VATICAN CITY (LifeSiteNews) — As the Holy See renews it secretive and “sellout” deal with Communist China regarding the appointment of bishops, China experts and leading human rights campaigners have warned that it will only “embolden” Beijing to “further intensify its repression” of Catholics in China.
“The Vatican continues to engage in the pretense that it has an ‘agreement’ with the Chinese Communist Party,” said Steven Mosher, president of the Population Research Institute.
Mosher’s comments come after Beijing and the Holy See announced the renewal of its highly controversial provisional 2018 deal regarding the appointment of bishops in China.
READ: Vatican renews its secretive deal with China for appointing bishops
A spokesman for the Chinese government announced Tuesday:
Through friendly consultations, the two sides have decided to extend the agreement for another four years. The two sides will maintain talks with a constructive spirit and continue to advance the improvement of China-Vatican relations.
In its own customary noon press release some hours later, the Holy See stated:
In light of the consensus reached for an effective application of the Provisional Agreement regarding the Appointment of Bishops, after appropriate consultation and assessment, the Holy See and the People’s Republic of China have agreed to extend further its validity for four years from the present date.
The Vatican Party remains dedicated to furthering the respectful and constructive dialogue with the Chinese Party, in view of the further development of bilateral relations for the benefit of the Catholic Church in China and the Chinese people as a whole.
The officially secret deal is believed to recognize the state-approved church in China and allows the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) to appoint bishops. The Pope apparently maintains veto power, although in practice it is the CCP that has control. It also allegedly allows for the removal of legitimate bishops to be replaced by CCP-approved bishops and has ushered in significant increases in persecution of Christians.
A deal with a ‘godless one-party dictatorship’
Cardinal Pietro Parolin, the Vatican’s Secretary of State who is widely believed to be a key author of the deal, stated in July 2023 that “the text is confidential because it has not yet been finally approved.”
But Mosher critiqued the cardinal’s commentary: “When Cardinal Parolin was asked to reveal the terms of this ‘agreement,’ he responded that the ‘The text is confidential because it has not yet been finally approved.’”
“In other words, there is no ‘agreement,’” Mosher commented to this correspondent. “There is only the pious hope that a godless one-party dictatorship will share power with the Vatican in the appointment of Chinese bishops, or at least ‘consult’ with the Vatican before making a new appointment.”
Such a scenario has only “sometimes” occurred in the six years of the provisional deals’ existence, Mosher noted. “It is on the basis of this hope that the deal has been extended, and now extended again.”
Tuesday’s announcement was notable especially for the deal being renewed for four years as opposed to the previous customary two, signifying an increasing likelihood of the agreement being made permanent should relations continue as they are.
Why did the Vatican not barter for release of jailed clergy?
Though Parolin and Francis have both defended the deal from the very beginning it has been directly linked to a dramatic increase in Christian persecution.
“Ever since it was first signed in 2018, the Sino-Vatican deal has only led to a further increase in and intensification of religious persecution in China and has not led to any improvements whatsoever,” Lord David Alton told this correspondent. “Ask Xinjiang’s persecuted Uyghur Muslims, Tibet’s Buddhists, Christians from all denominations, and Falun Gong.”
The U.S. Congressional-Executive Commission on China has also testified to this in its 2020 and 2023 report, most recently noting that the CCP “have continued their efforts to assert control over Catholic leadership, community life, and religious practice, installing two bishops in contravention of the 2018 Sino-Vatican agreement and accelerating the integration of the church in Hong Kong with the PRC-based, state-sponsored Catholic Patriotic Association and its Party-directed ideology.”
READ: Pope Francis said Chinese Catholics will ‘suffer’ under his deal. They are
Lord Alton, a Catholic and member of the UK House of Lords known for his defense of pro-life issues, called it “deeply problematic that this Concordat has been renewed yet again with no debate, scrutiny or, it seems, conditionality.”
No public details have been issued about any amendments to the deal, the original text of which remains secret. This Alton critiqued, saying that the Holy See should have insisted upon certain criteria if the deal was to be renewed:
The release from prison of jailed Catholic bishops and priests ought at least to have been a condition for the Vatican’s agreement in renewing this tawdry deal. The Vatican should also have called for an end to the continuing unjust imprisonment of Jimmy Lai, a faithful and deeply committed Catholic, incarcerated in Hong Kong, as a precondition.
But instead of the Holy See standing up for such imprisoned clergy, Alton noted, “there is deafening silence when it comes to freedom of religion or belief.”
“The Vatican’s silence on human rights and religious freedom in China is profoundly disappointing and dangerously counterproductive,” he said.
Never trust China, but the Vatican is
A similar theme was expressed by Benedict Rogers, trustee and co-founder of Hong Kong Watch. “It is profoundly disturbing and disappointing that this agreement has been renewed once again, with no apparent review of its impact, no transparency regarding the details and absolutely no improvement in religious freedom in China,” he wrote in a comment to LifeSiteNews.
Rogers noted that the deal’s renewal came shortly after the Hudson Institute issued a report detailing the continued persecution and “religious repression” of 10 Catholic bishops in China – a persecution that has only “intensified since the 2018 China-Vatican agreement on the appointment of bishops.”
“The Vatican wants us to forget 10 inconvenient Bishops who reject the right of the CCP to tell them what to believe, think, or say,” Lord Alton commented about the study.
Meanwhile, Rogers added that “the unconditional renewal of this agreement is likely to embolden the Chinese regime to continue and further intensify its repression and make the environment even more difficult for Catholics in China.”
In an op-ed published by UCA News, Rogers expanded by outlining four key issues with the deal:
- its secrecy
- its awarding of authority to “avowedly atheistic and repressive” regime in appointing bishops
- its having “bought the pope’s silence on human rights in China”
- and the fact that China “can never be trusted to keep its word.”
In 2018, Cardinal Joseph Zen, the much-loved bishop emeritus of Hong Kong, styled the Sino-Vatican deal as an “incredible betrayal,” with Zen further accusing the Vatican of “selling out” Chinese Catholics.
The Holy See’s diplomatic role has come under increased scrutiny in relation to the entire deal. But Rogers warned that diplomacy has limits and that the Sino-Vatican deal is fast leaving aside any presence of justification:
Diplomacy has its place. Negotiations are necessary. Reconciliation is laudable and should always be an objective for the Church. Naivety is forgivable. But complicity and appeasement — to which the Vatican’s approach is moving perilously close — have no place in Catholic social teaching.
The ink had barely dried on the deal in 2018 before AsiaNews, a website that regularly documents the abduction and torture of underground Catholics, reported that “(u)nderground Catholics bitterly suspect that the Vatican has abandoned them.”
As reports of persecution continue to increase, the Holy See’s apparent abandoning of thousands of China’s Catholics will remain a black mark in the annals of history.