EXCLUSIVE: Cardinal Parolin says Vatican dialogue with Communist China is ‘progressing’

ROME (LifeSiteNews) — Cardinal Secretary of State Pietro Parolin told LifeSiteNews today that the Holy See’s greatest challenge in its dialogue with China is the dialogue itself, adding that “we are progressing.”

Asked by this correspondent about the Holy See’s relationship with Community China, Parolin replied that “we are progressing little by little. The challenge is the dialogue – how to dialogue, but we are progressing.”

The Vatican’s chief diplomat’s comments came on the sidelines of a conference on Venerable Matteo Ricci – the 16th century Jesuit missionary who introduced Catholicism to China. Ricci’s notable success was based especially on his ability to present the Catholic Faith to the Chinese society in styles that would be understandable and also tolerable, chiefly aided by his learning Chinese and adopting local cultural norms. Ricci put aside certain aspects of European culture, without sacrificing the integrity of the faith, in order to be accepted by the Chinese and thus evangelize.

As such, he has been increasingly cited by popes and Holy See officials in recent decades as an example of successful dialogue and “inculturation” of the faith in China. Today’s conference – held at the Jesuit Gregorian University where Ricci studied – continued this theme of using Ricci as a key bridge to dialogue between Rome and Beijing.

Parolin: Ricci a key papal resource for China dialogue

Cardinal Parolin and Hong Kong’s Cardinal Stephen Chow SJ both gave keynote addresses at the event, signifying the importance of the conference and the attention which it will likely receive in Beijing.

Discussions of the Vatican’s relationship with China have, in recent years, been dominated by the highly controversial Sino-Vatican deal: a deal which last month was just renewed for the third time and until 2028.

READ: Vatican renews its secretive deal with China for appointing bishops

Parolin – a key architect of the deal – highlighted how Ricci was a key reference for the Popes in their recent attempts to build bridges with China.

John Paul II, Parolin said in his speech, was “convinced” that Ricci’s inculturation style was of “pivotal importance,” and that “there is no contradiction between being loyal and faithful Chinese citizens and good citizens.” This latter point, added the Vatican diplomat, is something the Holy See re-iterates today.

Ponting also to the more recent history of Pope Francis’ relationship with Communist China, Parolin said that key words are often emphasized when referring to China: “respect, admiration, listening, dialogue, friendship, encounter.”

The “word ‘encounter’ as used by Pope Francis has a very concrete tone, of lived experience, empathy, of mutual exchange between communities which reciprocally enriched themselves in the gift and thus become capable of a journey,” said Parolin.

He pointed to the renewal of the Sino-Vatican deal as an example of this: “In this spirit we should always allow for dialogue: religious and cultural… The most recent sign of this is the renewal of the agreement of the appointment of the bishops.”

Cardinal Parolin says re Vatican relations w China, that in spirit of encounter “we should always allow for dialogue” in religious & cultural spheres.

“Most recent sign of this” is renewal of Sino-Vatican deal.

Spoke today at conf on Jesuit missionary to China, Matteo Ricci. pic.twitter.com/TUpoKGl80V

— Michael Haynes 🇻🇦 (@MLJHaynes) November 15, 2024

Pope Francis, Parolin and Cardinal Chow have been supporters of the deal, which while officially secret is believed to recognize aspects of 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. It also allegedly allows for the removal of legitimate bishops to be replaced by CCP-approved bishops.

Chow: ‘Sinicization’ can be open process between Church and state

However, numerous China experts have strongly criticized the Holy See’s deal, and especially notable is Hong Kong’s emeritus Cardinal Joseph Zen’s terming of it as an “incredible betrayal,” with the much-loved cardinal further accusing the Vatican of “selling out” Chinese Catholics.

Chow has adopted a much more conciliatory stance towards the CCP, telling this correspondent last year that “empathy” and “real dialogue” are important for building a relationship between the Holy See and China.

Cardinal Chow’s Nov 15, 2024 presentation. Credit: Michael Haynes

This, according to various Vatican sources, has enabled the Vatican to make “progress” of late, with Chow notably leading dialogue and inculturation trips between Hong Kong and China. However, so marked have 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 CCP state-assimilation and control.

READ: Why Chinese whistleblower may be right that Communists paid Vatican to ‘shut up’ about its war on Catholics

Chow declined to speak to this correspondent at the conference today. However, during his talk he echoed some of his former comments and downplayed fears about “Sinicization.” He posited Sinicization as simply the process of China assimilating itself to religion and of the government finding its identity, a view which is in marked contrast to that held by Zen and China-experts who warn that Sinicization involves having “all religious communities be led by the Party, controlled by the Party, and support the Party.”

Chow stated that the Chinese government and the nation are still in the process of establishing a national identity after emerging onto the global stage as a leading economic player. The national policy, he said, “is the same as it has always been,” and was in Ricci’s time – namely, viewing non-Chinese ideas, individuals or groups as “foreign” and which must be oriented to Chinese society in order to be part of that society.

Serving the community is serving the country, and thus serving the [Chinese Communist] party, said Chow.

He said that the Church “faces a new reality” of being “an indigenized community under the civil authority with increasing incorporation of Chinese elements, to eventually becoming part of the integrated Chinese society.”

Chow also downplayed the idea that there is any “explicit policy to combat the Catholic Church,” saying instead that the Chinese government is taking the same approach to all religions.

On the contrary, he suggested that the Church in China can work with the state to forge its future: “All politics is identity politics. Now the sinicization of the church has yet to be finalized, meaning that we can be part of the process.”

Sinicization: open dialogue or persecution?

Not unexpectedly, Parolin and Chow both presented to the conference a benign and cordial view of inculturation of religion in China by appealing to Matteo Ricci. However, while Ricci’s style has been cited as akin to Sinicization, China-experts and local clergy have said that Sinicization is much more sinister.

“All bishops who refuse to join the Catholic Patriotic Association are being placed under house arrest, or disappeared, by the CCP,” China expert and Population Research Institute president Steven Moser told LifeSiteNews earlier this year. “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.”

Cardinals Chow & Parolin, Nov 2024. Credit: Haynes

A recent report by Frances Hui cited a Hong Kong priest who warned that the increasing dialogue Chow was fostering with the CCP church was not an exchange but “brainwashing.” Part of the Sinicization process involves “proactively suppressing information on religious persecution in China and has diluted its focus on advocating the rights of the faithful in China.”

READ: Catholic diocese of Hong Kong ‘working with CCP’ to effect ‘Sinicization’

Chow noted that serving the community ultimately means serving “the party,” namely the CCP. Hui’s report noted how in Hong Kong the creeping effects of Sinicization are felt, involving the promotion of socialist ideologies and the censure of human rights activities.

Indeed, despite descriptions of Sinicization being a benign process and one the Church can guide, evidence suggests the opposite. The Sino-Vatican deal has led to a heightened increase in religious persecution since it was signed in 2018. In its 2020 report, the U.S. Congressional-Executive Commission on China wrote that the persecution witnessed is “of an intensity not seen since the Cultural Revolution.”

Commenting on Sinicization, Mosher told this correspondent that “Xi Jinping made clear in a December 2021 speech that he intends to bring every religion in China — Catholic, Christian, Muslim, Taoist, and Buddhist — under the direct control of the CCP and make them serve its purposes.”

“Any religion that does not teach its members to love the Party and socialism is a ‘backward’ religion engaged in ‘illegal religious activities,’ Xi said, and will be stamped out,” noted Mosher. “Religions should only conduct their activities in approved places of worship and must not interfere with social life or the education of the young.”

“You cannot love an atheistic communist party and God at the same time,” he said.