Cardinal Joseph Zen, the former bishop of Hong Kong, said this week that Pope Francis wants compromise with China’s Communist Party (CCP), but the CCP wants “complete surrender,” Breitbart News reports.
“The pope doesn’t know much about China. And he may have some sympathy for the Communists, because in South America, the Communists are good guys, they suffer for social justice,” Zen told Catholic News Agency. “But not the [Chinese] Communists. They are persecutors.” Zen was referring to the Vatican’s secret 2018 agreement with China regarding the appointment of future Catholic bishops there.
“So the situation is, humanly speaking, hopeless for the Catholic Church. Because we can always expect the Communists to persecute the Church, but now [faithful Catholics] don’t get any help from the Vatican,” he added. “The Vatican is helping the government, surrendering, giving everything into their hands.”
Cardinal Zen has also accused the Pope of “killing” the underground Church in China.