Cardinal Zen Attends Extraordinary Consistory, Received in Private Audience by Pope Leo XIV
The bishop emeritus of Hong Kong was able to travel to Rome having received permission from state authorities.
VATICAN CITY, 7 January 2026 — Cardinal Joseph Zen is in Rome today to take part in Pope Leo XIV’s first extraordinary consistory of cardinals.
The Holy Father received him in private audience this morning.
The 93-year-old bishop emeritus of Hong Kong was able to travel after obtaining permission from the Hong Kong authorities. He currently faces restrictions on travel due to tight legal constraints imposed after his 2022 arrest under Hong Kong’s National Security Law.
Police charged him and several others with “collusion with foreign forces” over their role in a humanitarian fund for pro‑democracy protesters. He was later convicted on a lesser offence and fined, and remains free on bail. The cardinal has always pleaded not guilty to all the charges.
Hong Kong courts have periodically confiscated and then temporarily returned his passport to allow strictly limited travel, as happened when he was permitted to attend the funerals of Benedict XVI and Pope Francis.
Cardinal Zen’s audience with Leo XIV comes after years in which he struggled to obtain similar access to Pope Francis, whom he repeatedly urged to take a firmer line against Beijing and to reconsider the Vatican’s provisional agreement with China on the appointment of bishops.
In 2020 he travelled to Rome with a personal letter appealing for a “faithful shepherd” to be appointed bishop of Hong Kong but was not granted a one‑on‑one meeting, an omission widely read as a sign of tension between the outspoken cardinal and the previous pontificate.
Who can forget the sight of Cardinal Zen standing alone on a deserted St Peter's Square during the Covid epidemy, writing on Twitter that he returned back to Hongkong " with two empty hands" after not having received a Papal audience by Pope Francis.
Cardinal Zen is a holy man. In contrast to many he has sacrificed himself to protect Catholics from the terrible ( secret) China deal.