SHANGHAI, China (LifeSiteNews) — Following its appointment of a diocesan bishop against the Vatican’s wishes, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has conducted an official visit to ensure that the bishop is implementing state policies.
UCA News reported May 10 that local officials from the CCP had made a visit to Bishop Shen Bin of the Diocese of Shanghai, in order to “study the local church’s progress on the implementation of socialist policies.”
The CCP’s visit took place on May 8 when three officials from the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) visited the diocese, their official purpose being to inaugurate a new workshop building. In reality, the visit was chiefly an opportunity for the CCP officials to ensure that the diocesan authorities were correctly effecting the “Chineseization (Sinicization) of religion.”
The diocese is recognized by the Holy See, but Shen is not the Vatican-approved bishop of Shanghai. The Vatican-recognized bishop of Shanghai is actually Bishop Thaddeus Ma Daqin whereas Shen is merely the Vatican-approved bishop of Haimen.
Nevertheless, the CCP recently installed Shen as the ordinary of Shanghai diocese.
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Details of the various speeches can be found in a statement released by the diocese. Qian Feng – the vice chairman of the CPPCC’s Shanghai Municipal Committee – praised the Catholic role in the “economic and social development of Shanghai.” He added that CPPCC members would “raise their political status, study the spirit of the 20th CPC National Congress, the spirit of the Central United Front Work Conference, and the spirit of the National Religious Work Conference. “
The Communist official also urged that attendees “adhere to the direction of Chineseization of religion and actively guide religions to adapt to socialist society.”
Themes of “unity and democracy” were similarly highlighted, as Qian encouraged those present to “advance into a new journey and build a new era, and build consensus and gather strength for the high-quality development of Shanghai’s economy, society, and various undertakings.”
Also present at the event, were fellow CPPCC officials: Min Satellite, the CPPCC director of the Committee of Ethnicity and Religion; Yu Xiufen, the director of the CPPCC Committee of Sectional and Regional Work; and Xu Mei, the full-time deputy director of the CPPCC Committee of Ethnicity and Religion.
Bishop Shen is a loyal supporter of the government-approved church in China, otherwise known as the Chinese Catholic Patriotic Association (CPA). He is also a member of the CPPCC’s Standing Committee and serves both as vice president of the Chinese Catholic Patriotic Association and as president of the Chinese Catholic Bishops’ Conference. As such, Shen is a signed up member of the state-approved clergy.
Such loyalties were reflected in his own speech on May 8, as he urged Shanghai Catholics to “firstly, identify politically, adhere to the leadership of the [Communist] Party, reflect political requirements in the process of performing their duties, consider the effect of rectification, and keep the political bottom line.”
A second priority, added Shen, was that Catholics in his diocese should “bring into play the positive factors in Catholic culture, unite and coalesce the majority of the religious, serve the Church and integrate into society, and contribute to the economic and social development of Shanghai and the healthy and stable development of the Catholic Church in Shanghai.”
The visit is a notable one as it comes one month after Shen was moved to the Diocese of Shanghai by the CCP. As noted above, the local bishop recognized by the Vatican is Thaddeus Ma Daqin. He had been appointed to the see as its auxiliary in 2012, with the CCP believing him to be loyal to them. However, after his consecration he denounced and left the state-approved church and was subsequently sequestered to house arrest in a nearby seminary.
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On April 4 this year, Shen was then installed as bishop of the diocese by the CCP, with the Vatican only being “informed” of the event a “few days” prior to the installation ceremony. The Holy See Press Office stated that it had learnt of Shen’s official installation through local media.
The Vatican’s spokesman did not comment further on the Holy See’s reaction to Shen’s installation. However, the visit of the Chinese authorities to his new diocese of Shanghai will likely be another signal to the Vatican of Beijing’s growing control over the direction of the Chinese church.
This is not the first time that Beijing has openly reneged on the Vatican’s deal. In November 2022, the CCP appointed Bishop John Peng Weizhao as auxiliary Bishop of Jiangxi. The diocese is not recognized by the Holy See, and in a subsequent statement the Vatican declared that it learnt of the ceremony with “surprise and regret.”
Peng’s installation ceremony “did not take place in accordance with the spirit of dialogue that exists between the Vatican and Chinese sides and what was stipulated in the Provisional Agreement on the Appointment of Bishops, Sept. 22, 2018,” wrote the Vatican.
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At the time, the Holy See continued by issuing an appearance of subjugation to the CCP authorities, expressing a wish “that similar episodes will not be repeated,” and adding the Vatican “remains awaiting appropriate communications on the matter from the Authorities, and reaffirms its full readiness to continue respectful dialogue concerning all matters of common interest.”
Having been renewed twice since its inception in 2018, the secretive Sino-Vatican deal’s specific details remain undisclosed: a peculiar air of mystery surrounds them. China expert Steven Mosher described the deal as an action which was “perhaps the most controversial of a papacy dogged by controversy.”
The agreement is believed to recognize the state-approved version of the Catholic Church and allows the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) to appoint bishops. The Pope apparently maintains a veto power although in practice it is the CCP that has control. It also allegedly allows for the removal and replacement of legitimate bishops by CCP-approved bishops.
The deal seems to have led to a heightened increase in the religious persecution since it was signed. Indeed, the U.S. Congressional-Executive Commission on China described the abuse 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.”
With the developments of recent weeks and months, Beijing appears to be displaying a an escalation of control over Catholics, leaving the Holy See out of decisions.