Hilarion's act: Russian Orthodox metropolitan meets Chinese excommunicated bishop

by Bernardo Cervellera
Asia News
6/23/2012

Unlawful bishop of Kunming, Ma Yinglin is the president of the Chinese Catholic Bishops' Conference (which is not recognised by the Catholic Church), and vice president of the CPCA (which is incompatible with the Catholic Church). For some time, Hilarion has been trying to convince Chinese authorities to recognise the country's small Orthodox communities and boost the influence of the Moscow Patriarchate in the Far East. Two plates with watermelon are placed in front of the picture of the pope.


Rome (AsiaNews) - Metropolitan Hilarion of Volokolamsk, head of the Moscow Patriarchate's Department for External Church Relations, visited Beijing's National Catholic Seminary on Wednesday. After a brief meeting with faculty and students, he was entertained at length by excommunicated Bishop Ma Yinglin, who was unlawfully ordained bishop of Kunming in 2006. A long-time protégé of the powerful Liu Bainian, honorary president of the Chinese Patriotic Catholic Association (CPCA), he has also risen to the top of official Church of China. Currently, he is serving as president of the Chinese Catholic Bishops' Conference (which is not recognised by the Catholic Church), and vice president-chairman of the CPCA (which is incompatible with Catholic doctrine). Thanks to certain backers, he had himself appointed rector of Beijing's Catholic Seminary.

With all these high-sounding titles, Ma Yinglin welcomed the illustrious guest at the entrance of the seminary, taking him personally on a tour of the school. He explained to him the situation of the Catholic Church in China, and asked Metropolitan Hilarion to "convey his greetings" to Patriarch Kirill, as if from one patriarch to another.

Liu Bainian had hoped to see Ma become the bishop of Beijing (and give him the title of Eastern Patriarch), but the Church in the capital snubbed him, and chose someone else.

With all these titles, Ma Yinglin is spending more time in Beijing than in his diocese, where most of the faithful turn away when they see him or leave the church whenever he shows up.

Despite his excommunication, Ma Yinglin has not stopped trying to participate in Episcopal ordinations, even when he is not invited. His aim is to assert, excommunicated or not, that he is entitled to a place among the bishops.

Hilarion is not without his own frustrations. For years, Russian Orthodox have tried to have their small community recognised. They have tried to get the support of Russia. It is not pure coincidence that Hilarion's visit comes a few weeks after Vladimir Putin was in the Chinese capital for the signing of trading and partnership agreements between Russia and China. Although a Russian-Chinese advisory group was set up a year ago to vet the issue, there has been no movement in the issue so far.

The photos taken during the visit, posted on the Moscow patriarchate website, betray Hilarion's frustration and embarrassment.

In one, the metropolitan is seen sitting on one side and Ma Yinglin on the other, with some drinks (mineral water and tea), a flower display and a plate with a picture of a smiling Benedict XVI on a coffee table, in between. No message could be clearer: We are thinking about you. We have not forgotten you. You are one of us; we are with you.

The photo conveys a degree of contempt for the pope's authority. Indeed, Ma Yinglin appears to prefer a silent image of Benedict XVI to the words of the Holy See. When the Vatican wrote to him, urging him not to accept his ordination, he turned a deaf ear.

Hilarion, who played music for Benedict XVI during a visit to the Vatican in 2009, has forgotten that the Catholic and Orthodox Churches are 'sister Churches'. Dealing with an excommunicated bishop is not a sign of communion.

What Hilarion and the Moscow Patriarchate are trying to do is to obtain China's recognition before the Patriarchate of Constantinople does. Based in Hong Kong, the latter is trying to establish relations with all Orthodox communities in the People's Republic and the Far East.

This explains why Hilarion and Ma Yinglin have to put Benedict XVI out of their mind, even a silent one, and why the close-up of their photo does not show the pope but two plates with red watermelon.

Sounds par for the course.

What's watermelon got to do with the Pope of Rome? How bizarre. The reporter has described a truly surreal encounter.

Birds of a feather flock together.

Hilarion, who played music for Benedict XVI during a visit to the Vatican in 2009, has forgotten that the Catholic and Orthodox Churches are 'sister Churches'. Dealing with an excommunicated bishop is not a sign of communion.

VS

The visit of both His Holiness Patriarch Filaret (UOC-KP) and His Holiness Sviatoslav Shevchuk, Patriarch of the Ukrainian Catholic Greek Church, as the heads of their respective churches in Ukraine, was considered to be a joyous event, which ePOSHTA had covered in a previous issue.

Is there a difference?

