The Gun Counter

http://www.nationalreview.com/article/4 ... wing-state

So the Vatican is letting the Chicoms pick their Bishops. I believe the Pope owes Henry IV an apology.

Perhaps so, but when the one you name may disappear if not acceptable to the local warlords, perhaps it's the better choice to nominate one more acceptable in order to keep the church presence in China rather than have it vanish completely.

The church had a similar problem with Stalin, so there is precedence.

Precedent, yes, but what was the fuss with the Tudors, then? They were just trying to assure a peaceful and smooth transition of government.
Henry VIII had no need to be marrying and divorcing women in tandem in order to merely get nookie.

Yeah, but royalty and serial nookie kind of go together.

Rich wrote:Perhaps so, but when the one you name may disappear if not acceptable to the local warlords, perhaps it's the better choice to nominate one more acceptable in order to keep the church presence in China rather than have it vanish completely.

The church had a similar problem with Stalin, so there is precedence.

If that's what's going on, than someone's forgotten what they're there for.

Quoting Cardinal Francis George, who spoke in 2010 regarding the consequences of the complete secularization of society: “I expect to die in bed, my successor will die in prison and his successor will die a martyr in the public square. His successor will pick up the shards of a ruined society and slowly help rebuild civilization, as the church has done so often in human history.”

The other possibility, I grant, is that the worldviews of the Chinese government and our present Holy Father (this too shall pass) are more compatible than not, so what the heck, why not?

As is going on in Eastern Europe and Russia now, to varying degrees.