Cardinal Zen at the White House: A Defeat for the Political Class, a Victory for Chinese Christians

Robert Novak's column today reveals that White House speech writer Bill McGurn suggested to President Bush that he ignore the protests of the political class and invite Hong Kong Cardinal Joseph Zen to the White House on May 31 as Zen was wrapping up a 14-city U.S. tour. For anyone who knows Bill, this isn't a surprise. A strong Catholic, he spent several years in Hong Kong with Dow Jones at the Far Eastern Economic Review and the Asian Wall Street Journal. Years before Margaret Thatcher, to her everlasting shame, handed over Hong Kong to the Chinese Communists, Bill penned a book, Perfidious Albion, to condemn the then-future deal.

The meeting also speaks well of the President, who proved again (as he has with his opposition to embryonic stem cell research) that his religious beliefs aren't up for compromise. His steadfastness came despite opposition from U.S. Ambassador to China Clark T. Randt, Jr., and advice from retired Washington Archbishop Theodore McCarrick, a churchman known to be enamored of Washington elites, to avoid Zen. The State Department, predictably, opposed Zen's visit.

The meeting wasn't announced and didn't appear on the White House schedule, which is to say, it wasn't a publicity stunt. Again Novak:

In a city abounding in leaks, I first learned on June 13 about the cardinal's visit to the White House via a circuitous route, from an American Catholic layman. That same day, Raymond Arroyo of the Eternal Word Television Network, acclaimed reporter of Catholic news, made public that the meeting took place.

Zen, who was made a cardinal by Pope Benedict XVI, has been a tireless advocate for greater freedom for his fellow Catholics in China. The Communists in Beijing relentlessly persecute those who refuse to join the state-sponsored Chinese Patriotic Catholic Association, whose habit of appointing bishops without Vatican approval is a source of constant friction with Rome, not to mention an egregious violation of religious freedom. No fewer than five bishops are imprisoned, and persecution of Protestants, especially small house-churches, continues apace.

Novak, himself a convert to Catholicism, ends his column:

The cardinal is reported by sources close to him to have left the White House energized and inspired. George W. Bush is at a low point among his fellow citizens, but he is still a major figure for Catholics in China who look to him as a clarion of freedom.