The Chancellor of the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences, Argentinean Novus Ordo Bishop Marcelo Sánchez Sorondo, declared that “at this moment, the Chinese are the ones implementing Catholic social teaching best.”

He said that the Chinese “look for the common good and subordinate other things to the general welfare.” He said, “the central Chinese value is work, work, work. There’s no other way, basically it’s what Saint Paul said: whoever does not work should not eat.” (Why Sorondo quotes St. Paul in this way I do not know. Saint Paul does not sound like a socialist or a promoter of the welfare state).

The next day, a Novus Ordo expert on China, a Father Cervellera, blasted Sorondo for his comments. He pointed out that people are arrested for practicing any religion. He said that since February 6th, all the unofficial churches have been closed. This would include the non-approved churches where Catholics have gone in order to avoid the government-controlled “Catholic Church” established by the Chinese communists since the time of the revolution. He said that local authorities now forbid minors under the age of 18 from entering churches, even official ones. He also pointed out that although China signed the Paris Climate Accord, nonetheless, according to Cervellera, China “has the most devastated and poisoned environment in the world.”

Cervellera concludes: “Idolizing China is an ideological affirmation that makes the Church a laughing-stock and hurts the world.”

To these comments we should add the following: (1) China is an officially atheistic country; (2) China is a communist country, communism having been condemned by Pope Pius XI as intrinsically evil; (3) China has had a one-child policy for decades, only recently permitting two; (4) China extols Mao Tse Tung as the founder of its present system, someone who murdered at least thirty million people. (5) China permits abortion on demand, as well as contraception on demand.

What Sorondo should have said was: “at this moment, the Chinese are the ones implementing Novus Ordo socialist teaching best.” In this he would be correct. The Novus Ordo is concerned only about this world, and the “betterment” of society through communism. Bergoglio’s speeches and writings are loaded with this sentiment.