We hear a lot about China these days: from official Vatican narratives surrounding the effectiveness of the controversial Sino-Vatican Pact to this week’s visit to Hong Kong of Bishop Joseph Li-Shan, leader of the Chinese Catholic Patriotic Association (CCPA), at the invitation of the Bishop of Hong Kong, Cardinal Stephen Chow.
Benedict Rogers, whose experience of these matters is unsurpassed,has already questioned the wisdom of Cardinal Chow’s overtures to the CCPA in the Herald, while Lord Patten of Barnes, the last British governor of Hong Kong, has described the Vatican’s approach as “self-delusion”, and little more than a “policy of appeasement” towards “thuggish dictators”.
