China stifles underground Church as Vatican looks to extend pact

As the Vatican looks to extend its pact with China on bishops’ appointments, the Communist nation has accelerated efforts to arm-twist underground priests to join the state-sanctioned Open Church.

Sep 19, 2020

HONG KONG: As the Vatican looks to extend its pact with China on bishops’ appointments, the Communist nation has accelerated efforts to arm-twist underground priests to join the state-sanctioned Open Church.

The Church aims to normalise relations with China by extending the agreement, Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin told media in the Vatican Sept 14.

The provisional agreement signed in September 2018 expires in October, two years after it took effect. But local Catholics say communist officials had intensified a crackdown on the Underground Church in recent months.

In southeast China’s Jiangxi province, several underground priests have been issued with notices banning them from celebrating the liturgy on the grounds that they do not have state recognition as priests.

One such notice to a priest said that starting Sept 1, “you are not allowed to  practice any religious activity in a religious clergy’s capacity.”

The priest has not been recognised as a Catholic priest because he has not reported to the government’s religious affairs department as the state’s regulations require, the notice said.

The Regulations on Religious Affairs that China’s Communist regime issued in 2004 and revised in 2017 prohibit persons  without official recognition as priests or clergy from engaging in religious activities.

The revised regulations do not recognise the Underground Church and its priests, but they can function as priests after registering with the government and joining the state-run church.

Local Catholic Paul said that the government was trying to choke the Underground Church by forcing priests to join the official church.

He said such efforts increased after September 2018 when the Vatican and China signed the agreement on appointing bishops. But the details of the temporary pact have still not been made public.

Peter, another local Catholic, said that in the past, the government only ‘talked’ about the regulations. “But officials have become serious about it now” after the Vatican-China agreement was signed. ––ucanews.com

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