‘Vatican seems to be working with Beijing’ against Chinese Christians

“…the Vatican seems to be working with Beijing against Christians in China – this is inexplicable,” Gordon Chang told EWTN.

(PerMariam) — As the Holy See prepares to renew its secretive deal with Beijing for the third time, a Christian journalist and prominent China analyst has stated there is no “justification” for the Vatican’s actions.

“I’m angry beyond belief. I’m not a Catholic but I’m angry beyond belief because the Chinese violated the 2018 deal as soon as it was inked. The Vatican renewed it despite the repeated pattern of violations. I really don’t know what to say.” These were the opening comments of Gordon Chang when asked recently by EWTN’s Raymond Arroyo about the Vatican’s infamous 2018 deal with Communist China.

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His assessment of China’s nearly instant violation of the deal is supported by AsiaNews, a site that regularly documents the actions of the Chinese government towards Christians. In November 2018, AsiaNews reported that “[u]nderground Catholics bitterly suspect that the Vatican has abandoned them” – just weeks after the deal was publicized and signed in September that year.

Chang’s many years as a lawyer and advisor on China affairs have seen him testify in numerous settings across the globe, including the National Intelligence Council, the Central Intelligence Agency, the State Department, and the Pentagon.

His August 30 appearance on The World Over saw him exchange concerns with Arroyo about the Sino-Vatican deal, in light of Beijing’s official recognition of the underground Catholic Bishop Melchior Shin Hongzhen – a notable development covered by this author on LifeSiteNews.

Arroyo, himself a consistent critic of the secretive Vatican deal, commented how an “entire underground group of Catholic and non-Catholic faithful who have been tortured for generations and now these people are basically being corralled into the church of [President] Xi [Jimping]. You have the Vatican giving its blessing to this, that’s really what’s going on here.”

The deal has indeed resulted in a signal increase in religious persecution, which the U.S. Congressional-Executive Commission on China described as a direct consequence of the deal. Issuing its 2020 report, the Commission detailed that the persecution was “of an intensity not seen since the Cultural Revolution.”

The Commission linked this persecution to the Sino-Vatican deal: 

“Subsequently, local Chinese authorities subjected Catholic believers in China to increased persecution by demolishing churches, removing crosses, and continuing to detain underground clergy. The Party-led Catholic national religious organizations also published a plan to ‘sinicize’ Catholicism in China.”

For Chang, though not Catholic himself, the Vatican’s deal is without justification. He told Arroyo:

What is going on here is that you have Christians in China and Catholics are being denied the opportunity to have the rituals and services that Catholics around the world have, and it’s because of the Vatican itself. The Vatican has turned its back on very very important figures in the Church who are talking about this agreement, talking about the persecution of Catholics in China.

I don’t think there’s any justification for what the Vatican has been doing. Christianity is taking over China, it’s the underground Protestant and Catholic churches. The Communist party can’t control it but the Vatican seems to be working with Beijing against Christians in China – this is inexplicable.

His comments come just weeks before the Holy See is set to renew the Sino-Vatican deal for the third time, after it was initiated in 2018. As reported exclusively by this correspondent on LifeSite in April, the Holy See has the intention to renew the deal, once more though the formal announcement of its renewal will likely only come in the immediately preceding days.

Chang’s terminology of “inexplicable” is a sentiment that has been shared by Hong Kong’s emeritus Cardinal Joseph Zen, who has been a vocal, consistent critic of the deal for many years. “They’re giving the flock into the mouths of the wolves. It’s an incredible betrayal,” he told Reuters in 2018, with reference to the Vatican officials responsible.

Cdl. Zen continued:

“The consequences will be tragic and long lasting, not only for the church in China but for the whole church because it damages the credibility. Maybe that’s why they might keep the agreement secret.”

“It’s a complete surrender. It’s a betrayal. I have no other words,” the cardinal closed.

He expanded on these thoughts with a July 2020 interview with EWTN’s Arroyo, linking the Vatican’s silence over Hong Kong’s National Security Law to the Holy See’s stance with Beijing: 

“It’s already a long-standing policy of the Vatican not to offend the Chinese government…For me the Vatican is constantly pursuing a policy of submissiveness to the Chinese government.”

The brave cardinal further added: “Now we can see the real face of the Chinese Communist Party, and now [we have] spiritual warfare between the Lie and the Truth, between the selfish desire of power, of domination, and concern for other people.”

The Sino-Vatican deal’s secretive nature has indeed been one of the most notable aspects of controversy. It is believed to recognize the Communist state-approved church in China and allows the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) to appoint bishops. The Pope is believed to hold a veto power, although in practice it is the CCP that has control, as has been repeatedly demonstrated by a series of episcopal appointments by the CCP. It also allegedly allows for the removal of legitimate bishops to be replaced by CCP-approved bishops.

Writing to Chinese Catholics in 2018, Pope Francis attempted to pour water on the fire of the international outcry at the news of the Holy See’s deal with Beijing. “The Provisional Agreement signed with the Chinese authorities, while limited to certain aspects of the Church’s life and necessarily capable of improvement, can contribute – for its part – to writing this new chapter of the Catholic Church in China,” he said.

Cardinal Secretary of State Pietro Parolin has been – after Pope Francis – one of the most vocal defenders of the deal. This should not be surprising given his key role in orchestrating the agreement, of which a more in-depth analysis is forthcoming from this correspondent.  

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Commenting on the secretive nature of the deal in 2023, Cdl. Parolin attested to Vatican News that “the text is confidential because it has not yet been finally approved.” He added that it “revolves around the basic principle of consensuality of decisions affecting bishops,” and is effected by “trusting in the wisdom and goodwill of all.”

In the years since its first signing, and its two successive renewals, China experts, local clergy, free speech activists and even former U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo have all condemned the deal. AsiaNews, Bitter Winter and many other outlets have repeatedly documented the arrests, torture and persecutions endured by Chinese Catholics who adhere to Rome, and who refuse to adhere to the communist-run state church.

Might Beijing’s recognition of Bishop Melchior Shin Hongzhen signal a new style of relationship between Beijing and the Vatican? Indeed, might it be set to realize Pope Francis’ much vaulted “new chapter” of the Church in China, and lead to freedom for the underground Church and the removal of Communist persecution?

It appears unlikely given nearly every sign that has been given in recent years. But with the deal to be renewed in the next few weeks, it remains to be seen what freedoms the underground Church will have in China during the next two years of the Sino-Vatican deal.