Chinese Catholics caught in Vatican-Beijing tug-of-war

The warming relations between the Holy See and Beijing cooled late last month after a top Chinese leader stressed the need for the Catholic Church in China to promote socialism and remain independent from outside forces.

The latest tensions come as the Vatican works with Beijing to reach an agreement on the issue of confirming bishops, part of an effort to reestablish relations between the two parties. Beijing broke ties with the Vatican in 1949, forcing Catholics to either join the government-run Chinese Patriotic Catholic Association (CPCA) or face imprisonment. Over time, Chinese Catholics formed an underground church faithful to the pope. The total Chinese Catholic population numbers about 12 million.

The Vatican hopes to reach both underground and government-run churches in China by working with Beijing, although the “positive signals” it had hoped to receive from Beijing have yet to materialize. In the last week of December, the Chinese government held its Ninth Assembly of Chinese Catholic Representatives, which selects the new leaders of two Catholic bodies in the country—the Patriotic Association and bishops council—and sets government policy for the group.

Before the Eighth Assembly in 2010, the Vatican asked bishops not to attend, calling the meeting “incompatible with Catholic doctrine” because decisions are largely handed down from top officials rather than being voted on by bishops. But in light of improving relations, the Vatican allowed bishops to attend this year and said it was “waiting for hard facts before it makes a judgement.”

China’s head of religious affairs, Wang Zuo’an, also asked the Vatican to be flexible and pragmatic and to take concrete steps to improve relations, according to state media.

At the assembly, all of the same leaders won “re-election,” including illegitimate bishops such as Bishop Ma Yinglin of Kunming, who resumed his position as the president of the bishops’ council. Most of the bishops have approval from both the Vatican and the CPCA, although a few still lack papal approval, either because they have girlfriends or children or claim to lead dioceses that already have bishops approved by the Vatican. Father Peter of North China told Vatican-affiliated AsiaNews that rather than letting bishops make any real decisions at the assembly, “everything seemed to be a staged theatrical representation.”

The themes of independence, autonomy, and self-administration also loomed large in the assembly, signaling Beijing would not allow the Vatican any more control over the Catholic Church in China. Yu Zhengsheng, a member of the Politburo Standing Committee (China’s top decision-making body), said in a speech at the assembly that Catholic churches must adhere to “socialism with Chinese characteristics” and “to the correct direction of development.”

Former Hong Kong Cardinal Joseph Zen, a long-time critic of closer ties between the Vatican and Beijing, asked in a blog post before the assembly what type of “positive signals” the Vatican expected to see from an atheist government that has long tried to control the Catholic Church.

“Is not the assembly itself taking place already a most evident signal that the Chinese government is taking a hard position, showing no good will?” Zen asked. “They simply demand a total surrender. Can we nourish any hope in a good conclusion of the Sino-Vatican talks?”