the Red Chinese pseudo-church, created to replace the true Church], and prison and ‘reeducation’ sessions are meant to convince them to change their minds. These Catholics know that to join the CCPA would mean adopting its principles, accepting to belong to a Church which is national, independent of the universal Church."

        That being so, why has the Vatican’s Cardinal Etchegaray praised "the faithful Catholics" of the CCPA? How can those who joined this breakaway "church" be faithful, objectively speaking?

        Fides notes "Arrests and ‘reeducation’ treatment of Catholics which have continued since China joined the World Trade Organization, are considered measures to prevent ‘social disorder’. But in no way can underground Catholics - some bishops are between 70 and 80 years old - be said to engage in anti-social or violent activity. On the contrary, all over China theirs is service of charity in orphanages, schools, medical dispensaries." The Jiang regime is all heart. No wonder Cardinal Sodano is so interested in "negotiating" with them.

        And then there is this bombshell: "A secret Communist Party document, dated August 16, 1999, stated that ‘in view of possible relations with the Vatican, control on Catholic communities must be increased and the CCPA must be empowered’."

        So, the "normalization" of relations with China is to be accompanied by more persecution of the Catholic Church, and greater power for the schismatic, pro-abortion CCPA pseudo-church of communist lackey priests and bishops, controlled by Jiang and his fellow devils.

                One would think that this revelation would be enough to persuade Cardinal Sodano that his Ostpolitik is no service to the persecuted Catholics of China. But don’t count on it. People who don’t take the appearance of the Mother of God at Fatima seriously are not about to let a little thing like empirical evidence stand in their way.