The ethics of Mass in China

by Michael Shackleton · November 14, 2010

In July I visited China for two weeks as part of an official South African delegation. China has no real freedom of religion. Catholics may practice their faith through a government-sanctioned organization called the Chinese Catholic Association which does not recognize the authority of the pope. Was I correct to not want to attend any Masses hosted by the Chinese Catholic Association? Manny de Freitas

Pope Benedict issued a letter to the loyal Catholics of China in May 2007. He acknowledged that the bishops of China can be divided into three groups.

The first is those who accept the authority of the Holy See and are consequently not recognized by the Chinese government (the persecuted underground Church). The second is those who, because of circumstances, have been ordained bishops without a papal mandate, but who later requested to be reconciled with Rome. The third is those who, without a papal mandate, have been ordained and do not desire reconciliation with Rome, the Chinese Patriotic Catholic Association, approved by the Chinese authorities.

In all cases, the bishops and priests of these groups are validly ordained and the sacraments they celebrate are equally valid, if not legitimate in every case. This must bre borne in mind because it appears that bishops and priests from the three groups sometimes overlap so that it may not be clear to the faithful which group they represent when they celebrate the liturgy.

The pope’s letter, therefore, taking into account the validity of the sacraments administered by legitimate clergy, gave this advice: who are in communion with the pope; nevertheless, where this cannot be achieved without grave inconvenience, they may, for the sake of their spiritual good, turn also to those who are not in communion with the pope.

In your case, had you found an illegitimate priest about to say Mass and you had the spiritual need of the sacraments, you could have attended and received Communion.

To commemorate the second anniversary of Pope Benedict’s letter, the Vatican published a Compendium in May 2009. This reaffirmed the contents of the letter of 2007, but also set out to provide China’s Catholics with a deeper understanding of what the Lord wants from them in the delicate situation of the Church in China.