In a seven-page interview entitled This Pontificate is a time for sowing and not for reaping in the August issue of the German theological monthly Herder Korrespondenz,the editor in chief of the Jesuit journal La Civilta Cattolica, Fr Antonio Spadaro SJ, discussed Pope Francis’ style of governance and the Vatican’s policy on China.
“The place where Francis makes his decisions is not at his desk but in his chapel at morning prayer,” he told his interviewer. Francis did not have a detailed reform plan but proceeded by listening and meditating. “If he sees that, after inner discernment, a decision is mature, he gets it off the ground and espouses it.”
At the Amazon Synod, however, although there had been a “great discussion” on the question of ordaining married men, the Synod had not put the Pope in a position “to understand God’s will (on this question)”, Spadaro said.
All in all, Francis’ pontificate was more a “pontificate of sowing and not of reaping”, he noted. “The Pope has sown a great deal in recent years,” he recalled. “His successor will not be able to ignore that. He will not be able to go back but will forge ahead.”
In Pope Francis’ words, La Civilta Cattolica was the “unofficial journal of the Pope”, Spadaro recalled.
Asked why the Pope had not spoken out against the continuing and increasing violation of human rights by the Chinese government, Spadaro recalled that Pope Francis had on several occasions, as recently as 24 May, called for prayers for the Chinese people.
“He is very much aware that it must be a case of solving the problem instead of merely condemning [the violations] and grandstanding. … Who says that the Pope has to speak out personally on all the world’s problems?” Spadaro said.
He thought the present agreement between the Holy See and China, which expires in September, would be extended.
Meanwhile Jimmy Lai, the publisher of Hong Kong’s popular pro-democracy newspaper Apple Daily, was arrested on suspicion of foreign collusion under the new national security law imposed by Beijing on Hong Kong last month.
Police arrested Mr Lai at his home Monday morning according to an executive of Apple Daily’s publishing company. His two sons and four company employees were also arrested.
About 200 police also raided Apple Daily’s newsroom, stringing up cordons as staff members live-streamed the raid. At one point, police brought a shackled Mr Lai, who is in his 70s, into the newsroom.
“This is for sure thwarting the freedom of press, it’s needless to say,” he said in Cantonese on the live stream.
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