Catholic officials, including the Patriarch of Kyiv, meet with bishops that the Russian Orthodox Church considers non-canonical. The faux outrage here is palpable.

More imformation and implications of the visit from this 6/22/2012 post at Vatican Insider:

The head of Moscow Patriarchate’s Department for External Church Relations (DECR) visits Beijing to outline the Patriarchate of Moscow’s China politik, making the most of the geo-political axis between Putin and the current leaders of the former Celestial Empire

gianni valente
rome

It’s mission China for Hilarion of Volokolamsk, the metropolitan who heads Moscow Patriarchate’s Department for External Church Relations (DECR). Last 18 June, the Russian Orthodox Church’s enterprising foreign affairs minister landed in Beijing for an official visit that lasted just a few days. The purpose of his trip was to attend the second summit of the Russia-Chinese Group of contacts and cooperation in the religious sphere, a bilateral body for the development of contacts between the Russian Federation’s Presidential Council for Cooperation with Religious Organizations and the PRC State Administration for Religious Affairs. The meeting’s two sessions were attended by the number two man of China’s State Administration for Religious Affairs (SARA), Zhang Lebin, together with other entity members and foreign affairs ministry officials. The illegitimate Catholic bishop Joseph Ma Yinglin, President of the Chinese College of Cardinals (an organisation which is not recognised by the Holy See) was also present. He took Hilarion on a visit to Beijing’s National Catholic Seminary and passed on an invitation through him to the Patriarch of Moscow, Kirill, TO VISIT China and meet Chinese Catholic students.





The Patriarchate of Moscow communicated that during the talks, focus was given to topics relating to the condition of Orthodoxy in China and the status of religion in modern states. But the stiff language of official communiqués does not fully get across the extent of the operation, which is still to be worked out.





Russian Orthodoxy began to be present in China in the XVII century, thanks to a group of Cossacks who were brought to Beijing as prisoners. In the 1950’s, the Patriarchate of Moscow had conceded autonomy to the Chinese Orthodox Church which at the time had two bishops in Beijing and Shanghai. Now, following the cultural Revolution and other historical hardships, there are only a few thousand Orthodox faithful left in the whole of China; there is a shortage of priests and most of the churches which were confiscated during the persecution have not been handed back yet. Nevertheless, China represents a strategic asset in the Orthodox Church’s plans for expansion, in competition with the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople (which in 2008 demanded jurisdiction over the entire Celestial Empire with its metropolitanate in Hong Kong). At the theological seminary in Khabarovsk on the border with China, Russian clerics study Mandarin and Chinese culture in preparation for their mission beyond the Great Wall. But Moscow is well aware that all their plans will have to go through the tough and narrow straits of the regime’s religious policies.





At this moment in history, Patriarch Kirill is trying to make the most of the geopolitical alignment of Putin’s Russia and China’s post-Mao technocracy. He accepts that dialogue should develop within the hybrid framework represented by political supervisory bodies and control of religious activities. The Orthodox Church’s eagerness for cooperation is partly due to the fact that Eastern Churches have always handled relations with civil powers differently to the Western Church, showing greater adaptability and compliance when it comes to political interventionism in ecclesiastical affairs. Kirill and his collaborators believe that, rebus sic stanti bus, one cannot enter and work in China without accepting to negotiate with the regime. They are even willing to undergo some humiliation. In May 2006, for example, Kirill himself – who at the time was head of the DECR – accompanied Putin on an official visit to Beijing in order to meet officials from the religious affairs Office, where he was not even received in the end.





The Russian Orthodox Church’s Chinese strategy differs from the Holy See’s strategy in more than one way, for obvious reasons. At the moment, the Moscow Patriarchate’s leaders themselves seem to be involved in a direct dialogue with Beijing officials. But with Vatican officials, the discreet communication channels that had been opened in 2006, before Benedict XVI’s letter to Chinese Catholics, broke down when new cases of illegitimate ordinations of bishops came to light in 2010. This is still the main factor that is sabotaging constructive dialogue with China and the Holy See.

Tomassus,

Please provide links when you post these articles. Thanks.

Many years,

Neil

We are not in communion. The bishop in question is as canonical a bishop, as far as Orthodoxy is concerned, as one sent from the Vatican.

Btw, the Orthodox Evenks of China number 30,000 or so. They are, of course, grossly underserved, being far way from the center of things. However, Orthodox Alaska survived that.

Not sure that is the mainstream opinion within Orthodoxy - to my knowledge groups like Old Catholics, PNCC etc are not generally viewed that way.

That is a good question. What is the mainstream? That would be a fun thread, what do they really believe.