Cardinal: Chinese Catholics are united in 'fundamentally one' church

Published: 2006-10-03

LONDON (CNS) -- Catholics in China are united in "fundamentally one" church despite government attempts to create divisions, said Cardinal Joseph Zen Ze-kiun of Hong Kong. Cardinal Zen called the division between Catholics loyal to the communist state and those loyal to the pope artificial. During a Sept. 29 press conference in London, Cardinal Zen said the Catholic Church in China had not been separated by "theological differences" but by the response of its own members to decades of persecution by atheistic communists. "The Catholic Church in China is fundamentally one," Cardinal Zen said. "They're separate ... but just in front of the policies of the government. The patriotic official church exists only as an instrument of the state," he said. When the state changes, church divisions will disappear, he added. Cardinal Zen visited London to speak on the situation of the church in China at an event in Westminster Cathedral. The event was sponsored by Aid to the Church in Need, a Catholic charity that assists poor and persecuted churches.

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