TIANJIN, China (LifeSiteNews) — The Holy See announced that the Chinese government has officially recognized a Vatican-appointed bishop of the underground Church, in what appears as a significant moment in Sino-Vatican relations.
JUST IN: #Vatican announces that Bishop Melchior Shi Hongzhen has been “officially recognized for the purposes of the civil order as Bishop of Tianjin.”
He became bishop of Tianjin in 2019, but has been under house arrest since then for refusing to join the #Chinese state church pic.twitter.com/Rkz0Zsrgvd— Michael Haynes 🇻🇦 (@MLJHaynes) August 27, 2024
On August 27, the Holy See press office issued a statement detailing that Bishop Melchior Shin Hongzhen had been recognized by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) government as ordinary of the Diocese of Tianjin:
The Holy See learns with satisfaction that today, August 27, 2024, H.E. Msgr. Melchior Shi Hongzhen is officially recognized for the purposes of the civil order as Bishop of Tianjin (Municipality of Tianjin, People’s Republic of China).
The Holy See commented that the development “is a positive fruit of the dialogue established over the years between the Holy See and the Chinese government.”
Bishop Shi, 94, had been appointed by the Vatican as coadjutor bishop of Tianjin in 1982, and succeeded Vatican-approved and fellow “underground” Church Bishop Stephen Li Side, who died in 2019 aged 92. The diocese, however, had been without a bishop since 2005.
Like his predecessor, Bishop Melchior Shi has consistently refused to join the state-approved church in China – the Chinese Patriotic Catholic Association (CPCA) – and has subsequently been under house arrest for a number of years.
Diocese of Tianjin: pivotal see in Sino-Vatican relations
The Diocese of Tianjin has long been a contended one, with the CCP authorities refusing to recognize the Vatican-appointed bishops. While still a priest, Bishop Stephen Li was arrested in 1958 upon the launch of the CPCA. He spent four years in jail before being released. Arrested once again in 1963, he was sent to work camps until 1980.
Bishop Li was then secretly consecrated bishop of the Diocese of Tianjin in 1982, but the CCP refused to recognize him. Imprisoned again in the late 1980s, he was released on house arrest until his death.
In his place, the CCP positioned Bishop Giuseppe Shi Hongchen as leader of Tianjin – a former member of the underground Church who had been consecrated an auxiliary of Tianjin by Bishop Li. Bishop Giuseppe Shi died in 2006.
According to the Holy See, the diocese has “56,000 faithful, distributed in 21 parishes, served by 62 priests and a good number of women religious.” A 2019 report by AsiaNews attested to “100 thousand faithful, cared for by 40 official and 20 underground priests” with a further 60 CPCA priests and sisters.
AsiaNews – a reliable documenter of news pertaining to the Church in the region – previously described the Diocese of Tianjin as “a significant test for the agreement on episcopal appointment.” Such a comment came in light of the much-discussed and highly controversial 2018 deal the Vatican has with Beijing.
The officially secret Sino-Vatican deal is believed to recognize the state-approved church in China and allows the CCP to appoint bishops. The Pope apparently maintains veto power, although in practice it is the CCP that has control, as demonstrated by a series of recent episcopal appointments by the CCP. It also allegedly allows for the removal of legitimate bishops to be replaced by CCP-approved bishops.
In a 2018 letter to Chinese Catholics, Francis described the deal as forming a “new chapter of the Catholic Church in China.”
But outside the walls of the Vatican’s Apostolic Palace, criticism has come from Catholic clergy, freedom advocates, and China experts. The highly secretive deal has been styled by Hong Kong emeritus Cardinal Joseph Zen as an “incredible betrayal,” with the much-loved cardinal further accusing the Vatican of “selling out” Chinese Catholics.
Numerous China experts have also criticized the Vatican for the deal, and then-U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo warned in 2020 that “(t)he Vatican endangers its moral authority, should it renew the deal.”
“All bishops who refuse to join the Catholic Patriotic Association are being placed under house arrest, or disappeared, by the CCP,” China expert Steven Moser told LifeSiteNews. “Although the Vatican said several years ago that the Sino-Vatican agreement does not require anyone to join this schismatic organization, refusal to do so results in persecution and punishment. And the Vatican stands by and does nothing.”
Tianjin a sign of the deal’s renewal?
In April this year, Vatican Cardinal Secretary of State Pietro Parolin confirmed to this correspondent that the Holy See hoped to renew the deal this fall, for the third such renewal.
READ: EXCLUSIVE: Cardinal Parolin confirms Vatican aims to renew secretive deal with China this year
Prior to the 2022 renewal, the Holy See and CCP authorities held joint discussions in Tianjin in early autumn, and the Vatican delegation also visited Bishop Melchior Shi in his house arrest. The Holy See team was led by Archbishop Claudio Maria Celli, an official who was heavily instrumental in orchestrating the original Sino-Vatican deal, alongside Cardinal Parolin.
Various Vatican sources have confided to certain members of the Vatican press corps that relations between Beijing and the Vatican have apparently “made progress.” This, the officials said, was largely due to the current bishop of Hong Kong, Cardinal Stephen Chow, SJ, who has highlighted a spirit of “dialogue” between the two parties.
READ: EXCLUSIVE: Incoming Hong Kong cardinal highlights ‘dialogue’ between Vatican and Communist China
With Parolin increasingly confident in the deal’s renewal this year, it remains to be seen whether Beijing will – at least outwardly – allow the Vatican any more authority, or if it will continue to call the shots.
Notwithstanding such power games, the deal has led to a heightened increase in religious persecution, which the U.S. Congressional-Executive Commission on China described as a direct consequence of the deal. In its 2020 report, the Commission wrote that the persecution witnessed is “of an intensity not seen since the Cultural Revolution.”
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