Cardinal Bo speaks the unspeakable

In launching his unprecedented attack on China over its culpability for COVID-19, Myanmar’s Cardinal Charles Maung Bo appears to be on a collision course with both the Vatican’s Secretariat of State and Myanmar’s government and military.

Apr 17, 2020

By Michael Sainsbury
In launching his unprecedented attack on China over its culpability for COVID-19, Myanmar’s Cardinal Charles Maung Bo appears to be on a collision course with both the Vatican’s Secretariat of State and Myanmar’s government and military.

But the Archbishop of Yangon has form in standing up to China and others with vested interests as well as for oppressed people — stances that have cast him as Asia’s most fascinating senior cleric. It’s a role that he has consolidated over the past 18 months after succeeding his close friend Cardinal Oswald Gracias as president of the Federation of Asian Bishops’ Conferences.

It is safe to use that overused term “unprecedented” in describing Cardinal Bo’s comments. This is true for both the scope and vehemence of his attack on Beijing as he placed the blame for the coronavirus crisis specifically on the ruling Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and demanded reparations from the repressive regime for the whole nightmare.

It’s worth repeating his summary: “In particular, the regime has launched a campaign against religion, resulting in the destruction of thousands of churches and crosses and the incarceration of at least one million Uyghur Muslims in concentration camps … And Hong Kong, once one of Asia’s most open cities, has seen its freedoms, human rights and rule of law dramatically eroded.

“Through its inhumane and irresponsible handling of the coronavirus, the CCP has proven what many previously thought: that it is a threat to the world. China, as a country, is a great and ancient civilisation that has contributed much to the world throughout history. Still, this regime is responsible, through its criminal negligence and repression, for the pandemic sweeping through our streets today.”

No words were minced, and no punches pulled. His intent and message were crystal clear, and it is here that lies something of a puzzle.

The cardinal attacked the CCP head-on in a way that the Vatican has specifically avoided for decades as it has struggled to find a way to reach some sort of compromise with China’s atheist and avowedly anti-religious leadership in order to mend the rift in the Catholic Church in the country. The Chinese Church is split about 50-50 between the CCP’s “official” Church and the so-called underground Church now suffering its worst wave of persecution since the days of Mao Zedong.

To drive the knife in further, Cardinal Bo namechecked the Muslim Uyghur ethnic minority, more than a million of whom have been incarcerated in “re-education camps” in Xinjiang, as Beijing carries out a programme of cultural desecration that can only be described as evil. Like the “three Ts” of Tibet, Taiwan and Tiananmen, this is simply a no-go area for the CCP. The cardinal’s comments will have made many senior Chinese officials apoplectic.

The Vatican’s reticence to criticise Beijing has become even more pronounced under Pope Francis, who vowed both to make Asia a key focus of his papacy and to achieve what his predecessors failed to do — make a deal with Beijing on the appointment of bishops.

China is in dispute with most countries in the region either over territorial claims in the sea or, as with India, on land and in the economic sphere where many regard China as an economic colonialist.

In many ways, Cardinal Bo’s concerns echo not just those of his fellow Asians but also those of people across the globe at a time when the stark overreliance of most countries on China has become apparent. It seems that the Asian bishops are very much behind Cardinal Bo. And, just maybe, he is saying things that the Pope would like to say but simply cannot.--ucanews.com

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