(Beijing/Vatican, October 29, 2024) China and the Vatican have agreed to extend the agreement on the appointment of bishops. This marks the third time the two sides have reached a landmark, confidential agreement through negotiations. The document remains provisional, with its term extended from the original two years to four years, now set to expire in October 2028. Opinions vary on whether the Vatican’s China policy represents a form of self-denial or affirmation. 

The Secret Agreement on Bishop Appointments between China and The Vatican

The Vatican and the Chinese Communist Party leadership signed a secret agreement in 2018 regarding the delicate matter of bishop appointments, with both sides giving positive evaluations of its implementation.  

Amid the tense situation faced by approximately 12 million Catholics in China, this historic agreement has already been extended twice, most recently in October 2022. The details of the agreement remain undisclosed.  

The Vatican aims to use the agreement to unite Chinese Catholics, who are divided between the state-sanctioned “official” Church and the “underground” Church while ensuring that the Pope retains the final authority over the appointment of bishops. 

From the Chinese angle, the agreement is understood from a political perspective. Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lin Jian praised the improvement in relations with the Vatican, stating, “The two sides will maintain contact and talks in a constructive spirit and continue to advance the improvement of China-Vatican relations.”  

The Divide Among Chinese Catholics

After the Chinese Communist Party established its government in Beijing in the late 1940s, China severed diplomatic ties with the Vatican. To this day, the Vatican remains the only Western European country with which China has not established diplomatic relations. The Vatican is one of the few states that officially recognizes the Republic of China (Taiwan), with embassies currently set up in both Rome and Taipei. Presently, the Holy See, and the People’s Republic of China maintain a consultative relationship concerning ecclesiastical affairs. 

Since the breaking of relations between China and the Vatican in the 1950s, Catholics in China have been divided into two camps: the state-controlled “official” Church and the “underground” Church.  

According to Canon Law, the Vatican insists that Catholic clergy worldwide, including in China, should be appointed by the Pope. However, Beijing has resisted Vatican involvement, viewing the appointment of bishops as a matter of state sovereignty and insisting on appointing its own bishops. 

Without the Vatican’s approval, bishops appointed unilaterally by China are considered “illegitimate,” though their sacraments remain valid, referred to as “valid but illicit.” On the other hand, bishops appointed by the Vatican and part of the “underground” Church, though not recognized by Beijing, are considered “valid and legitimate.” Until they are granted forgiveness by the Vatican, illegitimate bishops remain under a state of ecclesiastical penalty and are not recognized by the global Catholic Church. Beijing cannot bypass the Vatican to incorporate underground bishops or the vast underground Church into its governance.  

Since the first agreement was signed between the two parties six years ago, the Vatican has pardoned several bishops who were appointed unilaterally by China. Even those who had controversial reputations were granted recognition from both sides. Nine bishops have been appointed so far, but over 30 dioceses remain vacant, accounting for one-third of all dioceses in China. Additionally, eight underground bishops have been officially recognized by Chinese authorities. 

The Vatican’s New Eastern Policy 

 Some view the Vatican’s deeper diplomatic strategy with China as part of “Pope Francis’ new Eastern policy.” During the Cold War, the Vatican implemented a strategy known as “Ostpolitik,” where it made significant compromises with some of the most hostile regimes to maintain the Church’s presence in Communist countries. This included cooperation with Nazi Germany under Hitler, Soviet Union under Stalin and Khrushchev, and Communist regimes in Eastern Europe. One example was the Vatican allowing the government to be involved in the appointment of bishops, traditionally under the Pope’s authority, and even working with the Hungarian regime to replace the highly respected Cardinal Mindszenty. 

Supporters of this strategy argue that the collapse of Soviet communism and the religious revival in Eastern Europe during the time of Pope John Paul II, a Polish pope, proved the Vatican’s Ostpolitik correct. By adopting a diplomatic strategy of “retreating to advance,” the Vatican allowed the Catholic Church to continue its activities in Communist countries. This low-profile approach of fostering a spirit of freedom and democracy is seen as one of the significant forces that ultimately helped bring down the iron curtain of communism.  

The architect of the Vatican’s Ostpolitik was the late Cardinal Agostino Casaroli, whose diplomacy was incredibly challenging and characterized by what he called “the martyrdom of patience.” The current Secretary of State, Cardinal Pietro Parolin has continued Casaroli’s diplomatic approach. Parolin has faced significant criticism for the Vatican’s agreement with China on bishop appointments, but Pope Francis believes that to achieve the higher goal of religious freedom in China, it is necessary to undergo Casaroli’s “martyrdom of patience.” 

