Who Speaks Out for Chinese Catholics?

Religion is anathema to Communism and nowhere is this more evident today than in Communist China.  The Communist regime in mainland China routinely persecutes, imprisons, tortures, and suppresses the members of various faith groups including Protestants, Muslim Uyghurs, Buddhists and Catholics.   Catholics in Communist China are amongst the most persecuted and suppressed Catholics in the world today.  For years, Communist officials have sought to criminalize the free exercise of religion, imprison and harass the faithful, and manipulate and control the internal workings of the Church in Communist China.  They have even gone so far as to set up a rival church which it calls the Chinese Catholic Patriotic Association.  So who is speaking out for the Chinese Catholics today?

As its title indicates, the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) monitors religious freedom around the world, including in Communist China.  In their December 2022 “Fact Sheet:  Religious Freedom in China,” the Commission drew attention to China’s state-controlled religious organizations, declaring, “Authorities often target for repression independent groups, such as Protestant house churches and underground Catholics, that have refused to join these officially recognized religious organizations.”  See https://www.uscirf.gov/sites/default/files/2022-12/2022%20Factsheet%20-%20China%20State-Controlled%20Religion.pdf 

During his tenure as U.S. Secretary of State (2018-2021), Mike Pompeo was one of the most vocal proponents of religious freedom and advocates for Chinese Catholics and members of religious groups in Communist China.  At the Holy See’s September 2020 “Symposium on Advancing and Defending Religious Freedom Through Diplomacy,” Secretary Pompeo declared:

“Nowhere, however – nowhere is religious freedom under assault more than it is inside of China today.  That’s because, as with all communist          regimes, the Chinese Communist Party deems itself the ultimate moral authority.

An increasingly repressive CCP, frightened by its own lack of democratic legitimacy, works day and night to snuff out the lamp of freedom, especially religious freedom, on a horrifying scale.”

Since 1998, the U.S. State Department has annually issued a Report on International Religious Freedom which detail violations of religious freedom, including those in China.  In its report for 2022, the State Department commented on the Vatican’s provisional agreement with Communist China on the Church in China, declaring “Media and NGOs reported that despite the provisional agreement, the government continued to harass, detain, disappear, arrest, and imprison Catholic clergy who did not join the state-sanctioned CCPA.”  See https://www.state.gov/reports/2022-report-on-international-religious-freedom/china/

Congressman Chris Smith (R-NJ) has long been a fervent advocate for human rights and religious freedom, especially in Communist China.  At a July 2020 Congressional hearing, Congressman Smith said: 

"And the Chinese Communist Party under Xi Jinping is continuing and expanding the most comprehensive attempt to manipulate and control—or destroy—religious communities since Chairman Mao Zedong made the eradication of religion a goal of his disastrous Cultural Revolution half a century ago."

"Now Xi Jinping, apparently fearing the power of independent religious belief as a challenge to the Communist Party’s stranglehold on power, is trying to radically transform religion into the Party’s servant, employing a draconian policy known as sinicization."

See https://chrissmith.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=407896 

International Christian Concern is an international non-government organization (NGO) that advocates for and provides assistance to persecuted Christians around the world.  In 2022, ICC bestowed one of its annual “Persecutor of the Year” awards upon Communist China for its systematic suppression and subversion of religious freedom.  “While China’s relationship with Christians and other religious groups has always been rife with controversy and concern, the modern technocracy in China has unleashed persecution to a level never seen before,” ICC noted.  See https://www.persecution.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/2022-Persecutor-of-the-Year-Awards-compressed.pdf   Communist China was also honored as a “Persecutor of the Year” in 2021.   “The election of President Xi Jinping in 2013, saw China begin a long-standing and severe crackdown on its Christian citizens. Xi is an old school Maoist and the number one enemy of Christianity in China,” declared ICC in 2021.  See https://www.persecution.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/2021-11-Persecutor-of-the-Year-Awards.pdf 

Canon Number 212 of the Code of Canon Law of the Catholic Church empowers the faithful to make known their concerns to the leadership of our Church.  The plight of our brother and sister Catholics suffering under Communist Chinese oppression and that of all religious minorities in Communist China must be the concern of all the faithful.  It must also be the concern of our Church’s leadership.

Many political leaders and representatives of non-government agencies are speaking out for religious freedom and human rights in Communist China.  Sadly, we are not hearing such forceful defenses of human rights and religious freedom from our current Pope and the Vatican leadership.  Instead, we have Vatican acquiescence to Communist China’s persecution of religious faith, and suppression and interference in the internal workings of the Catholic Church in China. 

