Normalization would mean the Pope directly appoints bishops in China, as he does for the Roman rite in the rest of the world. It would also mean the Chinese Catholic Patriotic Association would have to give up its role in recommending bishops to Beijing’s Religious Affairs Bureau, a government department under direct supervision of the Communist Party of China.

Mao Ze Dong’s Communist party took a look at the Catholic Church eight years after the 1949 revolution and declared the system of a foreign head of state appointing leaders for Catholic communities in China an imperialist practice. Given that the Chinese church was in dire need of new bishops, the government in Beijing chose to name its own candidates for vacant sees and recommended three priests to the Vatican. In 1957 Pope Pius XII rejected any national system for naming bishops, especially one dominated by a communist government, as a break with the universal church.

The Chinese government set up a “patriotic association” for Chinese Catholics — as they had for Buddhists, Protestants and other religions — and gave the association responsibility for naming bishops. The patriotic association’s choices are then approved by the Religious Affairs Bureau. Fifty years on that system is still in place, and Fr. Ma Ying Lin was ordained bishop of Kunming in Yunan Province in 2006 on the recommendation of Liu Bai Nian — vice-chairman of the Chinese Catholic Patriotic Association.

It’s time for Beijing to abandon its worries about colonialism and imperialism, said Zen.

“Colonialism is long past. Now the communists always use that as a pretext to say the missionaries were imperialist and so on and so forth,” said Zen. “That’s long, long, long past history. It’s simply a pretext. When they arrived in power in China (1949) the situation was already much improved.”

Beijing has nothing to fear from religious freedom for Chinese Catholics, said Zen.

“Some say maybe they are afraid because Pope John Paul may have caused the fall of communism in Poland, maybe. Or maybe they have seen the People Power in the Philippines. But China is different,” said Zen.

Where in Poland and the Philippines Catholics are a strong majority, and Catholicism is deeply ingrained in the national culture, China’s 10 million Catholics represent less than one per cent of the country’s huge population, points out Zen. There is no Cardinal Jaime Sin or Pope John Paul II who could bring the entire population onto the streets with a declaration that the government is illegitimate.

“It is very foolish to make this comparison with Poland or the Philippines,” Zen said.

Chinese Catholics are no threat to the leadership of the Communist Party as written into the Chinese constitution.

“Even under harsh persecution all these years, Catholics never did anything like rebellion. I think the only thing we can do to protest is to die,” he said with a sly smile.

There are reasons why Beijing should want normalization for Chinese Catholics, including full diplomatic relations with the Vatican, said Zen. On the political level, diplomatic ties between Beijing and the Vatican would further isolate Taiwan and reinforce Beijing’s claim to be the only legitimate government for a united China, said Zen.

Zen also argues that religious freedom promotes social harmony, a fundamental Chinese value and one the Chinese government claims is part of its agenda.

But Zen’s strongest argument for Beijing loosening its grip on Chinese Catholics is the contributions a freer church would make to Chinese society.

“The Catholics everywhere are very active contributors to society, as we have been in Hong Kong for many years. They should understand that,” Zen said.

Operating under the Basic Law, which continued British freedoms after Hong Kong reverted to Beijing’s rule in 1997, the Hong Kong diocese operates 300 schools which serve about a quarter of all Hong Kong students. The church also sponsors day care centres, food banks, clinics and hospitals, family counselling centres and programs for youth.

But getting Beijing to recognize the value of Catholic contributions to the common good has not been easy. Zen has been locked in a battle with Beijing since 2003 over Hong Kong’s Catholic schools.

Under a new education ordinance, schools must each be independently governed by a managing committee of elected parents, teachers and alumni by 2010. It’s a system that would cut priests and bishops of the diocese out of governing the schools. It’s also a direct violation of the Basic Law which guaranteed religious freedoms enjoyed under British rule for at least 50 years from 1997. The archdiocese of Hong Kong is taking its challenge of the 2003 ordinance all the way to the final court of appeal.

As Catholics in Hong Kong continue their fight for a role in the life of Chinese society, there is also a role for Chinese Catholics living in North America, said Zen.

“I don’t think there is really anything special they can do, but just like all Chinese everywhere they should be concerned about the situation on mainland China,” he said. “They should try to have some communication, like visiting there from time to time, bringing them (Chinese Catholics) some help.”

Everything from information to a sense of solidarity with the church around the world makes a difference for Catholics in China, said Zen.