By CatholicVote | Created at 2024-10-23 21:28:00 | Updated at 2024-10-24 00:30:04
3 hours ago
CV NEWS FEED// Despite Pope Francis’ continued optimism about the 2018 Vatican-China agreement on appointing bishops, repression against Catholic clergy in China continues unabated and has only worsened, according to religious liberty watchdogs.
China expert Nina Shea, director of Hudson Institute’s Center for Religious Freedom, has published a detailed new report titled “Ten Persecuted Catholic Bishops in China”.
In an article for the National Review summarizing the report, Shea revealed that at least 10 Chinese Catholic bishops in communion with Rome, who are part of the underground Roman Catholic Church not recognized by Beijing’s Communist government, are currently facing persecution, including indefinite detention, disappearance, or being forced out of their sees, as the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) continues its attempt to tighten control of the Catholic Church in China.
“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.
Bishop James Su Zhimin of Baoding has endured the longest secret detention, being held for 27 years after leading a Marian procession. Wenzhou’s Bishop Peter Shao Zhumin was arrested in January and has been detained without due process six times since 2018. Bishop Augustine Cui Tai of Xuanhua diocese was last arrested in April 2021, marking the fourth time he has been secretly detained since the Vatican’s agreement with China.
Zhengding diocese’s Bishop Julius Jia Zhiguo, who has spent much of the past 30 years in detention, was placed under house arrest in 2018. In 2020, he was transferred to a hotel, where he is believed to remain. Local police also dismantled the orphanage he ran for 30 years because children were allowed to pray there, defying state laws on “Sinicization.” Meanwhile, Xinxiang’s Bishop Joseph Zhang Weizhu remains in indefinite detention following his arrest in May 2021, shortly after undergoing cancer surgery.
Shanghai’s Bishop Joseph Xing Wenzhi disappeared in 2011, and his successor, Bishop Thaddeus Ma Daqin, has been under detention since 2012. Last year, without authorization from Rome and in violation of the 2018 agreement, the government installed Bishop Shen Bin, who heads a government-controlled bishops’ council not recognized by the Vatican, to replace him. Although the Vatican initially protested, it later approved Shen’s appointment for “the sake of Church unity.”
One of the most tragic cases is that of Bishop Melchior Shi Hongzhen of Tianjin, who has spent 15 years detained within his parish church compound. In August, the Vatican announced China’s recognition of the 95-year-old bishop, calling it “a positive fruit of the dialogue.”
Shea criticized the recognition, calling it “a bitter fruit, considering his advanced age.”
“The gesture aims to influence public opinion. It is on par with Beijing’s cynical practice of releasing prisoners of conscience once they are on their deathbeds,” she argued.
Bishop Vincent Guo Xijin was demoted from his position as the principal bishop of Mindong in 2018 as a precondition for the Vatican’s agreement with China. He was replaced by a government-appointed bishop who had previously been excommunicated. Guo was evicted from his home, leaving him to sleep on the streets, and the government later cut off his utilities and arrested some of his priests. His whereabouts are currently unknown.
Cardinal Joseph Zen, emeritus bishop of Hong Kong, remains a prominent voice criticizing China’s repression and persecution of the Catholic Church. Arrested twice in 2022, Zen faced trial and was fined for a minor infraction. He remains under an open-ended investigation for violating Hong Kong’s national-security law. According to Shea, “Not only could he face a life sentence for the sweeping charge of ‘colluding with foreign forces’; the diocesan school system could also be at stake.”
Most of the persecuted bishops refuse to join the Chinese Catholic Patriotic Association (CCPA), a Communist-controlled body, the United Front Work Department, that requires clergy to pledge “independence” from the Vatican. Shea highlighted that this independence, demanded by the CCP, is “incompatible with Catholic doctrine,” as affirmed by Pope Benedict XVI in 2016.
The fate of these bishops reflects China’s broader crackdown on religion.
“Few outside China know of these ten persecuted bishops,” Shea wrote. “Yet they are an essential part of the faithful leadership needed to ensure that the 400-year-old Chinese Catholic Church continues in communion with Rome and follows Catholic teaching. They stand as a testament to the reality that China represses the Catholic Church along with all its other religions.”
