Vatican’s China plans considered a betrayal by many–but is China the nation that is ‘best implementing the social doctrine of the Church’?

Catholic Church in Jingzhou, China (Zhangzhugang)

Certain Catholics have raised concerns about the Vatican’s expected deal with China:

13 February 2018

The Catholic church risks damaging its moral authority and plunging its followers into confusion if the Vatican presses ahead with an imminent deal with the Chinese government, a group of influential Catholics has warned.

Fifteen lawyers, academics and human rights activists, most based in Hong Kong, have signed an open letter to bishops across the world expressing dismay at an agreement which would involve the Vatican recognising seven bishops appointed by China’s Communist party.

The deal is aimed at restoring relations between China and the Vatican, which were cut almost 70 years ago. But the group of leading Catholics say it could create a schism in the church in China.

“We are worried that the agreement would not only fail to guarantee the limited freedom desired by the church, but also … deal a blow to the church’s moral power,” the letter says. “Please rethink the current agreement, and stop making an irreversible and regrettable mistake.”

The letter comes less than two weeks after a senior Catholic leader in Asia accused the Vatican of selling out the church in its efforts to make a deal with the Chinese government.

Cardinal Joseph Zen, the former bishop of Hong Kong, wrote in a blog post: “Do I think the Vatican is selling out the Catholic church in China? Yes, definitely, if they go in the direction which is obvious from all what they are doing in recent years and months.” https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/feb/13/vatican-agreement-with-china-could-deal-blow-to-catholic-church

As part of his interfaith and ecumenical agendas, Pope Francis has reportedly agreed to replace a couple of bishops loyal to the Vatican with bishops that the Chinese government has chosen and who pledged loyalty to that government above the Vatican. The Vatican also intends to accept more Chinese government influence over Catholic theological matters.

Did you know that some in the Church of Rome consider China to be the example of how to govern? Check out the following:

“Right now, those who are best implementing the social doctrine of the Church are the Chinese,” a senior Vatican official has said.

Bishop Marcelo Sánchez Sorondo, chancellor of the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences, praised the Communist state as “extraordinary”, saying: “You do not have shantytowns, you do not have drugs, young people do not take drugs”. Instead, there is a “positive national conscience”.

The bishop told the Spanish-language edition of Vatican Insider that in China “the economy does not dominate politics, as happens in the United States, something Americans themselves would say.”

Bishop Sánchez Sorondo said that China was implementing Pope Francis’s encyclical Laudato Si’ better than many other countries and praised it for defending Paris Climate Accord. “In that, it is assuming a moral leadership that others have abandoned”, he added.

He accused US president Donald Trump of being “manipulated” by global oil firms, and said that, as opposed to those who follow “liberal thought”, the Chinese are working for the greater good of the planet.

The Vatican and China have been holding talks in recent years over the status of the ‘underground’ Church and the appointment of bishops. 02/06/18 http://www.catholicherald.co.uk/news/2018/02/06/china-is-the-best-implementer-of-catholic-social-doctrine-says-vatican-bishop/

Cardinal Joseph Zen, the 86-year-old retired bishop of Hong Kong, wrote an open letter posted on Facebook, saying the Vatican is “selling out” struggling Catholics. The Vatican, he said, has deferred to a “fake” Chinese structure.

Steve Mosher, a Catholic with decades of experience in China, including being tossed in jail, asked: “Why should the Catholic Church participate in its own dissolution and destruction? Why would we do this?” He told EWTN’s Raymond Arroyo that the Vatican’s negotiating strategy is “simply negotiating the surrender of the underground Church” to a false church created by China’s atheists.

As to the recent comments by Sorondo, Catholic author Paul Kengor wrote: “That, of course, is a jaw-dropper. You couldn’t find a radical leftie at the Huffington Post or even The Nation who would dare drop that whopper.”

Kengor points out that China accounts for half the world’s female suicides and still practices population control and forced abortion.

