The Pope's China Deal : It Is Time for All Catholics, Bishops and Christians to Encourage Pope Frances to Retire

POPE FRANCIS MAKES ANOTHER BAD DECISION. The Pope has decided to give Communist China a voice in choosing Roman Catholic bishops in China. • • • THE VATICAN-BEIJING DEAL ON CHOOSING CHINESE BISHOPS. The news broke in the last week of September. Reuters reported on September 30 that : "A landmark deal between China’s leaders and the Vatican over the appointment of bishops has been struck without Beijing taking action on long-held Church concerns over clerics in detention, Catholic Church sources familiar with the matter say. The agreement, which gives the Vatican a long-desired say in the appointment of bishops in China, was signed last Saturday, but details have not been made public." • The Vatican did not get anywhere with its efforts to receive information about Catholic priests and bishops being held in Chinese prisons. Three sources aware of the substance of the provisional deal told Reuters that the plight of a dozen or so detained priests and bishops, some elderly, remains unresolved and will be subject to on-going Vatican efforts. Beijing has provided little clear information about their fate despite repeated Vatican requests in recent years, the sources said. A senior Vatican source said the precise number still believed to be in detention was not clear. Some of those held are feared to have died in detention, according to Catholic priests and activists who monitor the situation on the mainland. Neither China’s Foreign Ministry, which has been leading the talks with the Vatican, nor the Ministry of Public Security immediately responded to requests from Reuters for comment, and a Vatican spokesman said he had no immediate comment. Reuters reported that : "The Justice and Peace Commission of the Hong Kong Catholic Diocese issued a statement in June protesting the renewed detention of Bishop Cui Tai from Hebei province in April, urging the release of all 'unreasonably and illegally detained clergy.' They also highlighted the detention of Baoding Bishop James Su Zhimin. Now 86, Su has been held since his arrest in October, 1997, but no details of his whereabouts or condition are known. Hong Kong priests say a total figure of clerics under detention or house arrest in China is hard to pin down given official opacity. Beyond long-term detentions, some are held briefly by local authorities. • “The reality is this deal is a small step, a very small step...there is much hard work ahead on unresolved issues,” said one cleric familiar with the pact. China’s approximately 12 million Catholics have been split between an underground church loyal to the Pope and the state-supervised Catholic Patriotic Association. Reuters wrote that : "While some critics have slammed this month’s agreement as a betrayal that could finally crush the underground Church, Vatican officials said failure to strike the deal could have led to a fatal schism between Chinese Catholics. “There are many other points and concrete matters that pertain to the life of the Church that can now be put forward,” said Father Federico Lombardi, a former papal spokesman who followed the negotiations closely. “The fact that a positive result has been achieved leaves hope that others can follow, that there can be development,” he told Italy’s Catholic SIR news agency. • Another unresolved issue, according to the same three Catholic sources, is the future roles and responsibilities of some of the seven bishops ordained by Beijing’s state-backed church without Vatican approval but legitimized by Pope Francis to clear the way for the deal. Two of the seven had faced earlier Vatican investigations into allegations they had wives or girlfriends, according to Catholic sources -- contravening the vow of celibacy taken by Catholic priests. They are expected to take up administrative or symbolic roles, keeping the title of bishop without carrying out full responsibilities, including the ordination of priests, the sources said. Reuters has not been able to independently confirm the personal status of these two bishops. • The best reading of the deal is that it will prevent the Chinese government from appointing bishops without the approval of the Vatican, which will be given candidates chosen by Catholic communities and Chinese authorities. But, according to Reuters, Chinese Catholics are already concerned about how their underground body will integrate with the government-linked Church. Father Bernardo Cervellera, editor of Rome-based Catholic news agency AsiaNews, said that underground bishops were still restricted. They can say Mass but not move around their dioceses as freely as they wanted. Missionary priests in contact with underground counterparts in recent days say the pressure on them has intensified in recent months. Pope Frances said of the