Free Republic

Xi ‘Sinicizes’ China’s Catholic Church, with Vatican Approval China’s clerics are becoming propagandists for the government.The Vatican has been widely criticized for its 2018 provisional agreement with China. While the agreement’s contents are secret, the Holy See revealed that it gives Beijing a role, along with at least a papal right to veto, in appointing Catholic bishops in China. Due to President Xi Jinping’s “Sinicization” of religion campaign, eight years on, the agreement is even more disastrous than previously thought.Last month, the agreement saw 44-year-old parish priest Father Andrew Ding appointed archbishop of the megacity of Chongqing. His chief distinction...

[Catholic Caucus] Catholicism’s Surrender to Maoism: Beijing Chooses Communist Bishops. Rome Says Yes. Beijing has chosen a new Catholic bishop who promoted Communist ideology, participated in Maoist political “re-education,” and dismissed reports of persecution against Catholics in his own diocese. Rome approved him anyway. The consecration of Paul Liu Honggang, argues Gaetano Masciullo, is a shocking example of what the Sino-Vatican agreement has produced: The Communist regime chooses, and Rome goes along with it.The diplomatic farce of the Vatican’s Ostpolitik has reached a new, desolate peak. Last August 31, Paul Liu Honggang was consecrated bishop of Datong. The appointment had...

[Catholic Caucus] Pope Leo approves his seventh bishop for Chinese Communist ‘Catholic’ church The Vatican reported that the new bishop of Datong was appointed ‘under the framework of the Provisional Agreement between the Holy See and the People’s Republic of China.’A bishop of Datong was consecrated in China today with the approval of Pope Leo XIV under the controversial Vatican-China deal. Pope Leo XIV appointed Paolo Liu Honggang Bishop of Datong in Shanxi, China, on August 10, “following the approval of his candidacy under the framework of the Provisional Agreement between the Holy See and the People’s Republic of China,”...

Replacing the Cross with a Portrait of XiThe 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.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...