Nina Shea, Director of the Hudson Institute’s Center for Religious Freedom, shows the depth of the betrayal of faithful Chinese Catholics:
While the underground Church is dismantled, the registered churches are being energetically converted into propaganda and surveillance assets of the CCP’s United Front Work Department. Over the last two years, Beijing has imposed comprehensive measures to meld Chinese Catholicism with CCP orthodoxy under a policy of “Sinicization.” Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin conflated this process with “inculturation,” meaning adapting Christian practice to local art and culture. In May 2019, according to Catholic media, he made the specious claim, “These two terms, ‘inculturation’ and ‘Sinicization,’ refer to each other without confusion and without opposition.”
In the name of Sinicization, Chinese Catholic churches and homes are seeing pictures of Jesus and Mary replaced with those of Xi, while crosses and other Christian symbols are removed from church exteriors. When the centuryold cross was removed from a Henan Catholic church last Easter, Shanren Shenfu, a Catholic Patriotic Association priest, wryly remarked, “Now, when a cross is removed, Christians must be calm and smile,” alluding to Vatican self-censorship, a price for dialogue with China. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo decried China’s religious persecution, while the Vatican remains silent. When pressed, Archbishop Claudio Maria Celli, the Vatican’s longtime China negotiator, delicately described the repression as “situations that still require a journey.”
Chinese church homilies must now be based on Xi’s sayings. Moreover, on Feb. 1, Beijing imposed 41 articles of new religious restrictions for “implementing the values of socialism.” They require Catholic churches, among others, to “spread the principles and policies of the CCP,” ensure that religious personnel and believers “support the CCP leadership,” and establish “a learning system” in CCP policies. Enforcement is ensured by the government’s pervasive high-tech surveillance, including video cameras inside churches.
Since 2018, China has restricted internet access to Bibles and, under CCP supervision, is undertaking a new Bible translation, implying politicization, Hong Kong Christian scholars say. The Book of Revelation is predicted to be altered or dropped by the editors.
Matthew’s passage of Jesus directing, “Let the children come to me,” could also be left on the cutting room floor. China’s 2018 religious regulations prohibit churches from admitting and instructing minors. The consequences for religious vocations could be dire. Without new, faithful priests, the Chinese Catholic Church, having quadrupled over the past 40 years, could wither away in a generation.
Anonymous senior Vatican sources explained that the 2018 agreement would ensure the appointment of bishops in a unified Church by giving Beijing a say in their nominations. Yet only six new bishops have been installed while scores of episcopal posts languish, including, notably, that of the Hong Kong diocese. Hong Kong’s indispensable role in serving as an information and education outpost for the Chinese Church is now compromised by China’s oppressive National Security Law, imposed last May.
At a Sept. 15 press conference, Parolin admitted the results of the 2018 deal “have not been particularly striking.” Despite this and the overall intensifying persecution, both he and Celli urged Pope Francis to renew it. After decades of negotiating with China, maybe they believe the media hype that it was a “historic” diplomatic achievement. In fact, the agreement can only be seen as papal acquiescence in the CCP’s dilution, distortion, and forced decline of Chinese Catholicism.
Go here to read the rest. Judas is the Patron Damned of this Pontificate.
“Pope” Francis will be called the Judas of the Catholic Church when its current history is written. He is nothing more than an complicit co-operator with the Chinese Communist Party and clearly in league with the devil.
“Beijing imposed 41 articles of new religious restrictions for ‘implementing the values of socialism.'”
I suspect the USCCB is studying these articles.
The Chinese Christians would be better off with the Vatican doing nothing at all than giving this kind of “support.” Japanese Christians were abandoned by the Vatican for centuries and endured as a remnant for centuries under very harsh persecution (largely they were abandoned because no one outside the country even knew there were any Christians left). But how many Christians will be left in China in even twenty-five years with this kind of “support”?
The Chinese Christians would be better off with the Vatican doing nothing at all than giving this kind of “support.”
That’s what gets you about today’s higher clergy and everything connected with them.