Outspoken Cardinal Joseph Zen has been critical of certain people close to the pope
Cardinal Joseph Zen joins pro-democracy activists in front of Wanchai Police Station in Hong Kong on Jan. 24, 2015. He has long been a thorn in the side of Beijing. (Photo: AFP)
The arrest of Hong Kong's bishop emeritus, Cardinal Joseph Zen, 90, hardly comes as a surprise. He has been a thorn in the side of authorities in both Hong Kong and Beijing for decades and as Chinese leader Xi Jinping has tightened his grip on the city, he was surely on the list of high-profile agitators to be shut down.
Cardinal Zen, who is now on bail, has long been an advocate of democracy and the independence of Hong Kong by virtue of the “one country, two systems” formula. He has been a leading senior figure in protests in the city for many years. His criticism of the ruling Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has been as consistent as it has been harsh since he fled his native Shanghai for Hong Kong in the 1940s.
He was bishop of Hong Kong from 2002 to 2009 and was elevated to the College of Cardinals in 2006 by Pope Benedict XVI. During the so-called Umbrella Movement in 2014, he slept on the streets with student protesters. Older and frailer by the time protests amped up again in 2019, he was still in attendance and a constant presence on social media.
It must be said that he drove his successor Cardinal John Tong — who was forced to step back into the top job after his successor Michael Leung died in early 2020 — to distraction.
Cardinal Zen was arrested under Hong Kong’s tough national security law designed to bring people opposed to the CCP into line as Beijing continues its project to draw Hong Kong more completely into the People’s Republic.
Specifically, his arrest relates to his role as a trustee of the 612 Humanitarian Relief Fund. This was set up to offer financial assistance to those involved in anti-government protests in 2019. It was disbanded last year after authorities ordered it to share operational details. Four other trustees were also arrested. One is already in jail for other offenses under the security law.
Cardinal Zen’s primary concern is that the deal will kill the unofficial or underground church in China that comprises as many as half of China’s estimated 12 million Catholics
Cardinal Zen’s arrest came just two days after the appointment of John Lee as the Special Autonomous Region’s new chief executive. Lee, who will officially take office in June, was the former security minister and one of the key figures in the creation of the proposed extradition bill in 2019 that would have sent Hong Kong suspects to mainland China, where courts operate under the ruling CCP instead of the common law.
When Beijing imposed its sweeping national security law on Hong Kong in 2020, Lee was seen as its main facilitator and enforcer.
While Cardinal Zen’s support of protesters and agitation for democracy made him unpopular with Hong Kong authorities, the wider concern in Beijing has been his ongoing critique of the Vatican’s controversial and still secret 2018 deal with Beijing regarding the appointment of bishops.
Renewed in 2020, it was Rome’s attempt to restart a difficult relationship with the CCP that has seen waves of persecution of mainland Catholics over decades as well as a personal project of Pope Francis, who set Asia and China as a focus of his pontificate.
At that time, Beijing seized control of much of the Church, setting up the Chinese Patriotic Catholic Association (CPCA) as part of the party's apparatus.
Cardinal Zen’s primary concern is that the deal will kill the unofficial or underground church in China that comprises as many as half of China’s estimated 12 million Catholics. The underground church has fealty only to Rome and refused to recognize the state-run CPCA.
Cardinal Zen has always insisted that Beijing cannot be trusted and he sees the proof in the CCP’s long history of arresting and jailing priests and bishops, with a number still unaccounted for in recent decades
His contempt for the deal has not only been reserved only for Beijing but for Rome as well. In particular, he has targeted Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin, who “is the one who has his hands on the Chinese dossier. He clearly believes that such a position is necessary to open a new way for the evangelization of the immense Chinese nation. I have strong doubts.” He believes that Pope Francis has been duped by his chief lieutenant.
Cardinal Zen has always insisted that Beijing cannot be trusted and he sees the proof in the CCP’s long history of arresting and jailing priests and bishops, with a number still unaccounted for in recent decades. His fears of an attack on the unofficial church were borne out in recent years with the arrests of more than a dozen priests and bishops.
Cardinal Zen’s arrest is problematic for the Vatican in a number of ways. Its deal with Beijing is up for its two-year renewal by September and this will surely cloud any talks already underway. While Rome, too, will be unsurprised by his arrest, any moves to advance the case and perhaps put the nonagenarian in jail will only give Pope Francis’ increasingly noisy critics more ammunition.
Beijing/Hong Kong should also tread carefully as Cardinal Zen has become a symbol of religious opposition to the Chinese party-state. His arrest and potential incarceration will remind people of the communist parties in Eastern Europe who jailed church leaders such as Poland's Cardinal Stefan Wyszynski, creating heroes for many Catholics.
Persecuting religious heroes, or if they die while under investigation or jailed, creates martyrs, symbols to rally opposition. And this is true as much for the CCP as for Pope Francis and his allies in the Vatican.
* The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official editorial position of UCA News.
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