The Ostpolitik has been heavily criticized in hindsight. The Vatican’s compromises allowed the Eastern European Church to fall completely under Communist control, with no tangible gains for the Vatican. It even led to Communist spies infiltrating the Vatican.  

Hong Kong’s Cardinal Joseph Zen Ze-Kiun has been one of the fiercest critics of Ostpolitik. He hopes the Vatican will stop its current course to avoid repeating the mistakes of the past in its relations with China.  

Challenges, Persecution, and Forced Disappearance faced by the Underground Bishops

Some Chinese bishops, due to reasons of conscience, have refused to join the Communist Party-led organizations, which prevents them from fulfilling their duties. The Vatican’s provisional agreement on bishop appointments struck in 2018 and twice renewed, appears not to have included the safety of these “underground” bishops in the terms or preconditions for signing. This omission has drawn criticism within the Church, with some believing that the agreement allows the Communist government to suppress the country’s Catholics. Many catholics argue that despite the Vatican-China reconciliation, the government’s crackdown of the “underground” Church continues.   

The reasoning behind this is that the Communist regime, without due legal process, indefinitely detains, investigates, and restricts bishops loyal to the Vatican. As many as ten bishops have been in a state of enforced disappearance, house arrest, or semi-disappearance for extended periods, subjected to intimidation, surveillance, control, and “re-education” that is considered brainwashing.  

Before signing the agreement with Beijing, the Vatican did not ensure the personal freedom of these bishops. The ten bishops in question are: 

• Bishop Vincent Guo Xijin 

• Bishop Augustine Cui Tai 

• Bishop Julius Jia Zhiguo 

• Bishop Thaddeus Ma Daqin 

• Bishop Peter Shao Zhumin 

• Bishop Melchior Shi Hongzhen 

• Bishop James Su Zhimin 

• Bishop Joseph Xing Wenzhi 

• Bishop Joseph Zen Ze-kiun (Hong Kong) 

• Bishop Joseph Zhang Weizhu. 

Seven of these bishops have been detained without due process, with some being continuously detained for years or even decades, while others have been detained multiple times, up to six times since the agreement was signed. 

Beijing targeted these 10 bishops after they opposed the Chinese Patriotic Catholic Association. They refused to participate in the state-controlled bishops’ conference. Their loss of freedom stems solely from their refusal to accept the Chinese Communist Party’s authority to dictate what they should believe, think, or say. 

Bishop Peter Shao Zhumin had forcibly disappeared this year, and there has been no news of him since. Many underground dioceses, which previously retained a complete ecclesiastical structure, have been absorbed into the official bishop system under the control of the Chinese Patriotic Catholic Association. This essentially means the eradication of the underground dioceses. For the underground Church, the direct result of the China-Vatican agreement has been seen as a collective surrender, with the marginalization of formerly underground bishops. 

Currently, the last line of defense for underground bishops is the “freedom of conscience,” affirming that Catholics have the right to act according to their conscience in both religious and secular life. The Church is not a prison for conscience; it is something deeply cherished in the soul, worth sacrificing for, willing to give one’s all while remaining true to one’s promises and firmly holding one’s ground. 

The Compromise on the Agreement of Bishop Appointment

AsiaNews comments that “The Chinese government wanted to make the agreement permanent, while the Holy See insisted on its provisional nature and the need to clarify some points. In the end, going from two to four years appears to be a compromise solution.”  

In the past two years, Beijing has repeatedly “violated” the agreement by appointing several bishops without consulting the Vatican. For instance, in April 2023, Bishop Joseph Shen Bin was unilaterally transferred to Shanghai, and the Vatican did not announce the Pope’s approval of this appointment until mid-July. 

With the foundation of the mutual agreement on bishops’ appointment, the Beijing Diocese announced the appointment of 54-year-old Matthew Zhen Xuebin as an auxiliary bishop in late October. He will work alongside Archbishop Joseph Li Shan, who was ordained in 2007 and serves as the chairperson of the officially sanctioned Chinese Catholic Patriotic Association. 

Bishop Zhen’s appointment has not yet been announced but will proceed according to the opaque agreement and will likely be made public by the Vatican on the day of his ordination, as it has been for all past newly appointed Chinese bishops. 

