Posted on 08/04/2026 8:12:52 PM PDT by ebb tide
While the Vatican is apparently counting the secret payoffs it receives from the Chinese Communist Party, the CCP is mandating the removal of thousands of crosses, icons, and sacramentals from Catholic churches and replacing them with portraits of former Chairman Mao Zedong and those of President Xi Jinping, which must be affixed above the pulpit and elsewhere.
For example, in Anhui Province government officials and cooperating local personnel tore down the cross from Our Lady of the Rosary Catholic Church as part of a regional directive targeting crosses on houses of worship.
In Jiangxi Province, officials removed crosses and other religious items from an unofficial Catholic meeting venue, installing portraits of Xi and Mao while threatening to revoke the pensions of elderly attendees. In the province’s city of Ji’an, a painting of the Virgin Mary and Child from The True and Original Source of the Universe Church was removed and an image of Xi was hung in its place.
State-run Catholic churches, such as St. Joseph’s Cathedral in Fuzhou, have been mandated to display CCP slogans.
n some provinces, authorities have forced churches to alter the Ten Commandments: the First Commandment has been removed or rewritten to prevent followers from placing loyalty to God above loyalty to the CCP. According to Bob Fu, founder of a charity for victims of CCP persecution, “It’s the emperor playing God. [Xi] wants to be exclusive, he doesn’t want to have anything treated or worshipped more superior than him.”
The United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) reports there are now mandates for clergy to preach CCP ideology, and a requirement for congregants in state-approved “patriotic” churches to sing nationalistic songs. Churches that are not state-sanctioned “religious associations” are often labeled “cults.” They face shutdowns, arrests, and the disappearance of leaders.
The CCP officially recognizes five religions, including Catholicism, but this only extends to churches that are fully state-controlled—those in the state-sanctioned Chinese Catholic Patriotic Association.
Underground churches in China, or “house churches,” still exist—courageous Christian congregations that operate outside state sanctions—but they are subject to periodic crackdowns and repression. Leadership and members are sometimes hunted down by the state and imprisoned and are victims of various other totalitarian tactics. For example, through a government-created phone app, believers must provide personal information such as name, identity card details, residence, occupation, etc. Those that resist have their “social credit scores” lowered, possibly resulting in debanking.
The CCP’s “Sinicization” policy aims to subordinate religious practices to state ideology and CCP control. Initiated by Xi in 2016, the policy requires all religions to conform to Chinese communist culture and the party’s political agenda. By removing the cross and portraits of Our Lady, appointing bishops that are loyal to the CCP, controlling symbols and teachings, approving sermons, supervising donations, and censoring religious texts, Beijing is fundamentally transforming the “official” Catholic church in China in ways that promote allegiance to the Party.
How can the Roman Catholic Church look the other way when its church in China is persecuted, even having crosses removed and portraits of Xi hung above the altars? Is there a greater insult to our faith?
The cross is a symbol of triumph. It is everlasting life over death. The cross is the linchpin of Christianity. It represents Jesus Christ’s sacrifice, the payment for human sin, and reconciliation with God. Without it, the core Christian narrative of salvation breaks down.
Our Savior, hanging from the cross, is in every Catholic church in the world.
Yet the Vatican is publicly silent while the CCP takes down the cross and raises portraits of Xi and Mao. Christ and his church are allowed to be mocked for…money?
During the church-approved Fatima apparition of 1917 and subsequent related apparitions, Our Lady decried blasphemies and sacrileges committed against the Sacred Heart of Jesus and her Immaculate Heart.
Our Lady assuredly envisioned that not 100 years later, the disgraced, corrupt, sexual predator and moral deviant former Cardinal Theodore McCarrick would be an unofficial backchannel and envoy for the Vatican to China. Traveling to the mainland numerous times, he unofficially positioned himself as a bridge between the Holy See and the Chinese Patriotic Catholic Association. McCarrick continued his China diplomacy into the early years of Pope Francis’s papacy.
