Editorial

It's not just a game

It may surprise many Catholic Americans that the Church in China predates the Church in the Western Hemisphere by more than two centuries. The first church was built in Beijing in 1294, long before Christopher Columbus discovered the Western Hemisphere.

China's Christians, however, have suffered many persecutions over the past 700 years, most recently at the hands of communist authorities.

During the current celebration of athletic endeavor and international unity that characterizes, at its best, the Olympic spirit, we would do well to remember that these games are occurring in a country that has a long track record of religious as well as political oppression.

Best known in recent memory is the crackdown in Tiananmen Square, the violent suppression of the Falun Gong and the decades-long occupation and repression in Tibet, but Christians in China have also suffered imprisonment, torture and death for the sake of their faith.

Earlier this year, the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom expressed concern about China in its annual report, citing its suppression of Tibetan Buddhists, Uighur Muslims and Catholics not registered with the Chinese government.

Last month, the U.S. House of Representatives passed a resolution calling for an end to human rights violations in China. These rights violations have included forced abortions and sterilizations as well as the repression of religious organizations deemed unapproved by the government.

Complicating our understanding of Chinese Christianity is the fact that the government has allowed the existence of Christian organizations -- such as the Catholic Patriotic Association -- but insists on appointing their leadership and refuses to allow them to recognize the authority of the Vatican or other international bodies. It is one of the ironies of this Olympics that the president of the United States, who has been outspoken in his criticism of human rights violations in some countries in the Middle East, will be attending religious services at a Chinese Protestant church sanctioned by the same government that has been persecuting other Protestants.

The Vatican has pursued a subtle policy regarding China. It has sought to establish and maintain contact with the government-approved Catholic association, at times even regularizing the status of bishops originally appointed by the government. At the same time, as Pope Benedict XVI wrote in his 2007 letter to the Chinese Church, compliance by the Church with communist authorities "is not acceptable when they interfere unduly in matters regarding the faith and discipline of the Church." The Vatican takes the long view, knowing, as it did in the Soviet Union, that such regimes don't last forever, while the Church does.

Neither the creep of diplomacy nor the marketing of the Olympic Games, however, should keep U.S. Catholics from remembering in their prayers the thousands of Catholics who remain loyal to Rome at great personal risk.

While news reports during the Olympics laud the striking architecture of the "new" China, its massive industrialization, rising standard of living and its untapped market for consumer goods, U.S. Catholics must remember that there is another side to this story.

China is more than just a consumer market or a producer of cheap goods. It has more than 1 billion souls, most of whom are either ignorant of the Gospel or persecuted for their beliefs. The recent spate of publicity cannot obscure the fact that China's government continues to pose a threat both to the rights and salvation of its people.