The freedom and joy of the Church cannot come from the government’s benevolence; otherwise, its essence is cruel, forcing believers to bow, grovel, and submit to imposed authority. The Church and its spiritual leaders often tread carefully. The Vatican’s China policy particularly aims to avoid whitewashing the authorities, concealing the truth of their persecution of the Church, and acting as an accomplice to the regime’s intentions. 

China’s short-term goal is to reach a consensus on the matter of bishops’ appointments, while its long-term political objective is to urge the Vatican to sever diplomatic relations with Taiwan and establish ties with Beijing. 

Historical Outline of China-Vatican Relations 

Roman Catholicism has been present in China for over a millennium. The “Stele to the Propagation in China of the Luminous Religion of the Roman Empire,” known as the Jingjiao Stele, located in Xi’an, Shaanxi, attests to the arrival of Christianity from the Roman Empire in the ninth year of the Tang Dynasty (A.D. 635). Diplomatic exchanges between the Holy See and China began when Mongolia and the Vatican started diplomatic relations. 

In 1245, Pope Innocent IV sent a special envoy to Mongolia to persuade the Mongol Khan, who was waging a western campaign, to cease the killings.  

After the Yuan Dynasty, the Italian missionary Matteo Ricci came to China, but official exchanges between the Vatican and China were interrupted during the Ming Dynasty.  

After the establishment of the Qing Dynasty, German missionaries Johann Adam Schall von Bell and Ferdinand Verbiest came to China. The Vatican’s opposition to “respecting Confucius” and “ancestor worship” caused dissatisfaction among Chinese emperors, leading to the well-known “Chinese Rites Controversy.” After the First Opium War, France replaced Portugal in controlling the “Protectorate of missions” of Catholicism in China. The Treaty of Whampoa was signed between China and France in 1844, which allowed France to spread Catholicism in China. However, efforts to establish diplomatic relations between China and the Vatican during the Qing Dynasty failed due to the outbreak of the Boxer Rebellion.  

From the late Qing Dynasty to the early Republic of China, Catholicism flourished in China. On October 10, 1911, the Wuchang Uprising, which marked the beginning of the Xinhai Revolution, overthrew the Qing Dynasty and established the Republic of China. In 1922, the Vatican sent its first papal representative to China, Archbishop Celso Benigno Luigi Costantini, to Beijing. In December 1926, Pope Pius XI consecrated the first group of Chinese bishops in Rome. 

In June 1942, the National Government of China officially announced the appointment of Xie Shoukang as the first Chinese envoy to the Holy See, marking the formal establishment of diplomatic relations between China and the Vatican. On April 11, 1946, Pope Pius XII instituted an “ecclesial hierarchy” for the Catholic Church in China, with all levels of the Roman Catholic Church in China officially accepting the jurisdiction of the Vatican. Archbishop Antonio Riberi arrived in the capital, Nanjing, in December of the same year to assume his role as the first papal envoy to China. The following year, Riberi appointed American Bishop James Walsh to lead the Catholic Central Bureau.  

On October 1, 1949, the Chinese Communist Party declared the establishment of the People’s Republic of China. After the government of the Republic of China relocated to Taipei, the Vatican did not recall its envoy, Riberi, nor did he go to Taiwan. Instead, he remained on the Chinese mainland to oversee church affairs and properties. Considering the safety of clergy in China, there was an intention to establish diplomatic relations with the new Chinese regime; however, Mao Zedong’s government rejected the Vatican’s overtures. As the policies of the Communist Party changed and conflicts between Riberi and the authorities intensified, he was expelled from Beijing in 1951. Catholics and other religious believers were sent to labor camps. 

The Vatican’s relationship with the government of the Republic of China was interrupted for three years; however, it did not cease recognizing the Republic of China government, nor did it acknowledge the government of the People’s Republic of China. Subsequently, in 1952, the Vatican reestablished the diplomatic mission of the Holy See to the Republic of China in Taipei.  

In 1957, the Chinese Catholic Patriotic Association was established, and from 1958 onward, it began to self-select bishops and conduct consecration ceremonies, referred to as “self-selection and self-consecration.” In 1958, Bishop James Walsh was arrested in Shanghai and sentenced to 20 years in prison on charges of espionage by the court in Shanghai in 1960. After the Cultural Revolution ended, in 1980, the Chinese Catholic Bishops’ Conference was formed, which, together with the Chinese Catholic Patriotic Association, constituted the official “One Church, One Council” of Chinese Catholicism. 

