China, Vatican extend controversial deal on appointment of bishops

By Bing X for RFA Mandarin

China and the Vatican have extended an agreement on the appointment of Catholic bishops in China for a third time, despite widespread concern over the treatment of Catholics under the ruling Chinese Communist Party.

“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 Holy See said in an Oct. 22 communique cited by the Vatican News.

It said the Vatican “remains dedicated to furthering respectful and constructive dialogue with the Chinese side, 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 controversial 2018 agreement eliminated the division between bishops and churches recognized by the government-backed Catholic Patriotic Association and those appointed by Rome.

But rights groups and leading Catholics have warned that religious persecution continues unabated under the administration of President Xi Jinping amid heavy-handed controls by religious affairs officials in the name of “sinicization.”

Since the deal was first signed in September 2018, about 10 bishops have been appointed and consecrated, and Beijing officially recognized the public role of several previously unrecognized bishops, according to the Vatican News, which said bishops from China have since attended synods – religious councils – around the world.

No specific details of the latest agreement, which was extended for two years in both 2020 and 2022, have yet been made public, Reuters reported.

Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Lin Jian confirmed the report at a news conference in Beijing on Oct. 22.

“The achievements in the implementation of this agreement have been commended by both sides,” Lin said. “The two sides, through friendly consultation, have agreed to extend the agreement for another four years.”

“The two sides will maintain contact and talks in a constructive spirit and continue to advance the improvement of China-Vatican relations,” he said.

‘Hidden methods of coercion’

But Nina Shea, who directs the Hudson Institute’s Center for Religious Freedom, said China is currently persecuting at least 10 Catholic bishops, either holding them in indefinite or incommunicado detention, or forcing them out of their posts and subjecting them to investigation by the state security police.

“To evade Western sanctions, the Chinese Communist Party uses less bloody and more hidden methods of coercion against these bishops than the show trials and physical torture of the Mao era,” Shea wrote in an op-ed article for the National Review.

She cited the case of Baoding Bishop James Su, who has been held in secret detention for 27 years, after leading a procession to a Marian shrine.

Wenzhou Bishop Peter Shao has been held incommunicado since last January, while Xuanhua Bishop Augustine Cui has been held at an unknown location since April 2021, Shea said.

Meanwhile, Shanghai Bishop Joseph Xing has been held incommunicado since 2011, while his successor Thaddeus Ma has been held at a seminary since 2012, wrote Shea, who has authored a book on the 10 persecuted bishops.

Shea also cited the case of Hong Kong’s former bishop Cardinal Joseph Zen, who faces charges of “collusion with foreign forces” under a draconian security law. Zen was arrested in May 2022 for his involvement in a humanitarian relief fund set up to aid political prisoners amid an ongoing crackdown on dissent in the city.

She said the mainland Chinese bishops are mostly being targeted because they have refused to join the Catholic Patriotic Association, which isn’t recognized by the Vatican, because a prerequisite of membership is pledging “independence” from the Holy See.

“This has been a party goal since the 1950s, when China expelled the papal ambassador and imprisoned for 30 years Shanghai’s Cardinal Ignatius Kung for his refusal to renounce papal authority,” Shea wrote.

Since the agreement with the Vatican was signed, the Association has been under the direct control of the Chinese Communist Party’s outreach and influence arm, the United Front Work Department.

‘Apparatus of control’

Former Qinghai People’s Congress deputy and former Protestant church official Wang Ruiqin said the agreement had done little to further religious freedom in China.

“I don’t think this agreement has improved religious freedom in China; it’s just a new cage,” Wang told RFA Mandarin in a recent interview. “The struggle between the official church and the underground church is a long-running one in China.”

“The Chinese Communist Party hasn’t ever stopped persecuting Catholics since 1949,” she said, referring to the year the People’s Republic of China was founded by late supreme leader Mao Zedong.

Bob Fu, who heads the Christian rights group ChinaAid, said the ruling party wants to replace Jesus with Xi Jinping, or at least the United Front Work Department.

“Under Xi Jinping’s so-called sinicization of religion policy, all churches have to be guided by the party’s religious policies and by Xi Jinping Thought,” Fu said.

“This secret agreement between the Vatican and the Chinese Communist Party … won’t benefit the Church; instead it betrays it,” he said.

The London-based rights group Hong Kong Watch said in a submission to the United Nations Human Rights Council on Oct. 18 that while religious freedom is still largely present in the city, outspoken leaders like Cardinal Zen are now far more likely to be targeted for political reasons under two security laws.

“Unlike in mainland China, where there is severe – and sometimes violent – persecution of religion, including the dismantling of crosses, the closure, destruction or desecration of places of worship and the arrest and imprisonment of religious leaders and practitioners, religious believers in Hong Kong are not yet facing religious persecution,” the group said.

But recent attacks on religious practices in the Beijing-backed Ta Kung Pao newspaper suggest that things may not stay that way for long, the report said.

It said Hong Kong’s Anglican Cathedral has displayed the Chinese national flag at the altar since October 2023, something that was highly unusual in Hong Kong until recently, while a mosque in the city also held patriotic flag-raising ceremonies around the same time.

“Symbolically, it is a significant indicator of the Chinese Communist Party’s intention to do to religion in Hong Kong what it has done in mainland China, even if it is to a less intense extent: coerce and subsume religious institutions into its apparatus of control,” the report warned.

Translated by Luisetta Mudie. Edited by Luisetta Mudie and Matt Reed.