Czech cardinal laments Vatican silence on Chinese human rights abuses
July 29, 2024
» Continue to this story on Il Foglio (Italian)
CWN Editor's Note: Cardinal Dominik Duka, OP, who was archbishop of Prague from 2010 to 2022, lamented the Vatican’s silence in the face of China’s human rights abuses and called on Vatican diplomacy to “regain and raise its voice” in defense of the Gospel and the human person.
The 81-year-old cardinal, who was imprisoned from 1981-82 by the former Czech Communist regime, contrasted the “heroic chapter of Vatican diplomacy” under Pope Pius XI (1922-38) and Pius XII (1939-58) with the Ostpolitik that followed, in which the “principles of the struggle for freedom and human dignity began to be set aside in favor of a policy of détente that was mainly promoted by the left and the Communist states.”
“Prelates such as Cardinal Jószef Mindszenty became the conscience of the Catholic Church, confined for their refusal to compromise,” Cardinal Duka recalled. “Dozens of bishops were detained in Communist prisons in Europe, China, and Vietnam.”
Cardinal Duka praised Pope St. John Paul II (1978-2005) for ending Ostpolitik, but lamented what he sees as its return in the Vatican’s policy toward China.
“Vaclav Havel, with whom I once shared a cell, wrote that the only way to fight a totalitarian regime is for each of us to have the courage to choose to live the truth in our own lives, regardless of the consequences,” the prelate concluded. “Vatican diplomacy must regain and raise its voice to join [brave individuals] in the defense of the human person and in the defense of the Gospel.”
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