“Let’s be candid about this, as this is a dire moment that demands frank talk,” writes Kengor. “These are the thoughts of a person who is ideologically unhinged. Pope Francis has warned of the corrupting force of ideology; our always-candid pope condemns ideological ‘fanatics.’ Well, here’s a bishop close to Francis whose ability to comprehend reality has been corrupted by ideology.”

Kengor quotes George Neumayr, former editor of Catholic World Report, as telling him: “I wrote about the pope’s capitulation to the Chinese communists in my book, ‘The Political Pope.’ The most recent developments were telegraphed by the pope years ago. I also wrote about the bishop. … He has been a Vatican gateway for the (George) Soros crowd and very much reflects the pope’s thinking. He is the one who set up the Bernie Sanders invite to the Vatican and made a point of telling everyone that Sanders was the only presidential candidate invited. … His academy is overflowing with socialists and communists.”

Kengor, who calls Sorondo, “an old Argentinian friend of Francis who’s part of his inner circle,” believes the pope is deeply influenced by his ideas. http://www.wnd.com/2018/02/vatican-china-best-example-of-churchs-social-doctrine/#ItlpIVqKri3sJ02D.99

So, a close advisor to Pope Francis wants the government of China to be shown as the standard for the world as to how Roman Catholic policies are best being administered.

In the Continuing Church of God, we do not look at secular governments that way. We believe that humanity needs to repent and turn to the God of the Bible as the Great Tribulation and Day of the Lord are coming. This will be a terrible time:

21 For then there will be great tribulation, such as has not been since the beginning of the world until this time, no, nor ever shall be. 22 And unless those days were shortened, no flesh would be saved; but for the elect’s sake those days will be shortened. (Matthew 24:21-22)

The governments of this world will be replaced:

15 Then the seventh angel sounded: And there were loud voices in heaven, saying, “The kingdoms of this world have become the kingdoms of our Lord and of His Christ, and He shall reign forever and ever!” (Revelation 11:15)

This is the good news of the implementation of the first phase of the Kingdom of God.

That is the government that the Bible endorses.

As far as those that will be “best implementing the social doctrine of the Church,” the Bible warns that the City of Seven Hills (Rome) will be too involved with secular governments:

1 Then one of the seven angels who had the seven bowls came and talked with me, saying to me, “Come, I will show you the judgment of the great harlot who sits on many waters,

2 with whom the kings of the earth committed fornication, and the inhabitants of the earth were made drunk with the wine of her fornication.”

3 So he carried me away in the Spirit into the wilderness. And I saw a woman sitting on a scarlet beast which was full of names of blasphemy, having seven heads and ten horns.

4 The woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet, and adorned with gold and precious stones and pearls, having in her hand a golden cup full of abominations and the filthiness of her fornication.

5 And on her forehead a name was written: MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND OF THE ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH.

6 I saw the woman, drunk with the blood of the saints and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus. And when I saw her, I marveled with great amazement.

7 But the angel said to me, “Why did you marvel? I will tell you the mystery of the woman and of the beast that carries her, which has the seven heads and the ten horns.

8 The beast that you saw was, and is not, and will ascend out of the bottomless pit and go to perdition. And those who dwell on the earth will marvel, whose names are not written in the Book of Life from the foundation of the world, when they see the beast that was, and is not, and yet is.

9 Here is the mind which has wisdom: The seven heads are seven mountains on which the woman sits. … 18 And the woman whom you saw is that great city which reigns over the kings of the earth.” (Revelation 17:1-9,18)

9. And here is understanding, that hath wisdom. The seven heads: are seven hills, upon which the woman sitteth, and they are seven kings. (Apocalypse 17:9, New Testament translated out of the Latin Vulgate)

⁴ Come out, my people, away from her, so that you do not share in her crimes and have the same plagues to bear. (Revelation 18:4, NJB)

The Church of Rome, and various Protestant and Eastern Orthodox groups, are promoting deals with the world that are essentially warned against in the Bible.

The Vatican’s expected deal with China is consistent with end time prophecies involving the City of Seven Hills/Mountains–which even Vatican scholars realize is a biblical reference to Rome.

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