ROME – U. S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo suggested Wednesday to the Vatican that he join the United States in denouncing violations of devout freedom in China, saying that the Catholic Church deserves to be at the forefront of combat to emphasize basic human rights.
Pompeo called for a convention on freedom organized through the United States Embassy to the Holy See, with senior Vatican officials at the hearing. This came when the Vatican entered into delicate negotiations with Beijing on the extension of its debatable agreement on the appointment of bishops of China.
Pompeo harshly criticized the agreement, writing an essay this month in which he suggested that the Vatican had compromised its authority by signing it. His article greatly enraged the Vatican, which saw it as an interference in the internal affairs of the Church to mark questions of internal politics. .
Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin said the Holy See was “surprised” by Pompeo’s article. Speaking to reporters outside the conference, Parolin said Pompeo’s planned personal meetings at the Vatican would have been the most appropriate scenario to explain his concerns, Italian news firm ANSA reported.
Neither Parolin nor Archbishop Paul Gallagher, the Vatican’s foreign minister, spoke of China in his official statements at the conference, which was held in the reception room of a hotel near the United States embassy. as a basic human right.
“The protective freedom factor to enable the local Catholic Church to carry out its project remains an indispensable component of the outreach and activity of the Holy See,” Gallagher said, criticizing “ideological” threats to freedom, such as the law in some western nations. that redefine classic gender concepts.
In his comments, Pompeo echoed the Trump administration’s harsh complaint about Beijing, which increased after the detection of the coronavirus in China and in the run-up to the US presidential election on November 3.
“Nowhere is freedom attacked more than in China,” Pompeo said, accusing the ruling Communist Party of running “day and night to put out the lamp of freedom, especially freedom, on a terrible scale. “
Pompeo, quoting St. John Paul II, Pope Benedict XVI and Pope Francis retired, suggested that leaders commit themselves more to protecting all believers.
“Being a church” permanently on a mission “has many meanings. One of them is actually to be a church permanently for the defense of basic human rights,” he said, referring to a word Francis uses.
In his essay published in the conservative magazine “First Things,” Pompeo said the Agreement between the Vatican and China did not feature Catholics from the devout Chinese repression and warned that the Vatican had compromised its ethical authority by signing it.
“We need each and every establishment to use its power. I think the churches, and the included Catholic Church, have enormous capacity,” Pompeo said Wednesday as he protected the rehearsal. “They have supported the oppressed peoples of the world. “
The Vatican defended its agreement with China, saying that it was a purely ecclesial factor in the appointment of bishops and not a political or diplomatic agreement. The Vatican said that the agreement had produced “limited” but positive effects and that it valued the extension for some other specific period.
Critics, and added the retired Archbishop of Hong Kong, said the Vatican had sold to China’s illegal Catholics, who for decades remained unwavering to Rome, at a higher non-public cost. More sympathetic Chinese observers say at most that the agreement has avoided an irrevocable schism in China by creating a mechanism through which bishops can be appointed through a dialogue procedure.
When asked Wednesday how the Holy See won pompeo’s test, Gallagher told reporters, “He won critically. “
He also stated that the proximity of Pompeo’s scale to U. S. elections “is one of the reasons why the Holy Father does not obtain the Secretariat of State. “
Pompeo, who met with the Pope last year when he spoke at a similar conference, will meet Gallagher and Parolin at the Vatican on Thursday.
After the conference, Pompeo met with Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte, the first leader of the Group of Seven to point out the China Belt and Road infrastructure initiative. Conte said at the time of Italy’s 2019 signaling, which had been done despite objections from the United States, that this would not call into question Italy’s transatlantic partnerships.
An adjunct spokesman for the state branch, Cale Brown, said Pompeo raised the factor in his assembly with Conte and noted the “risks” of doing business with China.
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