RU 48/2010 - CHINA, ISLAM, Mrs AUBRY

CHINA (ru, Dec 7th, 2010). The Church in China? This is not easy to describe, as the situation is at the same time hot and cold, both on the side of the Chinese as on the side of the Vatican. Let’s say it bluntly: even if Benedict XVI sees only “one single Catholic Church", there are on one side the official Patriotic Church which is strongly backed by the Communist regime, and on the other side the underground Church which is faithful to Rome. There are no official figures, but well informed sources say that there are approximately 60 bishops and 6 million of faithful on each side, which means totally some 120 bishops and 12 million Chinese Catholics. This is not nothing, even if they represent only 1 percent of the population of China. Here is what one can read in the Chinese Directory Statistics, edited by the Governmental Office of Statistics in Beijing (it’s apparently impossible to find any more recent edition than for the year 1997, published in the China Daily ), but these figures are probably strongly falsified, especially by the fact that the regime does not recognize the underground Catholics:
- Buddhists : 13,000 temples, 200,000 religious of whom 12,000 lamas (men and women) ;
- Taoists : 1500 temples, 25,000 priests and religious ;
- Islamists: 30,000 mosques, 18 million of practitioners, 40,000 Imams ;
- Protestants : 12,000 temples, 25,000 meeting places, 10 million practitioners, 18,000 pastors ;
- Catholics: 4,600 churches and meeting places, 4 million practitioners, 4,000 priests;
- taking all religions together, there are 74 educational institutions of the clergy.
The Communist regime, right from its arrival in 1949, had driven out of the country the then operating 5000 Roman Catholic missionaries, but the Church continued to live. In 1957 the regime imposed to the Catholics (as to other religions ) to join together in the form of a single association which would be the vis-à-vis, or rather the order taking organization, of the Communist Government. This was the birth of the "Catholic Patriotic Association of China”, which was excommunicated by the Vatican. But many true Catholics, and even complete dioceses, preferred to disappear: this was the birth of the underground Church of China, totally faithful to Rome. Therefore, for 53 years, these two ‘Catholic’ Churches’ are operating simultaneously on the vast Chinese territory, and each us continuing to excommunicate the other one. The campaign of Hundred Flowers , launched by Mao before 1966, seemed to usher in an era which might bring more freedom for the Catholics, but the Cultural Revolution of 1966 marked the start of a black period: destruction of churches, deportation of many priests and faithful to the Laogais (labour camps, in other words: concentration camps). Finally, in 1978, the Government announced a relative freedom of worship, recognizing 5 religions, which are those mentioned in the governmental directory mentioned above, but of course, in order to be able to exist and to operate, they had to fit to the pattern of "patriotic associations," in reality slaves of the regime. In 1999 a new violent persecution period started with the destruction of the Falun Gong sect, allowing to put under pressure all those who did not want to assemble in the slave-associations of the regime, including half of the Catholics, i.e. the underground Church. This was the action "Strike hard" of 2001. The Vatican, which has no nunciature in mainland China, but only on Taiwan, tried to manoeuvre in this Chinese universe which is constantly in movement, without any tangible results. The decisive point is always the consecration of the new bishops, with or without the agreement of the Vatican. The ‘wild’ consecrations, supported by the regime but not by the Vatican, had practically ceased since the year 2000, with one exception in 2006, but on November 20th, 2010, a new ordination, against the clearly expressed opinion of the Pope, took place in the bishopric of Chengde, Hebei province, in the presence of 8 Catholic bishops, of whom several - if not all – had been ordered with the agreement of the pope. This has put an end, for the time being, to the already well advanced negociations between the Vatican and the regime concerning the opening of an Apostolic nunciature in Beijing. By the way, the bishops who comply with the regime are under constant supervision, often in controlled residence and kidnapped by the police. That’s were we are now. The only bishop who can speak out clearly, is the former archbishop of Hong Kong, retreated in Rome, cardinal Zen. He is talking particularly on behalf of the underground Church, specifying: "What other crime the consecrators who order illicit bishops would not be ready to commit ‘for the good of Church’?" This declaration reveals what are widely thinking the underground Catholics faithful in Rome. One must say that our Catholic brothers and sisters in the underground Church of China have more courage than we have, to designate the true and the false Catholics, the eternal compromisers and the martyrs, the standing faithful and the lying faithful. Did not Saint John in the New Testament, yet known as the apostle of charity, practice a very similar harsh language? The Gospel of Christ is never easy to set to work.

