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[Updated] Xinjiang riot leaves scores dead
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Yet another diplomatic tussle looms large between Beijing and the Vatican in the days ahead. It all started when the Catholic News Agency sent out the following really short story a few days ago, alleging that the Bible is "among objects prohibited at the 2008 Beijing Olympics":
Organizers of the 2008 Olympics in Beijing have published a list of “prohibited objects” in the Olympic village where athletes will stay. To the surprise of many, Bibles are among the objects that will not be allowed.According to the Italian daily La Gazzetta dello Sport, organizers have cited “security reasons” and have prohibited athletes from bearing any kind of religious symbol at Olympic facilities.
Other objects on the list include video cameras and cups.
The Spanish daily La Razon said the rule was one of a number of “signs of censure and intolerance” towards religious objects, particularly those used by Christians in China. Currently in China five bishops and fifteen priests are in prison for opposing the official Church.
We did not bring this to your attention because something in that story just did not feel right. After all, it was announced not too long ago that Beijing would provide Bibles to meet the "religious needs of foreign athletes" and this was was confirmed by both Catholic and Chinese news sources.
So we shot off an email to our colleague Adam Minter of Shanghai Scrap — who we believe to be the most knowledgeable journalist around on Catholicism in China — asking him what he thought of the issue. According to Adam:
The CNA story cites an Italian newspaper, La Gazetta dello Sport, as the source of the story. And it turns out that La Gazetta is inferring, not reporting.
Adam found that La Gazetta unfortunately takes "materiale promozionale usato per attività religiosa o politica" (or "materials used for the promotion of religious or political activities") which was in BOCOG's list of banned items to refer to the Bible. And the (really stupid) Catholic News Agency went on to cite La Gazetta!
Well the effects are just beginning to be felt. This morning, the South China Morning Post reports that Beijing has "accused European newspapers and religious global news agencies of 'blatantly lying'". Said Wang Hui , executive deputy director of BOCOG:
"This is not true. There has been a misunderstanding... Athletes and other individuals can bring with them their own Bibles. But no one can bring in multiple copies for public distribution." "These reports are nothing but blatant lies," the official said. "Bibles and religious scriptures of the major faiths brought by athletes into the Olympic village are allowed, as are places of worship within the Olympic Village. This is the same as in all other Olympiads."
We dug a bit deeper and found that the Catholic News Agency is not quite related to the Holy See. It also is pretty young, and was founded in 2004, in Lima, Peru. Adam adds:
For news about Catholics in Asia - including news on the religion and the Olympics - I don't believe anything unless it appears in asianews.it or ucanews.com. The former tends to be a little too critical of China, but they stick to the facts.
Also:
There's a lot of anti-China sentiment built up in certain quarters of the Catholic Church - and the Catholic media - and I could give all kinds of examples when those quarters have distorted or outright lied about the situation in China. It's mostly leftover sentiments from the anti-communist/cold war mindset, and it doesn't rear itself as much as it used to. But once in a while you get an example like this one. Unfortunately, this story now has legs, and is buzzing all over the right-wing Catholic news sites.
Just when we thought relations were beginning to warm between China and the Vatican, this had to happen — and all because of some really sloppy journalism by a certain so-called news agency! A great pity indeed. We are all for the democratisation of information, but perhaps it is time the Vatican thought about streamlining news dissemination for certain topics.
Photo of the Xuanwumen Catholic Church in Beijing from china_puwa
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Between the lines we might want to assume that Beijing will provide more "correct" bibles to the athletes.
For instance, we will find out that Mao gave Jesus the idea to use his power to divide the fish and bread among the scores of people.
I think La Gazzetta should stick to doing what they do best...reporting on SPORTS. Their article from the link you gave says the Olympic committee changed the list of prohibited objects from no religious objects at all to "no religious promotional material" after there was public outcry. The article follows to say (or I should say IMPLY cause it's unclear even in Italian) that while personal items such as crosses are allowed, Bibles (considered propaganda) are not at all.....lesson learned: don't get your news from sports newspapers....
Hello, my name is Eric from the United States of America. I have a conflict within myself about China. First, I love the people of China. Every single Chinese person that I have met has been VERY GRACIOUS, very helpful, and very interested in me. And it is very easy for me to like someone else who is interested in me. Although I have never been to China, I hope to speak Chinese, walk the streets of Beijing, and talk to many of China's people. One of my BIG goals in life is to live in Asia, probably in Kazakhstan or Kygyzstan, for the purpose of helping.
However, I have another feeling about the government of China. I understand that the national government has some good points; they are giving some freedoms to the people. I also know that there is some openness to talk of basic human rights. Yet, until the Communist Party gives the Chinese People full access to religious texts and freedom of assembly in a more complete way, I will continue to have problems with the Chinese Nation.
Here is the question: what is so troubling about religion or allowing people to meet in their homes? Why does it matter if a person who lives in rural China possesses a Bible? Sure, I could get a Bible in Shanghai now, and most of the time, it is not a problem. However, if I want to give a Bible to five of my friends, I could be considered subversive. If it is subversive, there is a problem, but it is not subversive to train a friend in the morality and love of Jesus Christ. As well, it is not subversive to train someone from the Quran, the Baghva Gita, or most other religious texts. Are there some religious texts that have been used for hateful and harmful purposes? Of course -- that doesn't mean that they should be regulated. They should be discussed and shown to be hateful!
Please feel free to talk with me at your leisure. I am at MrEricHatch at yahoo dot com.
Dear Eric,
they are smart...they don't want to have the same tragic end of the roman empire...
Religion cannot be controlled..once it starts, the government cannot do anything more...and it will be soon or later overthrew...
This might be one explanation.
A second possible explanation is that the Chinese government once in a while decided to apply what Karl Marx said:-))
best wishes:-)
Antonio