Expert: Beijing is testing the new Pope Leon XIV

The director of the Religious Freedom Center at the Hudson Institute in Washington Nina Shea believes that China authorities want to check whether Leon XIV will continue the Vatican's conciliation policy towards attempts to subordinate the Chinese Catholic Church to the state.

According to the Washingtonian Think Tank Hudson Institute Nina Shea, the new Pope Leon XIV will have to quickly face the problem of the persecution of Catholics in China. “He will face a serious challenge,” she said.

“Beijing wants to check if he will continue the Vatican policy of accepting the unilateral nominations of bishops made by the communist authorities,” Shea said, reminding that on April 29, i.e. after Franciszek's death, but before the election of Leon XIV, the Chinese authorities put the future pope in a difficult situation.

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The Patriotic Association of Chinese Catholics (PSCK), under the control of the Chinese authorities, announced the nomination of two bishops – one in Shanghai, and the other in Xinxiang, a city in the province of Henan, although only the Pope is entitled to such appointments.

Shea emphasized that Xinxiang already has its bishop – Joseph Zhang Weizhu, appointed in 1991 by John Paul II. However, Weizhu has been in custody since 2021. Two other bishops of Shanghai, appointed by Rome, also experience repression – one is in detention and the other is lost in 2011. Both were persecuted for refusing to take an oath of independence from the pope, forced by the patriotic church.

Unauthorized agreement of Cardinal Parolin

China has repeatedly appointed clergy without permission Vatican and changed the boundaries of the diocese – which is the sole prerogative of the pope. According to Shea, Beijing was encouraged to do so by the Vatican himself.

In September 2018, the Secretary of State, Cardinal Pietro Parolin, concluded with the Chinese authorities an never -public agreement aimed at “alleviating religious persecution” in China.

– Although the details of the document are not known, the Cardinal Parolin himself revealed that the agreement provides for sharing power in the process of nominating Catholic bishops – Shea pointed out.

The Vatican also issued pastoral guidelines for the Church in China, normalizing Catholic clergy membership in PSCK. Shea reminded that since 2018 PSKC was formally found under the umbrella of the Department of Propaganda of the Communist Party of China.

“Normalization discredited the underground church”

– PSCK requires the bishops to renounce their faithfulness to the Pope – the expert explained and added that before the 2018 agreement, bishops nominated by the Pope even if they joined PSKC, secretly swore his obedience. “Normalization discredited the underground church,” Shea said.

In her opinion, the underground Catholic Church, which was created during the persecution of the cultural revolution, still exists in China, although it is only a small fraction of the Catholic population in China currently with about 10 million faithful.

As Shea emphasized, after signing the Holy See's agreement with Beijing, Catholics did not stop, although the Vatican side tried to cover them.

Just before this year's Easter, the authorities arrested, for example, Peter Shao Zhumina, the underground bishop of the city of Wenzhou in Eastern China. He was detained for his work without PSCK's consent. The place of his stay remains unknown. At least nine other Chinese Catholic bishops are in custody.

Shea: Some bishops are just party apparatchiors

According to the Catholic Information Agency, referring to the report of the United States Congress Committee for International Religious Freedom (Uscirf) from the end of September 2024, in China, crosses and images of saints from Catholic churches are underway.

As part of striving to deepen control over religious denominations and subordinate the Catholic Church of the Communist Party of China, the authorities replace the removed religious symbols with portraits of XI Jinping, chairman of the Communist Party of China.

Officials also censor religious texts and force the clergy to display communist slogans in churches.

– Some bishops are just party apparatus. This is how I perceive, for example, the chairman of the Patriotic Episcopal Conference, Joseph Shen Bina, the bishop of Shanghai, the most important and oldest Catholic diocese in China – she assessed Shea and added that he ratified the state nomination of bishop Shen Bina in 2023, “for the good of the diocese” Pope Francis.

According to her, bishop of bin is known for its beginning of meetings with other Catholic clergy incentive to follow the spirit of the conventions of the communist party. – Therefore, although I am not against dialogue or even some form of agreement, I think that the new pope should say that it does not praise the unilateral nomination of bishops – said the American expert.

In her opinion, the Vatican should not give up the appointment of shepherds, because they are to ensure that teaching in China is in line with Catholic teachings. The expert pointed out that the Chinese government is already trying to reinterpret the teaching of the Church.

– The statements of the chairman of KPCh XI Jinping are to become a central part of all sermons, and government textbooks give a changed version of the Holy Bible – Shea pointed out and gave an example of changes introduced by the authorities in the evangelical story of an adulterer.

In the Gospel of St. John Christ saves Magdalena from death and is stoned in the government version. “It cannot be otherwise when one of the sciences of the chairman XI Jinping orders: Don't have mercy,” Shea reminded and emphasized that this is how the communist “bruising” of Catholicism works.

Shea: You need to revive the underground church

In the expert's opinion, this process can be tried to stop, and Pope Leon XIV has several advantages that can help him in this. Robert Prevost, before he became the Pope, was in China as the prior of the Augustinian order and knows the reality there.

According to Shea, as a pope from the United States, he can also count on more favorable treatment from China. “Beijing does not want to annoy Americans because they are irreplaceable trading partners for him,” the expert noted and reminded that in the past another Pope, John Paul II, helped Catholics living in the communist regime.

– We saw what impact in Eastern Europe during the communism of the Pope and President Reagan had. They had very good relations. Keeping all the proportions, because Christians are not a majority in the country, I think that Leon XIV must use this lever as it can – Shea emphasized and added that in the United States Pope Leon is at the peak of its popularity and it is worth using.

In the opinion of an expert in China, as in Eastern Europe once, and now in some parts of the Muslim world, priests should work in other competitions and act under cover. In her opinion, they could in this way evangelize and consolidate Catholicism in accordance with the teaching of the Church. “You have to revive the underground church,” Shea summed up.