Speculation is growing that the leader of the Catholic Church could meet the leader of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) in Kazakhstan next week. Xi Jinping will be in the country’s capital on the same day as Pope Francis, who is traveling to the Central Asian state for an interfaith summit, where it was speculated he would meet the Patriarch of the Russian Orthodox Church, a meeting now not going to take place.
It is not yet known whether Xi will attend the interfaith meeting. If he does, it could be the first meeting between a pope and a Chinese leader since the CCP took control in 1949. It would also come after Taiwan honoured John Paul I, with Taipei having sent an envoy to attend the beatification ceremony as a sign of the bond between Taiwan and the Holy See (Vatican City State remains the only European country to recognise Taiwan as independent).
The meeting with Xi would come as the Vatican is eyeing the second renewal of its 2018 deal with the CCP, where the former agreed to cooperate in the selection of bishops of a united Catholic Church in China. But, as Wang Linbin pointed out in the Diplomat, Beijing now elects and appoints bishops through the Bishops Conference of Catholic Church in China (BCCCC). The objective was a merger of the Underground Catholic Church into the Chinese Patriotic Catholic Association (CPCA). Through the deal, the Vatican had the final say on appointments, but could only select from CCP-approved candidates.
The result has been ongoing persecution of Chinese Catholics, such as Bishop Augustine Cui Tai, who has been in jail on and off since 2007. The CCP has actually reneged on the deal already and, as of 2020, makes no provision for a papal role in the process of selecting bishops, not even a right to approve or veto appointments. Today instead, churches are monitored by CCTV, while CPCA-aligned clergy must be tracked in a database.
The prospect of a meeting between the Pontiff and Chinese leader has however been discussed for years but this would seem to be in poor taste given what China is doing to ethnic and religious minorities at home, and Taiwan abroad. The Vatican has effectively allowed the CCP to control a religious institution and a potential challenge to Beijing’s authority. The CCP has made no secret of its hostility towards religion, not least Christianity and Islam, seen as foreign imports to China. Since the country’s 97 million Christians outnumber members of the CCP, Christianity is seen a very serious threat.
It is today estimated that anywhere between 20 and 50 million Chinese Christians have experienced persecution, with a 2020 report by the US Congressional-Executive Commission on China finding that Chinese Catholics suffered “increasing persecution” after the 2018 deal. Religious education for any faith is now illegal for under-18s, meaning catechism classes have been closed while minors are not allowed to enter places of worship. In addition, priests forced to attend government training.
One wonders how the Vatican can stand by while churches are forced to remove images of the Ten Commandments in favour of sayings by Chairmans Mao and Xi, with religious statues replaced by party images, and crucifixes torn down. Moreover, despite international condemnation of China’s treatment of the Uyghurs, the Vatican has said relatively little on the matter, although Pope Francis has referred to the Uyghurs as “persecuted”.
Cardinal Joseph Zen – set to be put on trial shortly in Hong Kong – has previously said he thinks Cardinal Pietro Parolin, who has been pivotal to the agreement, is “manipulating” the Pope and may be acting out of “vainglory”, according to an interview with New Bloom Magazine. As James Jay Carafano and Stefano Graziosi have asked in National Review: “How can the global leader of the Catholic Church even contemplate doing business with such a murderous regime?” To which one could add, how could Francis even consider meeting Xi in Kazakhstan? In fact, a snub of the CCP leader would send a powerful message around the world. The Pope should at the very least now attach conditions – such as the release of clergy – to any renewal of the CCP deal, if not scrap it entirely. Anything less would be an insult.
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