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“Fruits of Ostpolitik”
Update
U.S. Protests Arrest of Vietnamese
Priest While Vatican Remains Silent
by Christopher A. Ferrara
 On June 27, 2000
Cardinal Sodano presided over a press conference at which he, Cardinal
Silvestrini, and Mikhail Gorbachev sang the praises of the late Cardinal
Casaroli’s Ostpolitik: the Vatican’s policy of refusing to
condemn communist persecution of Catholics in favor of “quiet
diplomacy.” In a previous column (“Congress Speaks Out, But the
Vatican Is Silent”), I noted how Ostpolitik: is still at work in
the Vatican’s refusal to condemn the brutal persecution of China’s
“underground” Catholics by the Red Chinese regime. But
Ostpolitik: is not limited to the Red Chinese situation. The Vatican has
decided to gag itself wherever communists oppress Catholics.
On May 18, 2001
ABC Online reported an official protest by the United States Embassy over the
arrest of Father Tadeus Nguyen Van Ly by the Communist regime of Vietnam.
According to the ABC report, “Father Ly, Vietnam's best-known dissident,
was arrested in Hue for defying a house arrest order . . . A U.S. embassy
spokesman says the ambassador and other U.S. officials have raised strong
concerns with the Vietnamese government and urged that Father Ly be returned to
his church residence.”
And what has the
Vatican done to protest the arrest of Father Ly? Why, nothing. Such a protest
would be contrary to the dictates of Ostpolitik:. But an obvious
question presents itself: If the United States has already stood up for Father
Ly by means of a formal diplomatic protest published around the world, what
possible diplomatic harm could come from the Vatican adding its own protest and
thus increasing the public pressure for Father Ly’s release? In fact, what
evidence is there that Ostpolitik: is anything but what it would appear
to be: a cover for communist persecution of Catholics, allowing it to escape
public scrutiny and condemnation while producing no genuine relief for the
victims of the persecution?
So, Father Ly
languishes in his prison cell. The Vatican says nothing. The Church is
oppressed in Cuba, where anyone who even accepts free medicine from a Catholic
hospital is severely punished. But the Vatican says nothing. Catholic churches
are being destroyed in China, while Catholic bishops and priests by the dozens
are in prison or under state surveillance by Red Chinese goon squads. The
Vatican says nothing. Meanwhile, in Russia, which we are constantly told is
“converting,” the Church can neither proselytize nor obtain permanent
residence for the 200 or so foreign-born priests and bishops who make up
virtually the entire Russian hierarchy. The Vatican says nothing. (Correction:
The Vatican does say, quite often, that it has no intention of proselytizing
the Russian Orthodox.)
What does it say
about those who run the Vatican, that Catholics being oppressed by communist
regimes receive a stauncher defense from the pro-abortion United States
Congress or the ultra-liberal Amnesty International than they do from the
Vatican apparatus? The Catholic faithful have the right to ask themselves how
much longer the failed policy of Ostpolitik: is going to be allowed to
render the Vatican impotent to defend its own from the ongoing ravages of world
communism.
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