UNITED STATES
The Open Tabernacle: Here Comes Everybody
Posted on January 7, 2015 by Betty Clermont
Pope Frances refused the Dalai Lama’s request for a meeting on December 11, 2014, because “the Holy See’s relationship with the Chinese government is currently going through a very delicate – a crucial in fact – phase. In recent weeks China appeared to be reaching out to the Vatican, signaling a willingness for dialogue.”
“I am deeply saddened and distressed that the Holy Father, Pope Francis, should give in to these pressures and decline to meet the Dalai Lama,’” South African Archbishop Desmond Tutu said in a statement.
China has been waging a “calculated and systematic strategy aimed at the destruction of Tibet‘s national and cultural identities,” often personified by their spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama. The pope’s choice was a victory for China. “[T]he attention of public opinion in the West to the Dalai Lama is going down by the day,” a Chinese official said on December 19, 2014. “The Dalai Lama also has no good ideas. All he can do is use his religious title to write about the continuation or not of the Dalai Lama to get eyeballs overseas,” he added.
The pope is trying to increase his influence in Asia and China is key to his success.
Five months after his trip to South Korea, the pope will visit first Sri Lanka January 12-15 and then the Philippines January 15-19. “For us Filipinos, (the pope) is really the representative of Jesus on earth, so it’s like Jesus coming to the Philippines,” said one priest. So this journey is sure to end in the pope’s most triumphal foreign trip to date.
On January 4, the pope announced the creation of 15 new cardinals; five are from Asia or the Pacific Rim: Archbishop Francis Xavier Kriengsak Kovithavanij of Bangkok, Thailand, trained in Rome. Archbishop Pierre Nguyên Văn Nhon of Hà Nôi, Vietnam, where the Vatican has “flourishing bilateral diplomatic relations.” Archbishop Charles Maung Bo of Yangon, Myanmar is president of that country’s Bishops Conference. Bishop Soane Patita Paini Mafi of the Island of Tonga is president of the Bishops’ Conference of the Pacific. Archbishop John Atcherley Dew of Wellington, New Zealand (Pacific Rim), was recommended by Australian Cardinal George Pell, head of all Vatican finance and administration.
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