Chinese deal : “I think of the endurance of the Catholics who suffered. It is true that they will suffer. There is always suffering in an accord, but they have great faith.” Pope Francis has repeatedly defended the deal, which he said would give him, and not Beijing, the final say. • The Bishop of Hong Kong -- for decades a vital Catholic beachhead on the edge of officially atheist China and one of the most important Catholic cities in Asia, home to an extensive network of aid agencies, missions, scholars and media that have supported Catholics in China and elsewhere -- on Saturday expressed his reservations over the deal, saying time and more details were needed before it could be fully judged, or even called an agreement. Bishop Michael Yeung told Hong Kong's Catholic newspaper : "Catholics in China are neither radicals nor revolutionaries, instead they are really poor people. It is unfortunate that the Communist government targets the Catholic Church more than any other religious group in China.” Bishop Yeung, who told the Hong Kong newspaper he was not yet aware of the content of the accord, did not respond to Reuters’ questions. A Hong Kong-based Vatican envoy was also quoted in the paper saying that the deal was of “great importance,” but more negotiations were needed to ensure more freedom and autonomy for the Church. Monsignor Ante Jozic, one of only two semi-official Vatican representatives in greater China under Communist Party control said : “I hope the agreement may also bring more trust between the two parties and will inspire other solutions for the benefit of our Catholic Church in China.” Jozic confirmed his remarks to Reuters, but said he could not comment further. • • • CHINA IS REWRITING THE BIBLE. While the Vatican made similar accords with Communist authorities in Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union during the Cold War, the situation in China differs because Beijing has created a rival brand of Catholicism through the Patriotic Association. • The Christian Post's Samuel Smith wrote on September 28 from Washington : "The Chinese government is supervising a five-year plan to make Christianity more compatible with socialism, in which there will be a 'rewrite' of the Bible, a prominent religious freedom activist has told Congress. The Rev. Bob Fu, a former Chinese house church leader who immigrated to the United States in 1997 and founded the persecution watchdog organization China Aid, provided great detail during a House hearing Thursday about a plan enacted by leading state-sanctioned denominations in China to 'Sinicize' Christianity. As China's crackdown on religion has seen many house churches demolished and thousands of crosses removed from churches nationwide, Fu warned upfront that what is happening right now in China represents the highest degree of persecution for independent faith groups the country has seen in decades. 'Religious freedom in China has really reached to the worst level that has not been seen since the beginning of the Cultural Revolution by Chairman Mao [Zedong] in the 1960s,' he told members of the House Foreign Affairs' Subcommittee on Africa, Global Health, Global Human Rights, and International Organizations." According to Fu, China is banning baptisms and forcing the removal of 'Last Supper' art in its ongoing crackdown on churches. • Fu says that at the center of this new level of persecution is China's new regulation on religious affairs that was released last year but enacted on February 1. Fu says the revision of the religious regulations are to actively guide religion to "adapt to socialist society." In written testimony, Fu said that under the new regulations religious activity sites will "accept the guidance, supervision, and inspection of relevant departments of the local people's government regarding the management of personnel, finances, assets, accounting, security, fire protection, protection of relics, health and disease prevention and so forth." Fu noted that in order to comply with the new religious regulations, the Three Self Patriotic Movement and the Chinese Christian Council (China's state-sanctioned Protestant bodies) have developed a five-year plan on "promoting the Sinicization of Christianity." Fu explained that the CCC and TSPM held a seminary last July for preliminary discussion about the five-year plan. He added that the plan outline was finalized at a meeting this March. The plan proposes "cultivating and implementing the socialist core values." The plan will be supervised by the national religious affairs bureau and "every province, autonomous region and municipality's TSPM and CCC seminaries and churches will cooperate with it." • One way in which they plan to Sinicize Christianity, Fu said, is by "retranslating" the Old Testament and providing new commentary to the New Testament to make socialist ideals and