Just when Cardinal Zen needed the Pope, there was silence, with the Pontiff shamed by German bishop
The trial of Cardinal Joseph Zen - a long-standing critic of the Vatican’s accommodation with the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) – will begin on September 19, following his arrest under China’s national security law. Zen – made a cardinal by Benedict XVI in 2006 - and four others, face charges of failing to properly register a now-defunct fund to help anti-government protesters in Hong Kong. As Ed Condon argued in Pillar Catholic: “According to senior Catholics on the ground, it is widely believed that the authorities will charge that many of the 621 Fund’s donations come outside Hong Kong, and can be tied to non-state actors linked to the U.S. government.” This could see Zen convicted as a foreign agent, while he may also be used a bargaining chip by the CCP.
