Beijing Steps Up Accusations Against Vatican Over Martyrs
Patriotic Church Joins in on the Attacks Regarding Oct. 1 Canonizations
BEIJING, SEPT. 26, 2000 (ZENIT.org).- Beijing-sanctioned leaders leveled strong accusations against the Vatican today, saying Rome has wounded the Chinese people with the forthcoming canonizations of 120 martyrs killed in Chinese territory.
Sun Yuxi, spokesman of the Chinese Foreign Affairs Ministry, said the martyrs committed «enormous crimes» and claimed they were killed in the Chinese struggle against imperialism and colonialism.
Their canonization, he said, «distorts and tramples on history, embellishes imperialism, is a calumny against the Chinese people, lovers of peace, wounds the Chinese's feelings, and insults their dignity. The government and Chinese people cannot tolerate it.»
In Rome, Vatican spokesman Joaquin Navarro-Valls said the accusations «cannot but cause profound pain to those who see in the imminent canonization of 120 martyrs in China, the exaltation of men and women, the majority Chinese citizens, who knew how to live their own commitment to faith with coherence, to the point of giving their life.»
«Next Sunday's ceremony has no political motive and is not directed against anyone,» Navarro-Valls said, «much less so against the great Chinese people, whose traditions of civilization have always been recognized and appreciated by the Vatican and, in particular, by Pope John Paul II.»
The Vatican spokesman recalled that «the Holy See proceeds with a beatification or canonization only after a serious and profound examination not only of the sources and historical testimonies, but also of the heroic virtues of the persons to whom it renders homage.»
Hence, he asked: «How is it possible to imagine that the Holy See can canonize persons who have committed 'enormous crimes'? If it were true that the historical reality has been distorted, why did the civil and religious Chinese community not react against the processes of beatification of the 120 martyrs, which began in 1893, under the pontificate of Leo XIII?»
Many of the 120 martyrs, who will be proclaimed saints by John Paul I on Sunday, died during the Boxer Rebellion of 1900, considered by the Chinese government as a patriotic movement against imperialism. Some historians, however, say it was an outburst of brutal xenophobia.
The Catholic Patriotic Association - the state-controlled church - added its voice to the Chinese government's protest.
In its first public statement, broadcast on radio and television, the association and «patriotic» bishops' conference denounced that with the canonizations the Vatican is trying to get control over Catholics and encourage believers to oppose the socialist system and government.
Patriotic Catholics also accuse the martyrs of committing «very grave crimes,» and consider the choice of Oct. 1, the national holiday of the Popular Republic, to be intended as a «public humiliation» of the Chinese people. The Vatican chose this date because it is the feast of St. Thérèse of Lisieux, world patroness of missions.
The statement of the patriotic group ends by requesting the Vatican to change its «hostile policy» toward China and to «repent of its errors.»
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