Chinese culture seem more divine. "The plan made it clear that 'Sinicization of Christianity' means to change 'Christianity in China' into 'Chinese Christianity,' " he explained. The plan emphasized that "the heart and soul of Christianity's Sinicization is to Sinicize the Christian theology." According to its latest outline, Fu said, a retranslation would be a summary of the Old Testament with some Buddhist scripture and Confucian teachings and new commentary for the New Testament : "There are outlines that the new Bible should not look westernized and [should look] Chinese and reflect Chinese ethics of Confucianism and socialism," Fu told The Christian Post after the hearing. "The Old Testament will be messed up. The New Testament will have new commentaries to interpret it." Fu added that the five-year plan advocates for : "incorporating the Chinese elements into church worship services, hymns and songs, clergy attire, and the architectural style of church buildings. This includes 'editing and publishing worship songs with Chinese characteristics and promoting the Sinicization of worship music,' using uniquely Chinese art forms, such as Chinese painting, calligraphy, inscription, and paper-cutting to express the Christian faith,' " he said. "It's also encouraging churches to blend in style with Chinese architecture to local architectural style." • Fu said that while over 4,000 to 6,000 crosses of state-sanctioned churches have been torn down, churches that have crucifixes on the inside must "put up pictures of Chairman Mao and Chairman Xi [Jinping] on both sides of the cross. In the beginning of every church worship service, the choir of the church has to sing a few communist revolutionary songs praising the Communist Party before they can sing the worship songs," he detailed. • There also have been reports that state officials have gone door-to-door trying to get Christians to sign a statement renouncing their Christian faith. Fu said : "For first time since cultural revolution, the Communist Party is now implementing a policy to mandate the Chinese faithful citizens to sign a form to renounce their faith. We have produced documentation showing [government officials] going door-to-door to force believers to sign a prepared form claiming that these believers were misled by evangelists into believing Christianity. Now, after a few weeks of self-examination and political studies, they have realized they made a mistake. This has not happened in the past." • In some provinces, they have even banned children from going to church. • Fu said there is also a plan to shut down about two-thirds of the state-sanctioned churches in China in an effort to merge them. Chinese officials have also urged 20,000 house churches to close and join state-sanctioned churches, according to Fu. Although leaders at these state-sanctioned churches and denominations have already been approved by the government, Fu said clergy have been forced to go through another round of examination to ensure their loyalty is to Party before God : "The first criteria they have to pass is whether they can publicly pledge they will [uphold] the Party's words and the Party's path. These slogans are being hanged around the church, even in many Catholic churches, on the walls and on the doors. On the entrance door, it says, 'Listen to the words of the Party, follow the path of the Party.' How can you have a real independent faith as believers? As Christian believers, we are taught to obey the command of the Lord and listen to the command of the Lord. Essentially, the Communist Party wants to impose themselves as the Lord over the church." • Fu told the Christian Post that according to the former chairman of the TSPM, the "doctrine of justification of faith by Jesus Christ is too narrow. He is promoting justification by love in doing good deeds. He essentially said that God is very inclusive so these Communist Party heroes he listed are doing so many good deeds and they should be accepted into Heaven by our God," Fu explained. "It is kind of a universalist doctrine." • Hundreds of Christian leaders in China signed onto a statement this month condemning the new regulations, the increased persecution and control the Party is taking over the churches. The statement reads : "We believe and are obligated to teach all believers that all true churches in China that belong to Christ must hold to the principle of the separation of church and state and must proclaim Christ as the sole head of the church. We declare that in matters of external conduct, churches are willing to accept lawful oversight by civil administration or other government departments as other social organizations do. But under no circumstances will we lead our churches to join a religious organization controlled by the government, to register with the religious administration department, or to