An historic deal was reached between the Vatican and the People’s Republic of China in 2018 that was seen as a breakthrough in a struggle for human rights and religious liberty.
It was hoped, certainly by Catholic diplomats, that the agreement would spell the end to an impasse over freedom of worship in the officially atheist Communist state. Tensions over religious rights had dogged relations between the two for several decades, as well as making life a miserable and unrelenting ordeal for the 12 million Catholics who form part of the 104 million Christians in the country.
Just five years on it would appear that such optimism was short-lived because in that period China has tightened restrictions on the rights of Christians, who represent about five per cent of the population of 1.4 billion people, while violating its initial agreement with the Holy See, which was renewed in 2020 and then in 2022.
The agreement is largely secret but what is known publicly is that it relates chiefly to the appointment of bishops. The deal allows the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) to have a say on the bishops that the Pope appoints, while at the same time bringing all bishops in China in communion with Rome, thereby ending both illegitimate ordinations within the Church and illegal ordinations under Chinese law.
Pope Francis was one of those who held on to the hope that the deal he renewed last year for the second time would bear positive fruit, telling Reuters in an interview published in July that he believed “the agreement is moving well”.
Within just four months, however, the Vatican was forced to concede that the agreement was, on the contrary, moving very badly indeed.
The Holy See went so far as to announce at the end of November that China had violated terms stipulated on the appointment of bishops, noting “with surprise and regret” that Bishop John Peng Weizhao had been installed as an “auxiliary bishop of Jiangxi,” a diocese not recognised by the Vatican.
His installation ceremony in Nanchang “did not occur in accordance with the spirit of dialogue … and what was stipulated in the Provisional Agreement on the Appointment of Bishops, on September 22, 2018”, a statement said, adding that Rome was also concerned about the “prolonged and heavy pressure from local authorities” that preceded the ceremony.
“The Holy See hopes that similar episodes will not be repeated, remains awaiting appropriate communications on the matter from the authorities, and reaffirms its full readiness to continue the respectful dialogue concerning all matters of common interest,” the statement concluded.
The betrayal by China triggered a moment of international scorn for the Vatican’s approach to the problem among those who have long objected to such policies on the grounds that the CCP was an untrusty partner.
Yet on Saturday the Vatican announced that Pope Francis has decided to recognise the transfer of the bishop even though the terms of the Sino-Vatican deal were openly flouted.
Italian Cardinal Pietro Parolin, Vatican Secretary of State, suggested that the evident contempt China is showing for the agreement could be remedied by the creation of a “stable liaison office” jointly with the Holy See.
Such a move would be “extremely helpful” for ongoing dialogue, he said.
It would be forgivable for Catholics to reach the conclusion that there is an element of wishful thinking in the reasoning of Cardinal Parolin and indeed in the approach of Vatican diplomacy to China more generally.
The CCP, whose members are obliged to be atheists, has after all never tolerated underground Catholic and Protestant churches, permitting Chinese Christians to belong only to either the state-controlled Three-Self Patriotic Movement for Protestants or the Chinese Catholic Patriotic Association (CPA), and punishing those who violate restrictions with imprisonment and fines.
The agreement with the Vatican has not only produced few signs of leniency but appears to have emboldened greater repression because in 2019 the CCP began to roll out a five-year plan to “sinicise” Christianity.
This meant “incorporating Chinese elements into church worship services, hymns and songs, clerical attire, and the architectural style of church buildings,” while proposing to “retranslate the Bible or rewrite biblical commentaries”.
An egregious instance of this saw the re-writing in 2021 of the account in St John’s Gospel of Jesus and the woman caught in adultery.
In the Communist version, Jesus waits for the woman’s accusers to leave and then he stones her himself, saying: “I too am a sinner. But if the law could only be executed by men without blemish, the law would be dead.”
The CCP has also banned under-18s from receiving religious education, or participating in religious activities, through a national law that prevents organisations or individuals from interfering with the state educational system for minors.
The State Administration of Religious Affairs has begun to register clergy for a database of “religious personnel” and to issue “clergy cards” only to ministers who were members of the government-sanctioned churches. Even they face fines, however, if they travel abroad without permission to take part in “religious training, conferences, pilgrimages, and other activities.”
At the same time, illegitimate episcopal ordinations by Chinese authorities continue, such as that in 2020 in Zhangjiakou, a diocese not recognised by Rome.
That same year, the CCP also curbed the celebration of Christmas, stipulating that it must be observed either in private homes or in state-sanctioned churches.
