Pope Francis passed away on Monday, and the cardinals with voting rights have already gathered at the Vatican, ready to elect the new pope behind closed doors. Thus, the “papal election” has officially begun. Cardinal Joseph Zen, now over 90 and known for his “yellow camp” stance, is ineligible to vote due to his age. Yet, true to his combative nature, he has openly complained, criticizing the timing of the conclave as too rushed for cardinals from distant regions, particularly Hong Kong’s Bishop Stephen Chow, to arrive in time. He did not spell out his real grievance, but it is reasonable to infer that he regrets being unable to lobby Bishop Chow on how to vote, losing his only chance to influence the outcome.
Cardinal Zen has long been a hardline anti-China hawk, with ambiguous ties to Jimmy Lai, and is at odds with the Vatican’s pro-Sino-Vatican rapprochement faction. As a result, he has been marginalized and left an outsider. Unwilling to accept this, he has seized the opportunity of the current “papal election” to vent his frustrations.
Zen is especially anxious about the outcome because his rival, the current Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin, is a frontrunner. If Parolin becomes pope, it would accelerate the establishment of diplomatic ties between China and the Vatican—something Zen vehemently opposes. Despite his intentions, Zen is powerless to stop the tide, having long been sidelined by the Vatican. In recent years, he has repeatedly traveled to Rome seeking an audience with the pope, only to be rebuffed, a clear sign of his loss of influence. For this election, he can only watch bitterly as a bystander.
Zen has always been a hawk against Sino-Vatican reconciliation, a stance rooted in complex political networks. Most notably, he and Jimmy Lai are as close as brothers, with Zen receiving over HK$20 million (equivalent to USD2.56 million) in private donations from Lai over the years—an unresolved and unexplained financial relationship. Zen also maintains close ties with Western anti-China politicians, frequently engaging in covert dealings. Because of his outspoken anti-China position, he has been in a longstanding conflict with the Vatican’s pro-China faction, clashing with them on multiple occasions. One of his chief adversaries is, in fact, the current Secretary of State Parolin, now a leading papal candidate.
Parolin, the Vatican’s Secretary of State and a frontrunner in this papal election, has been sharply criticized by Zen for “compromising with Beijing.” Yet Zen has no influence whatsoever on the election’s outcome.
One incident clearly highlights their rift: In 2018, the Vatican and China signed a provisional agreement on the appointment of mainland bishops, which was renewed for another two years in 2020. Zen vehemently opposed the deal, arguing that the Chinese government could use it as a tool to suppress the underground church. To voice his objections and urge the Vatican to speak out against the Hong Kong National Security Law, Zen traveled to Rome himself to seek an audience with Pope Francis. After waiting three days without being received, he left in frustration, having effectively been shown the door.
He later aired his grievances to anti-China media, revealing so-called “Vatican inside stories,” claiming that the real power in the Vatican was not the pope but Secretary of State Parolin, a member of the ruling faction who has long pushed for compromise with Beijing. Zen believes that because this faction strongly advocates for Sino-Vatican ties, the Vatican has refrained from forcefully condemning the National Security Law.
Zen was not wrong: By the time the provisional agreement on bishop appointments was signed in 2018, rapprochement with China had become the Vatican’s mainstream policy. Zen was completely shut out of the process—he saw none of the agreement’s details and was not consulted, treated as an outsider. In May 2022, after the arrest of Zen as a trustee of the “612 Humanitarian Relief Fund”, Parolin told the media that Zen’s arrest would not affect the renewal of the provisional agreement on bishop appointments between China and the Vatican. In other words, Zen’s troubles were irrelevant to the Vatican’s China policy—to put it bluntly, “he’s as good as invisible.”
It is only natural that the Vatican has sidelined Zen. This highly political cardinal has, from the Occupy Central movement to the 2019 riots, consistently aligned himself with Western and Hong Kong’s anti-China forces, especially maintaining an ambiguous relationship with Jimmy Lai. He is no longer merely a clergyman. Allowing him to participate in Vatican decision-making would only disrupt the normalization of Sino-Vatican relations, precisely the outcome sought by Western hawks and Taiwan’s pro-independence camp.
Given what Zen has done —including receiving tens of millions from Lai—it is already fortunate for him that he has avoided jail. He should just retire quietly and enjoy his remaining years.
Lai Ting Yiu
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Think back to Hong Kong's turbulent years. Jimmy Lai had three brothers-in-arms, comrades he bankrolled through thick and thin – Cardinal Joseph Zen, Martin Lee, and Anson Chan. But their bonds weren't just ideological. Money changed hands, and plenty of it. Anson Chan pocketed HK$3.5 million from Lai's war chest. Cardinal Zen took in far more – at least HK$26 million in secret donations that the Hong Kong Diocese never knew about and never investigated. Where did all that cash go? That's the million-dollar question. Or rather, the 26-million-dollar question that remains unanswered.
