Editorial

By Paul Schratz

A Vatican official last month told the United Nations General Assembly he hoped the 2008 Olympic Games in China would help promote international peace and respect for human rights.

It remains to be seen what the impact will be on world peace, but things weren’t off to a good start on the human rights front last week with the controversy over China’s “ban” on Bibles at the Olympics.

Initial reports were that the Scriptures would not be allowed at the Games. Within days, China clarified that in fact athletes would be allowed to have one Bible for personal use, sort of like toothpaste.

That was later amended to say athletes were free to bring their Bibles as long as they didn’t distribute them.

China did its best to play the aggrieved party, declaring the whole controversy founded on rumour and asserting how generous it would be when it comes to visitors’ religious freedoms.

The real irony is that it hardly matters whether or not China bans Bibles for two weeks. With the level of religious persecution that goes on in that country, who cares if there’s a brief show of tolerance.

Millions of Chinese people of faith live under an atheistic regime that forces churches to operate under government dictate. Practitioners of the Falun Gong movement are particularly persecuted, and religious leaders and followers are routinely jailed.

The government’s long arm has even extended to the Buddhist belief in reincarnation, with Beijing ordering Tibet’s living Buddhas to get permission before reincarnating.

When Archbishop Celestino Migliore, the Vatican’s permanent observer to the United Nations, addressed the UN Oct. 31, he pointed out that the Vatican views the Olympics as an important moment of dialogue that can help countries bridge political and other differences.

He said “dialogue and encounter through sport hold great potential in the area of peace-building and conflict prevention.”

Rather than moving toward more tolerance, China appears interested in simply putting on a respectable face while doing nothing in the human rights department to earn a positive reputation.

“While the rule of law and justice remain the foundation of durable peace, sport provides the tool for warring factions to come together for a common purpose,” he said.”

Sadly, China shows little interest in anything other than coming off as respectable, while doing little in the human rights department to show it’s worthy of the title.

As Archbishop Migliore pointed out, one of the lessons of the Olympics is that life is not about the triumph, but the struggle. The Vatican church and sports desk was established to promote a human-centred approach to sports and to help “reclaim the ideal of sport as a real school of humanity, camaraderie, solidarity, and excellence.” In this way, he said, sports figures can continue to be models for youth.

It’s a point China still needs to learn, along with the fact that it is in a state’s own interest to ensure that religious freedom - a natural right that is also an individual and social right - is effectively guaranteed for all.

Dignitatis Humanae, the Second Vatican Council’s Declaration on Religious Freedom, described the free exercise of religion in society as the preeminent human freedom.

It called on governments to assume the safeguard of religious freedom of all citizens in an effective manner by just laws and by other appropriate means.

Pope John Paul II referred to religious freedom as the first right. This summer, in his letter to China’s Catholics, Pope Benedict XVI called on Beijing to respect “authentic religious freedom,” warning that China’s official church was incompatible with Catholic doctrine.

Given China’s track record of controlling all religious activity, jailing those who speak out, controlling churches, and arresting religious leaders, it hardly matters whether there’s a Bible ban or not. Religious persecution continues. Just ask Underground Catholic Bishop Jia Zhiquo, who was arrested in August.