HK bishop prays for ‘mutual trust’ between Beijing and Vatican

For the second consecutive year, there will be no memorial Mass in Hong Kong on Tiananmen anniversary

Hong Kong’s Catholic bishop Stephen Chow prayed for mutual trust between the Chinese government and the Vatican as he offered a Mass on the Global Day of Prayer for China on May 24.

He expressed hope that both Vatican and China could put aside "presumptions, hypotheses and prejudice” to help enhance mutual understanding and trust, Hong Kong Free Press reported on May 25.

The church in China will not adopt “a mentality of colonialism,” even though it has made such mistakes historically, Chow said in his homily inside the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception.

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The bishop spoke both in English and Chinese.

“The fate of the church in China is inseparable from that of the country, as all the people of the church are also Chinese,” Chow said in Chinese. Despite struggles, the church managed to grow and develop on the mainland, he added.

Bishop Chow, in his English sermon, mainly talked about missionaries in China. He also prayed for unity within the church in China as it contributes “to the welfare and best interests of the country,” the newspaper reported.

Chow’s message comes as Beijing and Vatican relations continue strained over the 2018 deal, which reportedly agreed to appoint bishops in China with mutual approval. Last November the Vatican said China violated the deal after China installed a bishop in a diocese not recognized by the Vatican.

The deal divided the already fractured Church with leaders of the underground Church calling it a “betrayal and sell-out” of the Catholics who remained loyal to the Vatican despite the state purge.

Human rights groups reported that since the deal was signed Beijing has intensified its crackdown to allegedly dismantle the underground church and force Catholics to join the state-run patriotic church.

The Vatican and China severed diplomatic relations in 1951.

No Mass on the Tiananmen anniversary

The Hong Kong diocese, which covers the entire former British colony, confirmed on May 10 that for the second consecutive year, there will be no Mass on June 4, to mark the anniversary of Beijing’s brutal crackdown on student-led democracy rallies in Tiananmen Square in 1989.

The annual mass on June 4 was a tradition until 2021. But the diocese said the Mass on May 24 would be “related to our search for memories and hope.”

However, during the Mass, Chow also made no mention of the crackdown.

Former Hong Kong bishop and outspoken China critic Cardinal Joseph Zen also attended the mass on May 24.

The 91-year-old church leader had hosted the last memorial mass for the Tiananmen crackdown on June 4, 2021, when the Diocese held seven “masses for the dead.”

In 2021, police restricted traditional candlelight vigils on the anniversary citing the Covid-19 pandemic.

The Beijing-imposed repressive national security law of 2020 also bans any unauthorized public rally. It came as the pro-Beijing regime sought to crush all forms of dissent amid a strong pro-democracy movement.

These restrictions left the churches as the only venues for the commemoration of the Tiananmen tragedy.

Zen, also a critic of the Vatican-China deal, was arrested last May along with four democracy campaigners for their involvement in a now-defunct humanitarian fund that offered legal and medical assistance to democracy campaigners.

During the 2021 Mass, Zen said it was offered “to commemorate our brothers and sisters who sacrificed their lives for our democracy and freedom 32 years ago on Tiananmen Square and in the nearby streets… they demanded a clean and honest government and strived for a truly strong nation. Unfortunately, they had to leave this world being labeled as rioters.”

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