M’land-Vatican Relations Warm Up, Taiwan Has More Work to Do

  M’land-Vatican Relations Warm Up, Taiwan Has More Work to Do

United Daily News Editorial (Taipei, Taiwan)

September 25, 2018

 Translation of an Excerpt

Something that long-worried Taiwan finally happened. The Vatican and the Mainland have signed an interim agreement on bishop appointments; in the future, bishops on the Mainland would be nominated by Beijing and then appointed or vetoed by the Pope. This represents that relations between Beijing and the Vatican have taken a big step forward.

Although the Holy See is not a temporal state, it after all makes political judgments. How to take care of the 12 million Catholic faithful on the Mainland has been a concern on the minds of succeeding Popes. The Holy See is also worried that the faithful on the Mainland belong separately to the Patriotic Catholic Church controlled by the PRC and the underground church pledging allegiance to the Holy See, both being isolated and rivaled. Pope Francis declared in his statement that he especially hoped to "achieve solidarity among the Catholic faithful in China."

For Taiwan, or as stated by Matthew Lee, ROC ambassador to the Vatican, the Holy See has reached an agreement on bishop appointments with the PRC, hoping to promote the free development of religion on the Mainland. However, what worries Taiwan the most is setting up of diplomatic ties between the Vatican and the Mainland, which would not occur in the near future. The Holy See has also reiterated to us that the agreement will not affect Taiwan-Vatican relations. Of course, Taiwan cannot take the whole thing lightly.

How it opens up depends on the wisdom of the Mainland authorities; the bishop appointments agreement is only a first step. The normal development of the Catholic Church on the Mainland still has a long way to go. From bishop appointments to the setting up of diplomatic ties with the Vatican, although a long distance still exists, now that cross-Strait relations are deteriorating, Taiwan has practically no leverage points. Besides underscoring the guarantee of the freedom of religion and beliefs, we should, with all efforts, safeguard Taiwan-Vatican relations, while keeping an eye on preventing the effects of warming Mainland-Vatican relations from further expansion.

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