STATE ORDAINED China demands that Catholics worship only in state- controlled churches, like Beijing’s Southern Cathedral, which do not recognize the Pope’s authority.


the fastest growing religion on earth. If so, Catholicism is hot on its heels. In Asia and especially in Africa, the growth of the Catholic Church has been astonishing.


“The future,” says Robert Royal, “is more tied up in the rest of the world,” than with Europe or even the U.S.


One of Benedict’s primary objectives is to visit China and bring millions of underground worshipers out of hiding and regain Vatican control over church appointments.


62 NEWSMAX / APRIL 2008


In Africa alone, the Catholic population has tripled over the last 25 years, from 55 million to almost 144 million, and now constitutes 17 percent of the continent’s inhabitants. In China, where other forms of Western thought and practice are aggressively seeking a foothold, Catholicism is holding its own. For one thing, the Church has been in China much longer than in the U.S. — the earliest mission- aries brought the faith there hundreds of years before Columbus reached America. Modern China remains a relatively closed society, so estimating the growth of Catholicism there is tricky. The Chinese government will admit to no more than 5 million Catholics in its state-sanctioned Chinese Patriotic Catholic Association, but there may be twice that many “underground” Catholics — although probably less than 1 percent of China’s billion-plus popu- lation is Catholic.


Still, as the power of the Communist Party wanes as many predict it will, the vacuum it leaves will have to be fi lled by something, and, as in other parts of Asia, that will probably be either Catholicism or Islam. The Pope knows this. Benedict has expressed his hope to visit China, although he told a delegation from Hong Kong that the timing is a matter of God’s will. If he did, he would be the fi rst pontiff to do so. What he can do now, and is doing, is to establish better relations with the Chinese gov- ernment, his main goal being to bring those


millions of underground worshipers out of hiding and to regain Vatican control over priestly ordinations and episcopal appointments in China. So far the government will not condone any bishops it has not approved. His outreach to China has some- times been controversial and often misunderstood. The Wall Street Journal was highly critical of the Pope for deciding not to meet with the Dalai Lama in Europe last December. And the Vatican’s own statement explaining why the meeting did not take place seemed need- lessly chilly: “Last year the Pope received him,” a spokesman said, referring to the Dalai Lama’s visit to Vatican City. “I don’t think it is neces- sary to receive him every time he has come.” Many assumed the Pope’s decision was motivated by his desire not to offend the Chinese government, which refl exively con- demns anybody who hosts the Dalai Lama. As the Journal put it, the Pope’s decision was “a disappointment in the broader fi ght for religious freedom for Catholics and people of other creeds in China.”


This is mild compared to the reaction of some “traditionalist” Catholics, who have called the new policy toward the Chinese Church a betrayal — imagining that the Pope’s call for one Church in China will lead to secret police dragging under- ground Chinese Catholics from their homes. With regard to Islam, the Pope has attacked the underlying idea in Islam that Christians should be forced to either convert or accept second-class citizenship, and he has defended the right of Muslims themselves to convert to Christianity — a decision of conscience that in some Muslim countries is punishable by death.


Start Spreadin’ the (Good) News


The refrain in the song “New York, New York” declares hopefully, “If I can make it there, I’m gonna make it anywhere.” And there are, no doubt, many who hope Pope Benedict XVI will do just that — his appearances in Washington and New York will make him the sort of media star John Paul II was. Asked what he hoped would come from


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