China largely silent on Pope Francis’ death amid global
tributes
Bishop Joseph Guo Jincai (left)
and Bishop Yang Xiaoting (right) at Opening of the XV Ordinary General Assembly
of the Synod of Bishops. | Credit: Daniel Ibanez/CAN
Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Apr 24, 2025 / 15:45 pm
High-ranking heads of state and Catholic bishops in China
have remained notably silent following the death of Pope Francis, while
reactions from political and religious leaders across the globe poured out on
social media within hours of the pope’s passing on Monday morning.
AsiaNews reported on Tuesday that Chinese officials are not
permitted to express themselves publicly on Pope Francis’ death due the Chinese
Communist Party (CCP)’s control over the Church there.
The Chinese government offered a brief statement nearly 24
hours after the Holy Father’s passing, only after reporters asked foreign
ministry spokesperson Guo Jiakun about it on Tuesday.
“China expresses its condolences for the death of Pope
Francis,” he said, adding that “in recent years, China and the Vatican have
maintained constructive contacts and engaged in useful exchanges. China is
ready to work with the Vatican to promote the continuous improvement of
China-Vatican relations.”
Notably, the CCP posted a tribute to Pope Benedict XVI after
his passing two years ago, stating: “We entrust Benedict XVI to God’s mercy and
ask him to grant him eternal rest in heaven.” Several days have passed since
Pope Francis’ death with no similar statement from the CCP.
“I mean, it’s really astonishing because they have an
agreement with the Vatican,” Hudson Institute Fellow Nina Shea told CNA on
Wednesday. “It’s a reflection of their refusal to acknowledge the
supremacy of the papal authority over the Catholic Church and that they see the
pope only in secular terms as a head of state, the Holy See.”
The Vatican-China agreement to allow Chinese-appointed
bishops in the Catholic Church was renewed last year and is set to remain intact
until October 2028, despite numerous reports of Chinese violations of the deal and continued
persecution against Catholic bishops.
“The absence of condolences,” Shea said, “is a sign that
they do not see the pope as the religious head of the Catholic Church and they
do not want their people to associate the pope, the papacy, with the Catholic
Church in China.”
“This shows the futility of the Vatican’s approach,” she
added.
Catholic priests and bishops in China are required to join
the Chinese Catholic Patriotic Association, she explained, which entails a
pledge of independence from foreign influence — which includes the pope.
Shea further described the Patriotic Association’s decision
to remain silent on Pope Francis’ death as “a tightening of messaging,” which
she said “is a continuous process in communist China.”
Indeed, this shift comes as new regulations on religious
activities in China are set to roll out across the country May 1.
According to the new rules, “collective religious
activities organized by foreigners in China are restricted to foreign
participants only” with few exceptions. In addition, foreign clergy are banned
from presiding over religious activities for Chinese people without the
invitation of the Chinese government, severely limiting foreign missionary activity
in the country.
In light of these stricter regulations, Shea pointed out,
risk is elevated for bishops or dioceses who might signal allegiance to the
Vatican.
Post-conclave Vatican-China relations
With China appearing to back away from its strained diplomatic
relationship with the Vatican after Pope Francis’ death, the future of the
Vatican-China agreement is unclear. “There’s a lot of deception on the part of
the Chinese about what it intends to do vis-a-vis the Vatican,” Shea
said.
China retains the upper hand, she explained, because “the
only leverage that the Vatican has is its moral authority.” Unlike the Maoist
regime, Xi Jinping’s China will not carry out a bloody persecution of
Christians that will stir international outrage and incur economic sanctions
and other consequences for the regime.
“The Chinese are afraid to really openly crack down on the
Church, so they want to disguise it and cover it up with diplomatic gestures,”
she said, “They’ve abandoned the bloodier practices of the Mao period because
they want Western trade and Western investment. And that’s what dictates the
difference between their treatment of the Uyghurs and the treatment of the
Catholic bishops.”
“The persecution of the Church [in China] is surgical,” Shea
said, noting that while overt bloodshed is not the CCP’s play, the CCP has
imprisoned 10 bishops — some for more than a decade — and systematically
prevented the appointment of new bishops in cooperation with Rome, as the
country’s remaining bishops continue to die of old age year by year. It has
also abolished dioceses across the country.
“They go after the bishops and priests,” Shea continued.
“They know that it’s a hierarchical church, so they’re not doing mass
imprisonment or mass detention like they did with the Uyghurs, because it is a
hierarchical church. They don’t have to. They can decapitate [the Church] by
rounding up bishops who are not cooperating that they know about.”
“That’s why I think they should be underground,” she
stated.
As it stands, Catholic bishops run the risk of being
“cruelly punished” by the regime with no due process, being “locked away in
isolation for decades on end, or a years on end, or have their lives
interrupted every other month with a detention, which you never know is going
to come and it’s indefinite,” Shea said. They are repressed, but in such a way
of “not driving away international investment and trade by the drawing the eye
of the West.”
As a conclave approaches, Shea expressed hope that the next
pontiff will alter Vatican relations with China and ultimately abandon their
fraught agreement.
“The deal made things much worse because the Vatican is now
actually covering up for the Communist Party in China and is covering up the
persecution of the Church,” she said. “It’s been the policy in the Vatican
since the 1990s to never criticize China in any way, regarding the Church or
other atrocities such as forced abortions or the one-child policy.”
Shea added: “I would encourage the U.S. [Vatican] ambassador
[nominee] Brian Burch to try to open up their eyes to what is being covered
up.”
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