The Cultural Revolution, which erupted in 1966, led to a complete halt of Christian activities in China. Toward the end of the Cultural Revolution, there was some contact between China and the United States, resulting in a breakthrough in China-Vatican relations—on July 10, 1970, the Chinese authorities released and expelled Bishop James Walsh. 

In 1982, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China issued Document 19, which gradually restored religious activities, returned churches and Church properties, and improved the relationship between the two sides. On December 12, 1981, during a meeting with Italian politicians visiting China, Deng Xiaoping stated, “The issue of the Vatican’s relationship with Taiwan… if we recognize ‘one China,’ our relationship with the Vatican can be established.” 

During this period, China continued to insist that the selection of bishops for the official Catholic Church must follow the leadership of the Chinese Communist Party. However, a certain level of tacit agreement was reached between both sides, whereby the selection of bishops was usually recognized by both the Vatican and the government, with the final appointment made by the Chinese authorities. Meanwhile, the Vatican recognized bishops with certain qualifications, but those appointed by the Vatican still faced obstruction from the Chinese government. 

On October 1, 2000, Pope John Paul II canonized 87 Chinese Catholics and 33 foreign missionaries who had served in China as saints. Beijing condemned this as a “blatant provocation against the Chinese people by the Vatican… a great insult to the patriotic actions of the Chinese people in resisting foreign invasion and oppression.”  

A year later, the Pope expressed a desire for the Chinese government to forgive the Church for its past mistakes (as China viewed some missionaries as accomplices in imperialist aggression against China) and urged the Beijing authorities to establish direct relations with the Vatican. This led to an easing of tensions between the two sides, with China responding that China-Vatican relations could be normalized. 

In 2005, Pope Benedict XVI succeeded to the papacy and further discussed the issue of diplomatic relations with Beijing. Although the appointment of bishops generally followed a “dual recognition” model, the state-sanctioned Chinese Catholic Church occasionally engaged in “self-selection and self-ordination” to demonstrate its leadership under the Chinese Communist Party rather than the Vatican. 

In 2006, Hong Kong Cardinal Joseph Zen Ze-Kiun, who frequently criticized the Chinese Communist Party openly, made statements that displeased Beijing. In retaliation, the official Church conducted “self-selection and self-ordination”, consecrating three bishops without the Vatican’s approval. The relationship between the two sides deteriorated, and the Vatican announced that the two bishops under the Chinese Catholic Patriotic Association, Joseph Ma Yinglin, and Joseph Liu Xinhong, as well as the bishops responsible for their consecration, were automatically excommunicated.  

In May 2007, Pope Benedict XVI issued a pastoral letter to the faithful in mainland China, stating that the “Three-Self” principles pursued by the official Chinese Catholic Patriotic Association “are irreconcilable with Catholic doctrine.” The Vatican demanded freedom in the appointment of bishops, but the Pope believed an agreement could be reached with the Chinese government. In response, China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs stated that China was willing to continue dialogue with the Vatican but that the Vatican must sever ties with Taiwan. Liu Bonian believed the pastoral letter expressed love and concern for Chinese Catholics and hoped for early diplomatic relations between the Vatican and China. 

After 2012, due to differences between the Vatican and the Chinese government regarding the appointment of bishops, the official Church in China ceased consecrating bishops. Both sides began negotiating an agreement to institutionalize the bishop selection process. 

In 2015, the appointment of bishops under the “dual recognition” system was resumed. On November 30, 2016, Tang Yuange, one of the first bishops jointly recognized by the Vatican and the Chinese Catholic Patriotic Association, officially took office as the bishop of the Catholic Diocese of Chengdu. 

On September 22, 2018, the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Vatican announced that they had signed a “provisional agreement” regarding the appointment of Catholic bishops in China, although the details of the agreement have not been made public. 

In June 2020, the Hong Kong National Security Law was enacted. Before his departure in March 2022, Monsignor Javier Herrera Corona, the former unofficial Vatican representative in Hong Kong, expressed his concerns about the development of the Church in Hong Kong to a group of Catholic organizations there. The Vatican’s office in Hong Kong and other entities began cautiously relocating Vatican documents out of Hong Kong. 

On September 16, 2022, Vatican Secretary of State Pietro Parolin confirmed that the Holy See continues to propose the idea of relocating its office in Hong Kong to Beijing.