Well, Red, while China's position on no contact between the Vatican and Chinese priests seems extremely bizarre, paranoid, and totalitarian (and it very much is, IMHO), one must understand it by looking at the issue from China's point of view, taking their history in mind. And that history is one of China once being a meaningless plaything of the Western powers, carved up into spheres of influence and occupied, and once being overrun by foreign missionaries who, even though they meant well, were not always very understanding of and appreciative of Chinese culture (in fact, they tried as hard as they could to radically change it to a culture more "Western" and "worthy of Christ") One of the big sticking points with the Communists in China, and one of the reasons why they won popular support of the people and swept to power in 1949, is their extreme position on national sovereignty; absolutely no foreign country, or foreign entity of any kind (church, corporation, agency, UN, whatever) having any sort of power over Chinese people or territory. So they are not cool with the Roman Catholic Church, or any other international church that has such a "top-down" heirarchy with the "top" being in another country. Is it ridiculously paranoid? Yes. But it's not totally without reason or logic. They know dang well what a key role the Catholic Church played in bringing down the Iron Curtain. Though the Church could never play that sort of role in China, they certainly could lend a hand to ending Communism there as well. All Chinese fear and loathe the interference of "outsiders" (particularly outsiders with white faces) in their country, moreso than their own government, unfortunately. So if democracy and true religious liberty are to come to China, they must rise up from within, and not be imposed from without. Also, the Chinese want to know who the Pope's special friend, Cardinal Pectorialis, is. They are convinced it's a Chinese priest, and they want his head. But the Pope took that secret to his grave.
I do not imply that we are a European ally. What I did do is assume readers of the post know is that the Vatican has no armed forces. I also assume readers of the post know we are an ally of Taiwan. I also assume the only true global powers are either the U.S., in Europe, or China. Therefore, if China is a antagonist is this case, and there are no European allies rushing to Taiwan's aid, but we would, then we would jump into the fray by our lonesome. And I did not take offense at your comment. But I am taking offense to your response to my comment. That is all.
I think you probably have the gist of it all right there. They wouldn't be the first country to sever the Pope's authority over their people. Henry VIII did it in 1534.
Whatever, I went back and read some of your post. Since now I am convinced that you are a bleeding heart liberal, I don't care if you take offense or not. Goodday.
Ok, moderator, how do a couple of my posts get deleted for being too off center, but this one gets to stay. Unbelievable. Whatever. My political orientation has nothing to do with this topic or can be determined from anything i've written in this thread. Good points Jetstream. It's a threat to their government.