ISLAM (ru; December 7th, 2010). At the recent Synod of Bishops of the Middle East in Rome, there was at least one prelate who dared to tell the whole truth about Islam and in particular its basic book, the Koran. It’s Mgr Antoine Beylouni, Lebanese archbishop of Antioch. His intervention has not been reported in extenso in the Osservatore Romano, which is the unofficial spokesman of the Vatican, including the following paragraph about the Koran. Because of its relevance, this article weighs gold for its clarity and precision (UNEC’s translation): "The Koran instils to the Muslim the pride to have the only true and complete religion… This is the reason why the Moslems come to dialog with the feeling of superiority and with the insurance of being victorious… In the Koran, there is no equality between man and woman, neither in the marriage itself…; nor in the field of legacy where men have double rights; neither in the testimony before the judges where the statement of a man equals the statement of two women, etc. The Koran allows to the Muslim, in front of the Christians, to hide the truth and to speak and act contrary to what he really thinks and believes. In the Koran, there are contradictory verses, and verses which are cancelled by other verses, which gives the Muslim the possibility to use either one or the other according to his advantage… The Koran gives the Muslim the right to judge the Christians and to kill them by Islamic Jihad. It orders to impose Islam by force, by the sword… This is why the Muslims do not recognize the religious freedom, neither for themselves nor for the others. » (Valeurs Actuelles Nov 11) - In 2002, Mgr Georges El-Murr, assistant patriarch of the (Catholic) Melkhites for Jordan and Iraq, explained to us approximately the following: "The heart of the Muslims is bewitched by Mohammed, which fact makes their conversion practically impossible. A Muslim man will lose everything if he becomes a Christian: he must renounce to his male pride and his family despotism, and must become humble and crucified with Christ. This is humanly impossible. » He added that he has experienced, during his long life of 73 years, only one real conversion of a Muslim to Christ. There were many others, but according Mgr El-Murr, those were interested conversions, e.g. in order to obtain a scholarship at a Jesuit University in the U.S. , or to marry a rich Christian girl, etc. - All the more praiseworthy are the efforts of evangelization that some missionaries and Catholic groups of laymen are implementing to bring these souls, created by God and for God as we are ourselves, close to the only Saviour Jesus Christ, as this is currently done in Vienna/Austria (already 200 adult conversions), and very recently in Paris (group BNM, formed by UNEC and AMEN, BP 70114, F-95210 St-Gratien, bnm.amen@orange.fr ).

MADAM AUBRY (ru; December 7th, 2010). Mrs. Martine Aubry will probably run for the presidential elections in France in 2012, but her arrival to the Elysee Palace could mean the end of Christian France, and the beginning of Islamist France. Here are the facts. Born in 1950 as a daughter of the ‘very catholic’ socialist Europeanist politician Jacques Delors, she was first married to a certain Mr. Aubry of whom she has kept only the name until today. Because in 2004 she divorced, and married, in the same year, a man of Lille called Jean-Louis Brochen, Salafist and lawyer of the Moslem. The latter had defended in 1993 the 17 student girls who were veiled and by this fact had been excluded from the College Faidherbe. In 2001, at the famous trial of Douai, he defended one of the three members of the ‘gang of Roubaix’. He also defended the awful Rap group ‘Sniper’, who are openly anti-white racists. He’s nicknamed "The lawyer of the Islamists". Thus, one can better understand that, since Mrs. Aubry is the mayor of Lille, the number of Muslim employees at the City Council House has increased, there is a swimming pool reserved for Muslims, there are ‘halal’ meals in schools, there are Muslim banks, Islamic schools, as well as separate cinemas, restaurants and theatres for each sex… In the early 1990ies, Mrs. Martine Aubry participated in a socialist-communist squad which attacked a peaceful symposium of Renaissance Catholic at Lille, entering violently into the meeting room, reversing exposition tables and lifting the hand against the attendees, until the police arrived in order to protect the Catholics against this anti-Christian outpouring. Let’s say to all Socialists tempted to vote for this lady: "Do you want this to France: still less Christians, and always more Islamists ? »