Bishop Stephen Chow of Hong Kong met Pope Francis on 17 March, as the Vatican prepares to review its controversial deal with China.
The deal was agreed in 2018, renewed in 2020 for a further two years, and expires in October. Vatican sources suggest that Bishop Chow also met Cardinal Pietro Parolin, the Secretary of State.
The trip was Bishop Chow’s first to Rome since he was installed as Bishop of Hong Kong in December. It was clearly important enough for him to leave Hong Kong, which is struggling with a resurgence of the coronavirus.
Pope Francis has been keen to conduct dialogue with China, but the deal has attracted strong criticism. Many Catholics question the appropriateness of granting the Chinese Communist Party a say in episcopal appointments, and several Catholic bishops and priests have been subjected to harassment and detention. The political situation in Hong Kong has also deteriorated since the imposition of the National Security Law in 2020. Pro-democracy politicians and journalists, including several prominent Catholics, have been jailed for various “crimes” related to free speech. In January, a state-owned newspaper in Hong Kong published articles attacking Cardinal Joseph Zen, the 90-year-old former Bishop of Hong Kong who has been an outspoken critic of Beijing. This may have been a warning to Bishop Chow, who had said it was “unacceptable when human dignity is ignored, trampled upon or discarded”.
Meanwhile, China’s government has begun a fresh crackdown on Hong Kong democracy activists, focusing outside the territory for the first time. UK-based campaign group Hong Kong Watch has been accused of “collusion with foreign forces to endanger national security”. The group’s website has been banned in Hong Kong, and its chief executive, Benedict Rogers, told he could be sentenced to three years in prison if he returns there. Rogers said last week that, “irrespective of this attempt to intimidate our staff and censor our website, we will continue to be a voice for the people of Hong Kong and those brave political prisoners who have been jailed under this authoritarian regime.”
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