Hong Kong Cardinal Joseph Zen (陳日君) said the pope will probably let him step down as the city's bishop so that Zen can spend more time helping the Vatican restore diplomatic ties with China, a local newspaper reported yesterday.
"Because the pope is a rational person, he believed the China issue is more important than Hong Kong," Zen was quoted as saying by the Apple Daily at the Vatican after two days of high-level debate about China last week.
Zen, 75, has requested several times to be relieved of his bishop's duties so that he could focus more on the China issue. He said his latest meeting with the pope left him feeling that he would be able to step down soon, the mass-market paper reported.
Zen's office in Hong Kong declined to confirm the report, saying the cardinal's retirement plans were a private matter that only Zen could comment on.
Beijing severed ties with the Holy See in 1951 after the Communists took power and set up a separate Catholic church outside the pope's authority. Local faithful are allowed to worship only with the state-sanctioned church, the Chinese Patriotic Catholic Association.
The Vatican has long indicated that it wants to establish diplomatic relations with Beijing, even at the cost of moving its embassy from Taiwan, but will not compromise on the tradition dictating that only the pope can appoint bishops.
Zen also said the two-day meeting at the Vatican concluded with a plan to set up a cross-departmental task force overseeing Sino-Vatican relations, the South China Morning Post reported.
"It will be set up because we had a good experience working together in handling problems related to China," he said.
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