Pope Pius XII on the 'Patriotic' Church in China.
@Pontifex would do well to revisit.
"For under an appearance of patriotism, which in reality is just a fraud, this association aims primarily at making Catholics gradually embrace the tenets of atheistic materialism, by which God Himself is denied and religious principles are rejected....
However, if Christians are bound in conscience to render to Caesar (that is, to human authority) what belongs to Caesar, then Caesar likewise, or those who control the state, cannot exact obedience when they would be usurping God's rights or forcing Christians either to act at variance with their religious duties or to sever themselves from the unity of the Church and its lawful hierarchy...
Under such circumstances, every Christian should cast aside all doubt and calmly and firmly repeat the words with which Peter and the other Apostles answered the first persecutors of the Church: 'We must obey God rather than men.'"
Ad Apostolorum Principis, 1958
Reflecting today on on #
JimmyLai#, 78, an innocent British citizen, suffering in solitary confinement in Stanley prison, in 40 degree heat, and thinking about the worsening persecution of the underground Church in China.
The Sino-Vatican pact is a strategic and ecclesiological disaster. Pius XII had his own struggles with authoritarianism. His private heroism has not erased questions about his public diplomacy regarding contemporary fascism, but he was clear-eyed and prescient about China nearly 70 years ago.
📸 is of a patriotic Church in China where the Ten Commandments have been replaced with quotes from Xi Jinping. Source:
@zh_bitterwinter