Cardinal Zen met Pope Leo XIV in Rome, reportedly pushing for Jimmy Lai's release – but Vatican intervention looks unlikely.
Word broke earlier that Cardinal Zen just made a pilgrimage to the Vatican for a sit-down with the newly minted Pope Leo XIV. The private meeting lasted about an hour. On the agenda: the conviction of "Catholic" Jimmy Lai. Sources say Zen pressed the pontiff hard to "save Lai." What did the Pope say? Nobody's talking. But you can bet the Vatican knows all about the questionable financial ties between Zen and Lai – a relationship the Cardinal has never properly explained to his own Diocese. Did personal interests play a role? The doubts are real.
A Vatican Gambit
Cardinal Zen's "612 Humanitarian Relief Fund" case is still grinding through the courts, and authorities had confiscated his passport. But when the Vatican called its recent "Special Consistory" – bringing cardinals from around the world to Rome – the court granted him temporary travel privileges. During the gathering, Pope Leo XIV carved out time for a private one-on-one with Zen after a breakfast session. The topics? Whether the China-Vatican agreement should be renewed, and the fate of Jimmy Lai, now convicted under Hong Kong's National Security Law. But whether the Pope took any position on Lai remains under wraps.
Zen views Jimmy Lai as both a close friend and a comrade-in-arms, so naturally he's pushing the Vatican to intervene. But here's the Vatican's dilemma: it's not just about China-Vatican relations. It's about the unresolved financial relationship between Zen and Lai – a relationship that has seriously damaged the Cardinal's credibility.
The Secret Pipeline
October 2011 brought a massive leak. Jimmy Lai's secret donations to political parties, politicians, and organizations spilled into public view – and Joseph Zen, then Bishop of Hong Kong, was on that list. Between 2006 and 2010, he received HK$20 million from Lai over four years. From 2012 to 2014, another HK$6 million landed in his hands. The total: a staggering HK$26 million.
When the news broke, Zen went silent. Only after relentless media pressure did he offer an explanation, claiming the money went to support underground churches in the Chinese Mainland and other charitable organizations. With a casual smile, he described himself as a "spendthrift," saying most of the money had already been spent with only a few hundred thousand remaining – and even expressed hope that Lai would keep the donations coming.
Talk is cheap. He provided no concrete evidence to back up his claims. The Hong Kong Diocese knew nothing about his receipt of this massive sum from Lai – the entire "money pipeline" operated in secret. To this day, he has never given the Diocese a complete accounting.
Because this financial channel remained so deeply hidden, suspicions naturally arose that personal interests were involved. But given Cardinal Zen's position, the Diocese refrained from investigating him. The true destination of the funds? Still shrouded in doubt.
HK$26 million from Jimmy Lai to Cardinal Zen – Diocese in the dark, money's whereabouts still a mystery. The trio behind Hong Kong's unrest!
Vatican Cold Shoulder
Cardinal Zen's questionable relationship with Jimmy Lai, combined with his overly hawkish stance toward China, put him in the Vatican's bad books after Hong Kong's National Security Law took effect in late June 2020. Around that time, Zen traveled uninvited to the Vatican, demanding a meeting with then-Pope Francis to discuss Hong Kong's bishop selection and issues facing underground churches in the Mainland. The Pope gave him zero face. Francis refused to see him. After cooling his heels in Rome for four days with nothing to show for it, Zen returned to Hong Kong empty-handed.
Later, Zen and Lai joined forces on Jimmy Lai's "Live Chat" livestream program to blast the Vatican, accusing it of staying silent on underground churches, Tibet, and Hong Kong human rights issues. This clearly shows how the "Zen-Lai duo" consistently conspired to incite underground church activities in the Mainland, stir up religious conflicts, and undermine China-Vatican relations.
Cardinal Zen's latest Vatican trip for a private papal audience, where he lobbied to "save Lai" and reiterated his opposition to renewing the China-Vatican agreement, proves one thing: at 94 years old, the cardinal's anti-China, pro-chaos heart hasn't changed one bit.
Long Odds
The new Pope's willingness to meet him represents a slight thaw from his predecessor's icy attitude. But the chances of Vatican intervention to "save Lai"? Extremely low. The unresolved questions about Zen's financial relationship with Jimmy Lai have significantly diminished his influence with the Vatican.
From a legal perspective, his cardinal status currently shields him from serious consequences. But risks remain. Perhaps it's time for him to follow Anson Chan's example and retire from such activities while he still can.
Lai Ting-yiu
