MCLC: Xi vs the Pope (4)

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MCLC LIST
Xi vs the Pope (4)
I did not mean to suggest that Beijing's leaders view the Pope as a jackal or a terrorist, but that their habit of denigrating Muslim and Tibetan Buddhist leaders in precisely those terms -- and repressing public displays of respect toward them -- may have left them unable to imagine the adulation that would meet Pope Francis in the U.S.
Xun Liu's assertion that "the PRC state is perfectly aware of the symbolic and religious importance of the papacy" is, on one level, surely true -- they have doubtless done the research.  But to understand religious views which one does not share requires more than research; it requires empathy and imagination.  After expelling the Nuncio and later all foreign missionaries in the early 1950s, the CCP recognized that Chinese Catholics needed a Pope.  But their solution revealed a lack of understanding.  They approached Zhou Jishi, Archbishop of Nanchang, and offered to make him "the Pope of China." His response was both tactful and witty: "I should prefer to be pope of the whole world."
Xun Liu's suggestion that the confidence with which this trip was timed reflects a "secularized" worldview is entirely persuasive and uncontroversial.  I am merely pointing out some background history which may explain why that worldview was unable to envision a different social and ideational reality.   I also think the question, "Do [Chinese] or most of them really care about the sharp contrast [between XJP's and the Pope's receptions]?" is a good one.  I suspect the answer probably is, "A few care, and most do not care."  In matters not affecting personal economic interests or the honor of an established totem, that is usually a safe answer in any country.
Finally, Xun Liu objects that the original report is "dishonest" when it "characterizes the Vatican as possessing no economic wealth."  The report cited Ambassador Guajardo, and the term he used was "economic might," which is distinct from wealth.  I believe he meant that the Vatican does not participate significantly in international trade: few businessmen gather at St. Peter's in pursuit of lucrative contracts.  Since such trade is widely considered a factor in the attention that gets paid or not paid to the leaders of countries, the Ambassador's observation was pertinent and, I think, correct.
A. E. Clark <aec at raggedbanner.com>
by denton.2 at osu.edu on September 30, 2015
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