Document Type

Article

Disciplines

International Law

Abstract

This article will consist of three main parts. Part II will analyze the recent diplomatic interactions between China and the Vatican, including both parties' claims to hold superior authority over Chinese Catholics. Part III will assert that these claims, when combined with directives that pull Chinese citizens and Catholics towards opposite actions, force Chinese Catholics to choose whether the Church or the State prescribes a higher law or duty. Part IV will examine this choice in the context of China's and the Vatican's opposing directives on the use of artificial birth control. Each of these parts will discuss both China's and the Vatican's positions on the relevant issue, as well as both parties' representations as to the reasoning behind and the importance of these positions.

Although there are many issues on which the Chinese government and the Vatican disagree, this article will discuss only one: the issue of birth control. This issue not only illustrates the effects of a conflict of loyalties between church and state, but also highlights an intriguing facet of the possible conflict. This article will argue that China's mandate of birth control and the Church's prohibition against it do not represent opposite policy concerns. Instead, China's use of birth control for practical enforcement needlessly conflicts with the Vatican's moral prohibition of it.

Here, the Vatican has taken a moral stance on birth control, and Humanae Vitae directly supports that stance by prohibiting the use of artificial birth control. Rather than ordering the use of birth control as an independent moral endorsement of the method, however, China has mandated the use of birth control to ensure the effectiveness of its family planning policy. The Vatican's and China's positions on birth control, therefore, do not rebut one another, but their effects and the behavior they prescribe, are still mutually exclusive. This article argues that these clashing policies create needless friction between China and the Vatican, catching the millions of Chinese Catholics in the crosshairs.

Accessibility Requirements

1

Download

Share

COinS