Vatican-Beijing Relations: WSJ

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(1) Francis X Rocca and Eva Dou, Vatican to Bow to China on Bishops. Wall Street Journal, Feb 2, 2018 (front page)
Has a sidebar whose heading is "For Vatican, China is a bone of contention." In the sidebar, the last paragraph is
"Could they restore ties?  The re-establishment of relations is a distant goal, with other problems remaining."

Note: There is no need to read the rest, which is familiar to us.

(2) Francis X Rocca, Pope's Chia Stance Clashes with Image. Wall Street Journal, Feb 3, 2018.
https://www.wsj.com/articles/pop ... ppressed-1517600924

Note: The report is locked behind paywall, whose full text is below.
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ROME—Pope Francis' recent decision to replace two Chinese bishops loyal to Rome with selectees of the country’s Communist government, heralding his broader moves to reset the Vatican’s ties with Beijing, has drawn cries of betrayal from advocates of the country's long-persecuted 'underground' Catholic Church.

The pope's actions in China are characteristic of a leader who has repeatedly practiced realpolitik to achieve important goals. But they clash with Pope Francis’' image among many Catholics and others as a defender of of the oppressed -- a profile likely to be further tested by his campaign to improve Vatican-China relations after seven decades of estrangement.

The pope has decided to recognize seven government-appointed Chinese bishops, according to a person familiar with the matter, in a major concession to Beijing in pursuit of warmer relations and—in the very long term—possible reestablishment of diplomatic ties broken in 1951. As part of that decision, Pope Francis has moved to repalce two bishops loyal to the Vatican with prelates from China's state-controlled Catholic Church.

Cardinal Joseph Zen, a former bishop f Hong Kong, wrote on Monday [Jan 29] that the Vatican seemed to be 'selling out the Catholic Church in China.' Vatican officials now expect the pope's stance in China to more such criticisms from Chinese Catholics who reject government control of the church.

This isn't the first time Catholics have complained that the pope has abandoned them in pursuit if diplomatic or political ends. But while the outcome of his China initiative remains uncertain, when Pope Francis has seemed to make such trade-offs in the past [with other countries], the nature of his long-term goals has generally limited the outcry.

Pope Francis 'is a man of extreme realism who calculates very much the effects of what he says or does,' said Sandro Magister, a Vatican expert who writes for L'Espresso magazine. 'In order to achieve certain results he is quite ready to play down the concern that he otherwise shows for the persecuted and the oppressed.

Ukrainian Christians say Pope Francis has de-emphasized Russian aggression against their country by describing the fight against Russian-backed separatists in the east as 'fratricidal.' They say that stance reflects his effort to cultivate relations with the Russian Orthodox Church[, which has close ties to the Kremlin: this clause appears in the online version but not in print0. In 2017, he achieved a dramatic milestone in his effort to reunify the Catholic and Orthodox churches after a 1,000-year split when he held the first meeting by a pope with a Russian orthodox patriarch.

Similarly, Middle Eastern Christians have accused the pope of neglecting their plight to promote better ties with Islam.

In China, the pope seeks to increase at least incrementally the religious liberty of Catholics, even by means of compromise with an officially atheistic state. He also seeks to unify the underground Catholic community and members of the state-controlled church.