After the Vatican entered into the 2018 Provisional Agreement with the Communist China regime, Pope Francis I sent to message to Chinese Catholics to justify the agreement.  The message emphasizes preaching the Gospel, and cooperation and dialogue with the civil authorities.  “On the civil and political level, Chinese Catholics must be good citizens, loving their homeland and serving their country with diligence and honest to the best of their ability,” wrote the Pope.  He further stated, “A new style of straightforward daily cooperation needs to develop between local authorities and ecclesiastical authorities – bishops, priests and community elders – in order to ensure that pastoral activities take place in an orderly manner, in harmony with the legitimate expectations of the faithful and the decisions of competent authorities.”  Nowhere in his eight-page message does Pope Francis I acknowledge the persecutions and oppression which Chinese Catholics have endured for decades at the hands of  Communist officials up to the present day.  See https://www.vatican.va/content/francesco/en/messages/pont-messages/2018/documents/papa-francesco_20180926_messaggio-cattolici-cinesi.html 

The Vatican’s lack of support for Cardinal Joseph Zen, the 90-year-old former Bishop of Hong Kong, is deeply troubling.  In 2022, Cardinal Zen and several other pro-democracy advocates were arrested by Communist China officials, put on trial and found guilty in an effort to suppress their democracy advocacy efforts.   Their alleged crime was running an organization that helped pay the legal and medical bills of arrested pro-democracy advocates.

After Chinese Communist officials arrested Cardinal Zen and the other pro-democracy advocates in Hong Kong in May 2022, the European Parliament adopted a Resolution condemning the arrests and calling upon Chinese authorities to uphold human rights including freedom of religion.  The European Parliament furthermore called upon the Vatican “to give full support to Cardinal Zen and other religious leaders who face persecution or the risk of detention under the national security regime in Hong Kong; further calls on the Vatican to strengthen its diplomatic efforts and its leverage on the Chinese authorities, and to demand that all charges against Cardinal Zen be dropped and an end to persecution and human rights violations.”   See https://www.europarl.europa.eu/doceo/document/RC-9-2022-0358_EN.html 

Thus far, the Vatican has not provided that “full support to Cardinal Zen and other religious leaders who face persecution.”

Cardinal Zen’s brother bishops and priests offered their support.  They included Archbishop Salvatore Cordeleone of the Archdiocese of San Francisco, Bishop Joseph Strickland of the Diocese of Tyler, Texas, and Cardinal Gerhard Ludwig Müller, prefect emeritus of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.  “Cardinal Zen is not to be condemned. Hong Kong, China, and the Church have a devoted son in him, not to be ashamed of,” wrote Cardinal Fernando Filoni, prefect emeritus of the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples. See https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/252396/a-handful-of-catholic-leaders-and-others-voice-support-for-cardinal-zen-as-his-trial-begins 

While returning from his September 2022 Apostolic Journey to Kazakhstan, Pope Francis I was asked by reporter Elise Harris Allen of Crux “Do you consider the trial against him [Cardinal Joseph Zen] a violation of religious freedom?”  At the time, Cardinal Zen was on trial by Communist officials for assisting pro-Democracy advocates in Hong Kong.  Cardinal Zen was subsequently found guilty the following November.  “Known as the “conscience of Hong Kong” among his supporters, Zen has long been a prominent advocate for democracy, human rights and religious freedom,” wrote CNN reporters  Kathleen Magramo and Wayne Chang wrote ( https://www.cnn.com/2022/11/25/asia/hong-kong-cardinal-zen-612-fund-guilty-intl-hnk/index.html   ).

In answer to Elise Harris Allen’s question “Do you consider the trial against him a violation of religious freedom?”, Pope Francis said: 

Qualifying China as undemocratic, I don’t wish to, because it’s such a complex country... Yes, it is true that there are things that seem undemocratic to us, that is true. Cardinal Zen, an elderly man, is going to trial these days, I think. He says what he feels, and it is evident that there are limitations there. More than qualifying, because it is difficult, and I do not wish to qualify, they are impressions; more than to qualify, I try to support the path of dialogue. 

https://www.vatican.va/content/francesco/en/speeches/2022/september/documents/20220915-kazakhstan-voloritorno.html 

Pope Francis’s answer to her question is startling for him not having answered the question.   He did not offer any support for Cardinal Zen.  Worse, his statement “He says what he feels, and it is evident that there are limitations there” seems to imply that Cardinal Zen did something wrong in speaking out for democracy and somehow brought this trial upon himself.

His non-answer answer was vague and elusive.

Pope Francis is the leader of the Holy Catholic Church and a world leader without compare.  He must lead on the issue of religious freedom and specifically speak clearly and act in defense of the persecuted Catholics and other religious faithful in China.

If Chinese Catholics cannot depend upon Pope Francis and the Vatican leadership to advocate for them, then who can they rely upon within our own Church?  The Pope is the most important voice of morality and faith in the world.  He cannot be silent or lukewarm on religious freedom in Communist China or anywhere else in the world.