Bernardo Cervellera

The seven prelates arrived two days ago. The pastoral challenges are at the centre of the visit: proclaiming the word of God, dialogue, the lack of local clergymen, foreign clergymen, migrants, relations with Catholics in mainland China. Talks between China and the Holy See cast their shadow. For Taiwan’s Ambassador Lee, Pope Francis and the Vatican remain concerned about the fate of the people of Taiwan.

The church of the village of Hutuo has been reduced to a pile of ruins; the tomb of the bishop of Luoyang, not recognized by the government, was desecrated; children are forbidden to enter churches; threats against Catholic parents and seniors: if they continue to believe they will not receive government subsidies or pensions.

The new apostolic exhortation "on the call to holiness in today’s world" is of a spiritual and confidential nature. It overcomes the barriers between heroism and daily life, consecrated and lay people, Catholics and other Christians. The beatitudes, going against the flow, a way to witness to faith in the modern world. Gnosticism and neo-Pelagianism present in the Church. Traditionalists and "bergogliani" progressives. The devil is not a myth, but someone who poisons us "with hatred, with sadness, with envy, with vices".

The 8 thousand character text was printed in Chinese, English, French, Russian, Spanish and Arabic. Presented today at a press conference. Many intellectual acrobatics on the defense of believers and ban on Party members from following a religion; restrictions for foreigners; believers “choice” for independence and self-management. Unlikely statistics: faithful of the official communities only ones considered. Little "objectivity" and "scientificity".

Hell is not inhabited by devils, pitchforks and eternal flames: it is a grey, colourless, dismal place; a sort of lunar landscape without motion or light. It is the place that Christ visits, carrying his tormented body out of love as a sign of God's extreme love towards the shrivelled shadows that have told him no. Hell in the West is characterized by indifference. Hell in Asia is the immovability of painful situations, which remain unresolved because of the evil of the powerful and of men. In Iraq and China, signs of compassion and prayer are the announcement of the Resurrection.

About 158 refugee families live in the parish of Amadiya and surrounding villages. They need food, clothes, shoes, school support, kerosene. Many Christian, Yazid and Arab families returned to Mosul only to turn back. The ‘Adopt a Christian from Mosul’ campaign is ongoing.

AsiaNews is neither an optimist nor a pessimist, but a realist. The "targeted" appointments of bishops have already lead to the suffocation of the Church today. The silence of the "optimists" in front of the destruction of churches, bans on young people practising their religion, the tight control on priests and faithful. A program – that need no agreements -: promote the unity of the Chinese Church; strengthen the formation of priests, religious, laity; support evangelization. The model of underground Protestant communities. The danger of considering the underground Catholic Church as something that can be just "discarded".

Crosses removed from the domes and the tympanum of Yining Church as well as external decorations and crosses, and the Way of the Cross within the church. The same happened at the churches of Manas and Hutubi. The Cross represents "a foreign religious infiltration ". Prayer services forbidden even in private houses under the threat of arrests and re-education. Children and young people forbidden to enter churches. Religious revival frightens the Party.

The President of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences exalts China as the best implementer of the Churches’ social doctrine. The bishop seems oblivious to the shantytowns of Beijing and Shanghai, the expulsion of migrants, oppression of religious freedom. Appreciation for the Paris Climate Agreement, but silence on the links between wealth, corruption and pollution. An ideological approach that makes a laughing stock of the Church.

The Prefect of the Congregation for the Evangelisation of Peoples met PIME missionaries and the Missionaries of the Immaculate. Without proclamation the mission reduces the Church's work to that of an NGO. The mission ad gentes must be reawakened. A Missionary Month will be held in 2019.

The French president’s silence on human rights is criticised. Other than a general statement to work together, nothing was said on the matter. The contract to buy 184 Airbus has not yet been signed. With China everything is postponed to the future. Xinhua appreciates Macron's humility. A European business and human rights strategy is urgently needed.

The first Christmas, when Christ came, was not a warm and loving experience. Friendship, gifts, gratitude, help for the poor are fruits of that Christmas, the consequence of conversion to Him. Rejection marks the celebrations of the Christian refugees in Mosul, those of India and China. Christmas has become a dangerous celebration to be suppressed as much as possible, even in Italy. But not even the persecution of Herod could prevent the fascination that Christ exercises on the hearts of so many.