(SE): Archbishop Paul Gallagher, the Vatican secretary for relations with states for the past seven-and-a-half years, gave an interview—pubished in two parts—to America Magazine’s Vatican correspondent, Gerard O’Connell, in which he spoke about the geopolitical situation in the world, the Holy See’s accession to the UN Convention on Climate Change, Pope Francis’ visit to Canada and possible papal visits to other countries and a wide range of issues that matter to the Church.
In the rist part of the interview, published on July 11, Archbishop Gallagher had revealed that the Vatican would soon appoint diplomats to its study mission in Hong Kong and its diplomatic mission in Taiwan.
A week later, on July 19, Italian journalist, Gianni Cardinale, reported in the Italian Catholic daily, Avvenire, that Monsignor José Luis Diaz Maria Blanca Sanchez from Spain, had been assigned to the study mission in Hong Kong, while Monsignor Stefano Mazzotti from Italy was appointed interim chargé d’affaires to Taipei.
America published the second part of the interview on July 18, in which Archbishop Gallagher answered specific questions on the Holy See’s relationship with China and assessed the provisional agreement between the two sides on the appointment of bishops.
The agreement has the function of being a sort of confidence-building measure; if we can work successfully with the Chinese authorities on the appointment of bishops, then that obviously helps both parties to begin to examine other questions as well
Four years on from the signing of the provisional agreement in 2018 [Sunday Examiner, 30 September 2018], the archbishop expressed his hopes for better results in the future. “The balance sheet, I suppose, is not terribly impressive. We’ve had six episcopal appointments and there are some others in the pipeline. So it’s not without results,” he remarked.
“I suppose we would have liked to see more results, and there’s much work to be done. But the agreement is delivering to a certain extent. The agreement could deliver more, but we have had Covid, and the delegations have not been able to meet in recent years. So, we’re working on that now, and we’re trying to move forward and make the agreement work and work better,” he added.
Archbishop Gallagher acknowledged that had been no meetings in the past two years due to the travel restrictions brought on by the pandemic, and there were also no online meetings. “The agreement has the function of being a sort of confidence-building measure; if we can work successfully with the Chinese authorities on the appointment of bishops, then that obviously helps both parties to begin to examine other questions as well,” the archbishop added.
Remarking on Pope Francis’ recent comment that he hopes to extend the agreement that will expire in October 2022, America reported the archbishop as saying, “It will be up to the two parties to negotiate whether we renew it for a year or two years. Last time, we renewed it for two years. I suspect that that will be the case again.”
When asked about the reasons for the secrecy and not making the text of the provisional agreement public, Archbishop Gallagher said, “I’m led to believe that right from the beginning, it was decided by common consent that the text would not be published, at least not until it’s signed definitively. Furthermore, there is an undertaking to try and improve the text. When we see that maybe certain things don’t work as well as they should, then that may be the moment when the text could be modified and improved.”
I’m led to believe that right from the beginning, it was decided by common consent that the text would not be published, at least not until it’s signed definitively. Furthermore, there is an undertaking to try and improve the text
The previous meeting between the archbishop and Chinese officials was in February 2020, when he met the Chinese foreign minister, Wang Yi, in Munich. However, he expressed his desire that there could be more such meetings, where Pietro Cardinal Parolin could meet some higher officials and “possibly, preparing the way for a meeting between Xi Jinping and the Holy Father. There’s that desire.”
When the asked about the recent developments in Hong Kong, including the arrest of Joseph Cardinal Zen, the archbishop said, “the Holy See was very concerned by the arrest of Cardinal Zen. We were unaware that he was a member of this organisation [the 612 Humanitarian Relief Fund, which provided legal, medical and financial assistance to those who were arrested, injured or threatened with violence during the pro-democracy protests]. I certainly was not aware of it. That he was a member of that organisation was obviously not appreciated by the authorities in Hong Kong. I think his arrest was something that for us was very surprising, and we hope that the matter can be resolved satisfactorily in the near future.”
Asked about Bishop Stephen Chow Sau Yan’s recent article in the Sunday Examiner [June 3], in which he wrote: “I can feel that Hong Kong, including our Church, are becoming more like an existence within cracks…” and “spaciousness for our freedom of expression, which we had taken for granted, seems diminishing,” Archbishop Gallagher reiterated the Holy See’s commitment to the defence of religious freedom.
“If the bishop [Stephen Chow] feels that the space for Hong Kong Catholics is diminishing, we obviously regret that, and we will try to be as supportive as we can” the archbishop said, adding, “Obviously, the situation has changed, if that’s what the bishop is saying. I think we will be encouraging our people to make the best of the freedom they have, of the space they have, as we would in many countries of the world.”
Archbishop Gallagher said, “It’s not as if religious freedom is to be taken for granted very much these days; there are lots of restrictions on people’s freedom. And the Holy See works to try and assist and improve those situations wherever they are, whether it’s Hong Kong or somewhere else.”
