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“Fruits of Ostpolitik”
Update
Chinese Destroy Catholic Churches
While Vatican Remains Silent
by Christopher A. Ferrara
 According to the
NE news agency, a number of “underground” Chinese Catholics who
remain loyal to Rome are still celebrating Mass in defiance of their communist
persecutors at the site of a Catholic church, in the town of Lupu, which was
destroyed by communist officials. The report notes that “the church had
been destroyed previously on Easter Sunday of the year 2000, but it had been
reconstructed by the same faithful in June of the same year.”
After the church
was rebuilt the communists destroyed it again—this time on December 8,
2000, the Feast of the Immaculate Conception. Now there is a Cross on the pile
of rubble. The faithful “have continued celebrating liturgies in the open
field, and they are growing in number after the demolition of the church, a
neighboring chapel, and the priest’s residence.” Several other
Catholic churches in the area have also been destroyed.
In recent
columns I have pointed out the growing chumminess between Communist China and
“formerly” communist Russia—trade and technology agreements, a
joint military alliance and identical foreign policy aims. The fatuous Fatima
revisionists ask us to believe that this unholy alliance is consistent with the
alleged consecration of Russia to the Immaculate Heart in 1984. But what is
really going on is the re-consolidation of the communist empire, with a few
capitalist additions. While this is happening, the Vatican does nothing to
oppose it. Why? In a word: Ostpolitik.
Father Nicholas
Gruner’s apostolate has told the truth about the Vatican’s policy of
Ostpolitik, under which the Vatican remains silent in the face of
communist persecution in the hope that “dialogue” and “quiet
diplomacy” with communist regimes will gain concessions. In practice, the
policy only legitimates communist governments while prolonging the persecution
of the faithful, as Father Alexis Floridi, S.J., demonstrates in his book
Moscow and the Vatican.
Thus, we have
heard no Vatican condemnation of the destruction of the churches in Lupu, or
the recent arrest of a Catholic bishop and priests of the loyal
“underground Church,” or the illicit ordination of 100 communist,
schismatic bishops hand-picked by the Peking regime. Quite simply,
Ostpolitik is a betrayal of the Gospel and the teaching of Blessed Pius
IX, Saint Pius X, Pius XI and Pius XII that the Church cannot fail to condemn
the evil of communism.
Even Pope Paul
VI was torn by doubt about the morality of Ostpolitik, which was
administered during his pontificate by the late Cardinal Casaroli. In an
interview not long before his death, Casaroli revealed that Pope Paul feared he
was not being faithful to the Gospel in remaining silent while Catholics were
suffering communist persecution, and that Casaroli had to persuade the Pope
“to stay with his (Casaroli’s) policy.” [“Paul VI had
doubts about Ostpolitik,” CWN news interview, Nov. 24, 1997]
And so the
Vatican, still chained to the millstone of Ostpolitik, says nothing,
while the true Church in China continues to suffer. But the Vatican has a great
deal to say about Father Gruner, who has committed the one unpardonable offense
in the Church today: criticizing the diplomatic policies of the Vatican
Secretary of State.
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