Cardinal Ignatius was an emblematic figure of papal loyalty, spending 30 years in jail for counter-revolutionary activities. He received his life sentence at the end of the 1950s and eventually the Chinese authorities released him in 1986. During his imprisonment, Cardinal Ignatius didn’t even know that Saint John Paul II named him a cardinal in pectore, which means that his promotion went unannounced for security reasons. 

Now his beatification process has stopped because of the Vatican’s diplomatic manoeuvring with China. Cardinal Joseph Zen, the retired bishop of Hong Kong commented on the process by saying that

“pushing for Cardinal Kung’s beatification is a waste of time, and the Vatican would not accept it.” 

The agreement made in 2018 between the Vatican and China regarding the appointment of bishops was considered to be a step that did not favour the plight of Chinese Catholics. 

“The Chinese government does not like Cardinal Kung, and therefore there is no public Mass for him,” said Father Zhu Lide, who was imprisoned by the Communist Party for 27 years and now lives in Taiwan.

Cardinal Zen and other church leaders believe that the Vatican considers the 2018 agreement to be more important than the beatification. Consequently, the process of raising the heroic cardinal to the altars has been stopped so as to protect the current sensitive diplomatic relations through which the Vatican hopes to achieve a better future for the Church in China.

Photo is courtesy of Pixabay.