Cardinal Gerhard Muller noted that no senior Vatican official had offered an expression of solidarity or a prayer initiative for Cardinal Zen at last month’s gathering of cardinals in Rome.

On a return flight from Kazakhstan Thursday, the pope suggested this is no accident. When a reporter asked about Cardinal Zen, the pope offered not a word of support, noting only that the cardinal “says what he feels” despite knowing there are “limitations.” The pope declined to even say China was undemocratic. All that was missing was a cock crowing in the background.

By contrast, Joe Biden’s press secretary said the president calls for the immediate release of “those who have been unjustly detained and charged, like Cardinal Joseph Zen.” Likewise, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi condemned the cardinal’s arrest in a Washington Post op-ed, where she also called him “the embodiment of moral fortitude” and highlighted his opposition to the Sino-Vatican deal.

What would it take to admit the deal was a mistake? The brutal persecution of the Muslim Uyghurs? Beijing’s increasingly aggressive push to Sinicize the Catholic faith by making it serve the Chinese Communist Party? If a show trial for a cardinal doesn’t do it, what would?