China's rising status on the world stage hasn't improved religious freedom for either Chinese Catholic members of the government-controlled patriotic church or the clandestine underground church, Hong Kong Cardinal Joseph Zen said in Los Angeles May 9.

On the first day of a three-week North American tour visiting major U.S. and Canadian cities, Cardinal Zen, 75, said in an interview with The Tidings at the Archdiocesan Catholic Center that people are in "double danger of having wrong information" about Catholicism in China.

"One kind of wrong information is this general impression that now China is open so you may think that it's open also for religious freedom. It's not true," declared the prelate, who was one of 15 bishops elevated to the College of Cardinals by Pope Benedict XVI in the spring of 2006.

Another misconception, according to the cardinal, is that members of the Chinese Patriotic Catholic Association (CPCA) church are "bad people" who willingly participated in a schism.

"It's not true," said Cardinal Zen. "They are also being persecuted. Some may be weak and may be giving into pressure [to join the patriotic church], but the real bad people are very few."

Religious freedom in China, he noted, is behind that in Vietnam where "they are making big progress," because there isn't an intermediary Patriotic Association in Vietnam. "They tried hard in the beginning [to establish a similar association] but they failed," said the cardinal.

China's Religious Affairs Bureau established CPCA in 1957 to exercise state supervision over mainland China's Catholics. Chinese Catholics upset over the formation of a church independent from the Vatican practiced their faith secretly in so-called underground churches.

CPCA members "obviously in their heart" still felt united with the Holy See, explained Cardinal Zen. "It is the government which does not allow for our freedom," he declared.

According to the cardinal, CPCA's vice-chairman, Mr. Liu Bai Nian, "has full power [and] in this structure, the bishops mean nothing.… I'm sure the bishops can never talk to the high authorities, so the government officials never really know the real position of the church."

Cardinal Zen noted Mr. Liu "is behind all those illegitimate ordinations" of Patriotic Bishops, most recently the 2006 episcopal consecration of Father Ma Ying Lin for the diocese of Kunming in Yunan province. He called China's argument that the Holy Father's episcopal appointments would constitute interference "ridiculous because the Holy Father appoints bishops everywhere."

In Hong Kong, taken over by China from Britain in 1997, Catholics are guaranteed religious freedom by law "so we have no problem [as far as] worship," explained Cardinal Zen. However, he called a new education ordinance passed in 2003 "very bad" for the Hong Kong diocese's 300 schools which enroll approximately 25 percent of the student population.

"Our schools are very well accepted and esteemed by the people but the new law would take control of the [schools'] direction away from us," the cardinal said. The ordinance, effective in 2010, mandates that each school will have its own independent managing committee comprised of elected parents, teachers and alumni.

"The law says religious communities are entitled to run schools in the same way as before. So this new ordinance has radically changed the way we can run schools," he said. After unsuccessfully suing the government, the diocese is now appealing the decision and will take the case all the way to "the court of final appeal because it seems to be clear it's against the basic law," said Cardinal Zen.

"It's a pity because we have collaborated so well with the government for so many years. Now, they are depriving us of the real responsibility for the schools. There's a danger because we may have to give back to the government some of our schools. We cannot be sure the school is going to be run according to our philosophy in the faith."

Asked if the Chinese government will take steps toward advancing religious freedom in the near future, Cardinal Zen shrugged and replied, "We hope but we are not sure. It seems [that] there are forces against such normalization. There are people who have gained power and gotten advantages [from] the situation, so they don't want to see any change. But, I think for the good of the church and for the country, surely they have to change."

"I would ask the faithful to pray," he added, "because that's the only thing which can make miracles."