BEIJING (LifeSiteNews) — As official Congressional reports document China’s continued persecution of the Catholic Church, Pope Francis’ suggestion that Chinese Catholics “will suffer” due to his Sino-Vatican deal appears to remain true.
With the Vatican’s secretive deal with China likely to be renewed in the coming weeks, Chinese Catholics have already spent six years living under the terms of the agreement.
READ: EXCLUSIVE: Cardinal Parolin confirms Vatican aims to renew secretive deal with China this year
From the earliest days, faithful Catholics in China – namely those resisting to join the schismatic Communist-state approved church – have faced increased persecution due to the Vatican’s deal.
A Vatican abandon?
The ink had barely dried on the deal in 2018 before AsiaNews, a site that regularly documents the abductions and torturing of underground Catholics, reported that “(u)nderground Catholics bitterly suspect that the Vatican has abandoned them.”
China’s state church – the Chinese Catholic Patriotic Association (CCPA) – does not intend to aid the spread of Christianity in the nation, AsiaNews commented. The CCPA’s policy “does not seem in favor of the evangelization of China, but – as mentioned so many times in the past by the same (CC)PA – is a step towards the suppression of all Christians.”
The 2018 deal has been much criticized since its inception by numerous commentators, China experts and local clergy. Much loved Hong Kong Cardinal Emeritus Joseph Zen styled it as “a complete surrender. It’s a betrayal.”
Before the deal’s first two-year renewal in 2020, former U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo warned that “(t)he Vatican endangers its moral authority, should it renew the deal.” He pointed to an article he penned on the subject in which he stated that “it’s clear that the Sino-Vatican agreement has not shielded Catholics from the Party’s depredations.”
The officially secret Sino-Vatican 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, 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.
“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 previously 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.”
Francis: Catholics ‘will suffer’
Pope Francis and Cardinal Pietro Parolin, key architect of the deal, have been been vocal in their defense of the agreement, with the Pope stating before its 2022 renewal that the deal “is going well.”
However, a little remembered comment from Pope Francis in 2018 aligns more with the numerous critics of the deal.
Speaking to journalists aboard the papal plane returning from the Baltics, just days after the deal was formalized in September 2018, Francis warned that Chinese Catholics will suffer: “It’s true, they will suffer. There is always suffering in an agreement.”
According to Reuters, Francis said he had received messages attesting that the underground Church would continue in its “martyr-like faith” and accept whatever they had to.
The Pope did not expand on how he envisioned Chinese Catholics – faithful to Rome rather than to the Communist government – suffering. Perhaps he imagined a mental anguish, or a moral quandary.
The reality has been that, and more. Beijing’s relentless persecution of Catholics – and the wider Christian and Uyghyur Mulism community – has been unabated.
READ: Pope Francis’ deal with Communist China has led to greater persecution of Catholics
Bishops, priests, seminarians and laity have been arrested, tortured and imprisoned for not signing up to the CCP state church, with Chinese authorities reportedly adding extra pressure onto the faithful Catholics by saying that Pope Francis supports the state church – which, by nature of the 2018 deal, he is.
One example from 2021: Father Joseph Liu of the Diocese of Mindong was detained by police in July and tortured for 10 hours before “six policemen took him by the hand and forced him to sign” his allegiance to the CCP. That very day, Vatican News was full of praise for China, as Bishop Li Hui became the fifth bishop consecrated under the terms of the deal. But as far as the Vatican was concerned, Liu might not even have existed.
Indeed, Beijing is so clearly unafraid of the Vatican or the international community that it continues to violate the deal by unilaterally appointing bishops and informing the Holy See after the fact.
Congress documents continued persecution
The U.S. Congressional-Executive Commission on China noted a huge increase in persecution 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.”
The Commission directly linked the increase in Catholic persecution to the deal: “Subsequently, local Chinese authorities subjected Catholic believers in China to increased persecution by demolishing churches, removing crosses, and continuing to detain underground clergy. The Party-led Catholic national religious organizations also published a plan to ‘sinicize’ Catholicism in China.”
READ: Beijing recognizes Vatican-appointed bishop ahead of expected renewal of China-Vatican deal
In its 2023 report released this May – covering the period from July 1, 2022, through June 30, 2023 – the Commission highlighted a similar situation:
“The Chinese Communist Party and government 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.”
Examples cited by the Commission included the CCP’s unilateral appointment of bishops in violation of the 2018 deal but also the persecution of Catholics on a more local level.
“During the Commission’s 2023 reporting year, officials exerted pressure on both registered and unregistered Catholic communities, taking coercive action against churches and detaining members of the clergy,” the report reads.
It gave evidence of priests arrested by the Chinese authorities and subjected to “a program of political indoctrination, after which several consented to join the official church, while authorities have kept those who did not consent under surveillance and prevented them from exercising their pastoral ministry roles.”
Indeed, China’s influence over the Catholic Church in Hong Kong has been steadily growing in the past few years, aided by local prelate Cardinal Stephen Chow, who has emphasized the building of bridges with China and organized reciprocal visits for the CCPA clergy.
READ: Hong Kong passes Article 23 in ‘symbolic death blow’ to freedom
So marked has been Chow’s signs of appeasement to Beijing that a report warned that his Diocese of Hong Kong was actively working with the CCP to effect “sinicization” – the process of state-assimilation and control.
Thus, as the Holy See prepares for what will be the formality of renewing the Sino-Vatican deal for likely another two years, China’s underground Catholics appear to fulfill Francis’ 2018 prediction. They are indeed suffering, and with a “martyr-life faith,” but heavily due to his deal with Beijing.