In February of the following year, authorities ordered the destruction of Sacred Heart Church in Yining, Xinjiang, because it was “too showy”. Even though the held all the required permits from the State Administration for Religious Affairs, the Communists chiselled off four bas reliefs on the façade, removed the statues of Ss Peter and Paul, ripped off the cross adorning the cusp of the tympanum, and destroyed the two domes and bell towers.
One Christian told Aid to the Church in Need, the Catholic charity, that “this is further confirmation that the country does not respect freedom of worship”.
It is little wonder that on the ground Catholic resistance continues, evidenced by the arrest in May 2021 of Bishop Joseph Zhang Weizhu, 10 priests and 10 seminarians for organising an underground seminary. The priests were sent away to be re-educated but the whereabouts of Bishop Weizhu remain unknown.
Relations between the CCP and the Vatican became yet more strained following the arrest of Cardinal Joseph Zen Ze-kiun, the Emeritus Bishop of Hong Kong, in May 2022, for his work with the Humanitarian Relief Fund, which gave financial support to pro-democracy protestors. His treatment was insufficient to derail the agreement between the two sides and it was renewed again in the summer, just months before Cardinal Zen was fined $HK4,000 following a short trial.
Archbishop Javier Herrera-Corona, the Vatican’s unofficial representative in Hong Kong, warned the city’s Catholic missions, that in spite of the renewed agreement “change is coming, and you’d better be prepared”.
“Hong Kong is not the great Catholic beachhead it was,” he added.
Nina Shea, the director of the Center for Religious Freedom at the Hudson Institute, in an interview with Catholic News Agency, was clear about such change had so far looked like, saying that since 2018 “the CCP has all but destroyed the Catholic underground church and tightened conformity with its teachings over the patriotic church”.
She said that six new episcopal appointments used by Rome to justify the Beijing agreement was insignificant because they were “offset by the detention, arrest or disappearance of six Vatican-recognized Catholic bishops”.
“Children are now banned from churches and exposure to religion, Bibles are tightly restricted and censored on the Internet and in app stores, churches are blanketed with high tech state surveillance, priests and Christian leaders are forced into life-long indoctrination on Christianity according to communist thought, and required to actively support CCP practices, leadership, and core values, even in their sermons,” she added.
Bishop Paul Lei Shiyin of Leshan, an illegitimately ordained Chinese bishops whose excommunication was lifted under the agreement, is one cleric who remains explicitly Communist, choosing to celebrated the birth of the CPA in his cathedral on the June 29 Solemnity of Ss Peter and Paul and inviting the faithful to “listen to the word of the Party, feel the grace of the Party, and follow the Party”.
Reggie Littlejohn, the president of Women’s Rights Without Frontiers, agreed that since 2018 “things have gone from bad to worse for Catholics in China” and said the “secrecy of the China-Vatican deal has been used to bludgeon faithful Chinese Catholics”.
“Faithful Catholics cannot defend themselves or their Church because they do not have access to this secret deal,” she told journalists.
“It’s difficult to see how the Pope can possibly succeed in the art of diplomacy when dealing with a force as evil as the CCP. I think the Vatican should be energetically bolstering the underground church and speaking up for human rights, not making accommodations with the CCP and self-censoring on important moral issues.”
In spite of his conviction in September, Cardinal Zen, 91, was given permission by the CCP to fly to Rome in January for the funeral of Pope Benedict XVI, the pontiff who elevated him to the College of Cardinals in 2006.
In a blog two days before the Requiem Mass, Cardinal Zen expressed his immense gratitude for the work the late pope had undertaken on behalf of Chinese Catholics, calling Benedict’s 2007 Letter to China “a masterpiece of balance between the lucidity of Catholic ecclesiological doctrine and humble understanding with respect to civil authority”.
“Despite his great efforts, Pope Benedict failed to improve the situation of the Church in China. He could not accept just any compromise,” said the Shanghai-born cardinal.
A consistent critic of the 2018 agreement, he said he was “convinced that every effort to improve the situation of the Church in China will need to be taken in line with the 2007 letter”.
After the funeral, he met Pope Francis at Casa Santa Marta and described their talks as “friendly”. Further details of their conversation remains confidential.
It is reasonable to assert, however, that the two men surely discussed the plight of the Chinese Church and perhaps even touched upon the worth of an agreement which his honoured by one side and derisively ignored by the other.
(Photo: FILIPPO MONTEFORTE/AFP via Getty Images)
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