Commentary On Dec. 13, 2021, Jimmy Lai, the founder of one of Hong Kong’s most popular newspapers, Apple Daily, was sentenced to 13 months in jail for participating in a vigil marking the 1989 Tiananmen massacre in Beijing. Yet, while his imprisonment sparked condemnation around the world, in one place, it elicited only silence: the Vatican. Upon his arrest, the Vatican was also strangely silent. As William McGurn, columnist for Wall Street Journal, stated at the time, Jimmy Lai is not only Hong Kong’s most well-known champion of democracy; he is also its most prominent Catholic layman. At that moment, when he and his family needed their shepherd the most, Pope Francis was MIA. In 2018, the Vatican signed a provisional agreement with the Chinese Communist Party on the appointment of Catholic bishops. However, when renewing the agreement in 2020—the terms of which Rome insists on keeping secret—the Vatican Secretary of …