In 2018, Francis agreed to a Vatican-Beijing deal that handed over to the CCP the power to nominate the bishops of the Chinese “Catholic” church. The details of the agreement are cloaked in secrecy, but in known broad outlines Beijing handpicks bishop candidates and sends names to Rome for a rubber stamp. Reportedly, the pope does have veto power over the appointments, but CCP-approved bishops have never been rejected.
McCarrick’s correspondence shows he helped shape the 2018 Vatican-China agreement.
The sordid legacy of McCarrick, a tool of Satan, stains the church. Yet Pope Leo XIV has continued the China policies initiated by McCarrick and Francis. Cardinal Pietro Parolin is tainted here, too. As secretary of state since 2013, nominated by Pope Francis and confirmed by Pope Leo XIV in May 2025, he was the principal author of the deal.
The Vatican naively maintains that outreach to the CCP can be navigated similarly to traditional “inculturation” (adapting the Gospel to local cultures). Or, perhaps it is simply realpolitik. It appears the Vatican sold the cross to the CCP.
A 2024 USCIRF report states that the Chinese “government has unilaterally installed CCP-aligned bishops without the Vatican’s consultation and approval,” and further, that the CCP “continues to forcibly disappear underground Catholic leaders who refuse to join” a CCP-sanctioned religious organization.
The Vatican is making deals with an immoral, godless, totalitarian regime, the world leader in the top 12 categories of transnational crime, the most consequential violator of human rights, and the largest mass murderer in human history.
What did the Vatican receive in exchange for granting the CCP unprecedented power over bishopric appointments? They had to receive something.
Although the details of the agreement between the Vatican and the CCP are not disclosed, we do know that bribery is part of the CCP’s gameplan. It has been amply demonstrated that the CCP’s modus operandi abroad is using corruption and “corrosive capital” as instruments of foreign policy. This is further augmented by “elite capture” and sophisticated influence operations. The CCP preys on human vices—particularly greed.
The Vatican has refused repeated requests to release details of its agreement/s with the CCP. The Vatican’s position seems to be that regular, common, traditional Catholics should remain quiet on China and trust the Holy Father. But trust is earned. Actions speak louder than words. Particularly after multiple church scandals and controversies, we need transparency.
I can’t imagine manly popes of the Cold War selling out to the Soviet Union. In 1949 Pope Pius XII authorized the expulsion from the church of any Catholic who joined or even collaborated with “godless” Communists. Pope John Paul II, who experienced communism first-hand, played a leading role in defeating the Soviet Union.
Perhaps the Catholics, Christians and others in China that are subject to CCP persecution take solace in Matthew 5:11-12; “Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven.” But true Catholics in China and elsewhere also deserve a protective shepherd.
Leo XIV is the first American pope. As such, he’s familiar with American colloquialisms. I urge him to find a diplomatic way to tell Xi to go “pound sand.”
Or, in other words, “The bride of Christ is no longer for sale.”
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Red Popes Ping
Who didn’t see this coming?
These retards are famous for it. Did anyone think they wouldn’t?
Its a godless shithole.
The Vatican naively maintains that outreach to the CCP can be navigated similarly to traditional “inculturation” (adapting the Gospel to local cultures)
And yet everything has already been said!
… and ignored by you and others.
How have I ignored it, Sherlock, when I'm exposing it?
How come this isn’t reported in Chinese Christian newspapers?
I’d think they would have something to say about it.
https://chinachristiandaily.com/
They don’t.
Here is a direct link to the articles about policy an law as it affects churches in China.
https://chinachristiandaily.com/section/china/policy-law
If this were actually happening I think they’d say something about it. There’d be an article about how to comply, if possible, and listing the penalty for non compliance.
I’ve heard and read these stories for thirty years. But if you actually go to a Chinese church you never see it.
Saying that does not mean that churches in China do not face obstacles and persecution, they do. But when I actually look for evidence of the picture of Chairman Mao, Jiang Zemin, Hu Jingtao, Xi Jinping being displayed I can’t find anything except unattributed stories in Western publications
I’ve actually been to church in four Chinese cities, Beijing, Shanghai, Wuhan, and Shenzhen. I’ve never seen this. Yet the stories have existed since at least 1998.
