Xi Jinping's Pope

Shady deal between Vatican and China alarms Catholics
By Simon Denyer

Newly baptized Chinese Catholics pray during a special ceremony at a mass last Easter. They were at a government-sanctioned church in Beijing, part of a network of churches not under Vatican control. 

BEIJING — Reports that the Vatican and China have reached an agreement on appointing bishops have been greeted with consternation by many Catholics in China and Taiwan, concerned that the pope is appeasing a government that routinely persecutes people for their faith.
On Thursday, a senior Vatican source told the Reuters news agency that the agreement could be signed in a few months, potentially opening the way for a resumption of diplomatic relations nearly 70 years after they were severed following the communist takeover of China.
But Francesco Sisci, a senior researcher at the Center of European Studies at the Renmin University of China, who has been tracking Vatican-China relations for two decades, said there was still some “fine-tuning” to done before a deal could be signed.
“There is steady progress, but it won’t happen overnight,” he said, in a telephone interview from Rome. 

“People at the Holy See are positive, the Chinese are also positive, but it is not like they are ready to sign an agreement.”
Nevertheless, lay Catholics in Hong Kong reacted with concern.
“A lot of people like myself look to the Holy See as one of the strongest defenders of religious freedom and the Catholic faith,” said Kenneth Chan Ka-lok, an associate professor at Hong Kong Baptist University and pro-democracy activist. 

“To me, this is disturbing, I don’t think it sends the right message.”
Two parallel Catholic churches now exist in China, the Chinese Catholic Patriotic Association (CCPA) run by state-appointed bishops and closely supervised by the Communist Party, and an underground church with many bishops appointed by the Vatican.
This month, it emerged that the Vatican had asked two of its bishops in China to stand aside or step down in favor of bishops appointed by the Chinese government. 

Reuters reported that agreement had been reached for the Vatican to recognize five out of seven “illegitimate” bishops who had been appointed by China.
Under the deal, a senior Vatican source told Reuters, the Vatican would have a say in negotiations for the appointment of future bishops, describing the situation as still “like a bird in a cage, but the cage will be bigger.”
The prospect of a deal sparked an emotional appeal by retired Hong Kong Cardinal Joseph Zen, who travelled to Rome earlier this month to meet the Pope and went public with his concerns on Monday — that the Vatican was “selling out” the Catholic Church in China. 

He was subsequently rebuked by the Vatican for implying the Pope was not fully supportive of the negotiations.
Chan said he supported Zen’s remarks, arguing that a deal would be a betrayal of the sacrifices made by the Catholic faithful in China, and comparing it to concessions made by the Vatican during communist rule in Hungary and Czechoslovakia that left Catholics there feeling demoralized.
“The Church needs to demonstrate what is right and what is wrong, what is good and what is evil,” he added. 

“It’s quite naive to assume that joining hands with the communist regime, literally leading to the abolition of underground churches, would help to improve religious freedom in China.”
A report on China’s religious revival by Freedom House in London judged that Catholics in China face “moderate” levels of persecution, while Tibetan Buddhists, Uighur Muslims and practioners of the Falun Gong spiritual movement faced “very high” levels of persecution.
In recent weeks, several Protestant and Catholic churches have reportedly been closed down or demolished in China, while new rules have been introduced this week that tighten the authorities’ grip on religious practice, and encourage officials to ramp up the persecution of anyone practicing their religion outside state-sanctioned groups.
While many of the country’s estimated 12 million Catholics can attend Mass relatively freely, seminary students have to attend classes in Marxist theory, while Communist Party cadres exercise close control and surveillance over the Patriotic Church.

Chit Wai John Mok, a writer on Vatican affairs and PhD student in sociology at University of California, Irvine, called the forcing out of two Vatican-appointed bishops “outrageous” and said Catholics in Hong Kong were “mostly shocked and disappointed” by the news.

It was heartrending he said to see Cardinal Zen, who had devoted his life to defending religious freedom in China, publicly rebuked by the Vatican for criticizing the prospect of a deal.
“The Secretariat of State of the Holy See may think the deal would be a step towards conciliation, yet it would more likely to create new cleavages, opening up new wounds and leading to further schism,” he said, arguing that it was naive to think Catholics in China would accept state-appointed bishops who they see as collaborators with the Communist Party.
Xi Jinping, he said, “has repeatedly made it very clear that the party would not loosen any control over religions, so there is no way a deal on paper can improve religious freedom for the Church.”
If the Vatican does establish full diplomatic relations with the Chinese government, Beijing would demand it sever those ties with Taiwan. 

The Vatican is currently one of only 20 states that recognize the government in Taipei.
Five Taiwanese politicians announced plans this week to travel to Europe and seek an audience with the pope to express their concerns, Taiwanese media reported. 

Anna Kao, head of the Department of European Affairs at Taiwan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said that her government was aware of the dialogue, but also pointed out that even if there was a deal over the appointment of bishops, there remain huge differences between the Vatican and Beijing over religious freedom, according to local media.