Faith Leaders Warn Lawmakers of Worsening Religious Persecution for Catholics and Other Christians in China, Criticize Vatican Agreement

National Catholic Register ^ | July 14, 2023 | Lauretta Brown

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Faith Leaders Warn Lawmakers of Worsening Religious Persecution for Catholics and Other Christians in China, Criticize Vatican Agreement

Survivors of religious persecution and leaders from Muslim, Christian and Buddhist faith backgrounds warned lawmakers on Capitol Hill Wednesday that the persecution of people of faith by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has only grown worse in the past year, as churches are destroyed, people of faith imprisoned, and government efforts to take over church leadership continue.

The Protestant pastor was the target of scrutiny by the CCP for receiving instruction and ordination from the Reformed Presbyterian Church in the U.S. that, he said, was viewed as “colluding with anti-Chinese forces overseas” by authorities. He fled the country with his Reformed Presbyterian congregation in 2019, first to South Korea and then Thailand, before being granted asylum in the United States in April 2023. He said that, in China, “churches are often forced to stop services” and “are relocated, banned and closed.”

In China, Pastor Pan told the lawmakers, “religious persecution is often carried out under the guise of crimes against the national security.”

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Persecution of Catholics

Frederick Davie, vice chairman of the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom, noted in his remarks that persecution has worsened for Catholics in China despite the 2018 agreement China made with the Vatican regarding the appointment of bishops. The specific terms of this agreement have not been disclosed.

“The Vatican China agreement on bishop appointments has not brought improvement in religious freedom to these vulnerable Catholics,” he said. “In fact, just this past year authorities detained and then forcibly ‘disappeared’ a number of underground Catholic bishops and other priests who refused to join the state-controlled Chinese Patriotic Association.”

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Meanwhile, Bergoglio is "nominating" communist "bishops" already installed by his dictator buddy, Xi Jinping, months after the fact.

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Ping

[Dilbert San Diego]

I have not kept up with all the changes in China in recent years. But regarding religion, since communism is atheistic, I didn’t know what is happening is a sudden change in policy. Has China been okay with religion up until now even though communism is atheistic?

[Governor Dinwiddie]

article: Faith Leaders Warn Lawmakers of Worsening Religious Persecution for Catholics and Other Christians in China

Fixed it.

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[Harmless Teddy Bear]

Back in the 1990s when it looked like China might be loosening things up some of our church leaders went over to see if bringing the underground churches into the light was a good idea. It was working pretty well in the countries that had been part of the Warsaw Pact.

Afterwards they came back and said the Chinese Church said "no". That any church that came out would have targets painted on them. China was still a totalitarian country and would remain so for the foreseeable future.

Looks like they were right.