Churches in China are required to have a national flag on the stage.
They are to be free of foreign influence.
They can’t have foreign donations.
Children below 18 are not allowed.
They aren’t allowed to broadcast on electronic media.
They have video surveillance, facial recognition at the front gate/door.
But this past Easter the only time they mentioned Xi Jinping was when they prayed for his salvation.
There was no picture of a politician on the wall, at least not that I saw.
BTW: The last name “Mao” means “feather” The Mao in my screen name is a different Chinese word that means “cat”
Fai Mao is “Fat” or “Large Cat.” Mao Zedong means something like Feather Grace”
“How can the Roman Catholic Church look the other way when its church in China is persecuted, even having crosses removed and portraits of Xi hung above the altars? Is there a greater insult to our faith?”
They can look the other way when they are no longer a church.
Apparently, the pope and vatican are simply another branch of the psycho islamocommie party……trading God for CCP $$$$
Oct. ’24 – Strong relationship with President Xi: “I had a very strong relationship with him. He was actually a really good, I don’t want to say friend—I don’t want to act foolish, ‘he was my friend’—but I got along with him great. He stayed at Mar-a-Lago with me, so we got to know each other great. He’s a very fierce person.” (Interview with the WSJ Editorial Board)
Oct. ’24 – President Xi is brilliant: “The press hates it when I call President Xi ‘brilliant.” Well, he’s a brilliant guy. He controls 1.4 billion people with an iron fist. He’s a brilliant guy whether you like it or not.” (Interview with Joe Rogan)
July ’24 – I love China: “I love China—and what they said is right. I respect China greatly. I very much respect President Xi. I got to know him very well and I liked him a lot. He’s a strong guy, but I liked him a lot. I respect him.” (Interview with Bloomberg)
Feb. ’24 – Respect lost: “They [Xi and his colleagues] respected our country three years ago. Today they think our country is a joke.”
Want China to do great: “I want China to do great, I do. And I like President Xi a lot. He was a very good friend of mine during my first term. I got along with him great, though I’m not sure he loved what I was doing.” (Interview with Maria Bartiromo)
Jan. ’20 – Relationship has never been better: “Our relationship with China has probably never, ever been better. [Xi’s] for China, I’m for the US, but other than that we love each other.” (Speech at Davos)
Jan ’20. – Trade deal bringing US and China closer: “One of the many great things about our just signed giant Trade Deal with China is that it will bring both the USA and China closer together in so many other ways. Terrific working with President Xi, a man who truly loves his country.” (Twitter)
Jan. ’20 – Relationship reciprocal: “As tough as this negotiation was, I think our relationship with China now might be the best it has been in a long, long time. And now its reciprocal. Before we were being ripped off badly. Now we have a reciprocal relationship, maybe even better than reciprocal for us.” (Remarks at USMCA Signing)
June ’19 – We’ve become friends: “We [Xi and Trump] have had a lot of time together, and we’ve become friends. My trip to Beijing with my family was one of the most incredible of my life. I’ve seen a culture that rarely would you see. Chinese culture is an incredible culture.”
Something truly monumental: “I will say that I think this can be a very productive meeting, and I think we can go on to do something that truly will be monumental and great for both countries, and that’s what I look forward to doing.” (Remarks with Xi at Osaka G20)
Dec. ’18 – Relationship with President Xi is special: “The relationship is very special, the relationship I have with President Xi. I think that is going to be very primary reason why we’ll probably end up – end up getting something that will be good for China and good for the United States.” (Remarks at Buenos Aires G20)
“Children below 18 are not allowed.“
The communist leaders of China, then, are sealing their fate.
“If anyone causes one of these little ones - those who believe in Me [Jesus]- to stumble, it would be better for them [those who seek to keep children from Christ, that is, lead children to spiritual ruin] to have a large millstone hung around their neck and to be drowned in the depths of the sea. Woe to the world because of the things that cause people to stumble! Such things must come, but woe to the person through whom they come!”
This is a new policy, of course you haven’t seen it.
And I doubt you are old enough to see what the CCP did in Mao’s time.
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