Pope Francis has asked for prayers of Catholics world wide on May 24, the Feast of Our Lady of Sheshan (Our Lady Help of Christians), to celebrate and encourage the Church in China. This is not a simple plea but a cris-de-coeur. The pope specifically requested Catholics in China remain "faithful to [God's] Church and to the successor of Peter and to live daily life in service to their country and their fellow citizens in a manner consistent with the faith they profess."
Let the signal to Chinese authorities be clear: the Roman Catholic Church, through its pope, is not inclined to bend to the wishes of the government on the matter of the primacy of Peter. The Church in China is not a government sanctioned entity. It can never be. The power of the Church does not derive from any government. Any threat to the authentic nature of the Church will remain ever idle.
But part two of the pope's wish--the request that Chinese Catholics live in service to their nation but who must do so consistent with the values of the faith they profess--is an especially interesting one. Given recent press reports of the widespread hacking done in both the Chinese government and private sector, the witness of a Catholic ethic as it is brought to bear on such nefarious activity is needed now more than ever. Stealing the intellectual property of another is a crime against the eighth commandment. I am not saying that it would be a cure-all for such activity, but a full-throated Catholic ethic would decry such activity and would potentially move the Chinese government from passive denunciations to explicit policies and legal repercussions that had teeth. Electronic espionage and theft of ideas is hardly the measure of a great nation. Catholics in China could be instructive on a solution.
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