accept any kind of affiliation. We also will not accept any 'ban' or 'fine' imposed on our churches due to our faith. For the sake of the Gospel, we are prepared to bear all losses -- even the loss of our freedom and our lives." • Representative Chris Smith, a New Jersey Republican and chairman of the House of Representatives' Global Human Rights Subcommittee, said the crackdown should result in a tougher China policy : "Xi Jinping talks about realizing the 'China Dream.' But when Bibles are burned, when a simple prayer over a meal in public may be an illegal religious gathering, and when over a million Uyghur and Kazakh Moslems are interned in 'reeducation camps' and forced to renounce their faith, that dream is a nightmare. Taking a hammer and sickle to the cross or jailing a million Uyghur Moslems will only ensure a tougher China policy, one with widespread, bipartisan and even global support." • Activists have called on the US government to label China as a "country of particular concern," a State Department designation that carries with it the potential for additional sanctions. Optimism was expressed during the hearing that the State Department could be on the verge of designating China as a country of particular concern. At its Ministerial to Advance Religious Freedom in July, the State Department released a formal statement condemning China for its religious freedom violations. However, the statement was only signed by three other nations. • • • WHAT WAS POPE FRANCES THINKING? The Chsirtian Post reported on Spetember 28 that Pope Francis said a "sign from God" affirmed for him that the controversial agreement between the Vatican and China is a good move. Francis said that the Vatican's team closely studied the deal that was signed with Beijing, allowing Chinese bishops to both be in a communion with the Holy See and be recognized by the Chinese government. The pontiff argued that he saw a divine message in a letter sent to him in favor of the agreement : "The Chinese faithful wrote and the signature of this writ was from a bishop, let's say it this way, of the traditional Catholic Church and from a bishop of the patriotic Church, together and faithful, both of them. For me, it was a sign from God," the Pope said, according to Catholic News Agency. But, Pope Francis admitted that when peace agreements are made "both sides lose something." • At least the Pope got that right. Catholics, along with Protestants and Christians of all walks in China, from recognized churches to underground congregations, have suffered for several years under the atheistic communist regime. The watchdog orgnaization Christian Solidarity Worldwide, strongly criticized the deal : "CSW is deeply concerned about the timing of this provisional agreement between the Chinese government and the Vatican," CSW's East Asia Team Leader Benedict Rogers said in a statement. "While we understand some of the motivations behind the Vatican's effort toward an agreement, there are significant concerns about the implications for freedom of religion or belief in China." • ChinaAid, which monitors religious persecution and human rights abuses, characterized the deal as a "betrayal of both the millions of suffering persecuted Christians in China and the global Catholic Church. This could be a repeat of the 1940s Hitler's Germany, when the German state church consented to the persecution and slaughtered millions of Jews," China Aid President Bob Fu said, adding, "Ironically, how can the Vatican respond with a good clear conscience for this appeasement deal while the CCP just launched a secret war vowing the wipe out of underground Catholics and Protestants?" • Radio Free Asia reported that there has been mixed reactions among Christians in China over the deal, which will see Bishop Liu Xinhong of Anhui, Ma Yinglin of Kunming, and Yue Fusheng of Heilongjiang recognized by the Vatican. Han Yingjin, bishop of Sanyuan in the northern province of Shaanxi, argued that the deal could improve morale among Chinese Catholics : "We shouldn't idealize it, because that would be unrealistic. Rather, this is a solution that everyone feels is acceptable...and which is a workable solution to practical problems." Pope Francis meanwhile told reporters that he's ready to be held accountable for the outcome of the deal : "I signed the agreement. I am responsible." • • • DEAR READERS, how can Pope Frances sleep at night, knowing he has just made a deal with the devil that is the Chinese Communist Party? How can he sleep knowing that he has condemned the faithful Chinese Catholics to State-sponsored intimidation, 'knocks on the door,' removal of their Christian crosses, infiltration of their clergy with Communist hand-picked spy priests, destruction of many of their churches, AND a Communist re-writing of the Holy Bible. • For many of us who have been shocked by Pope Frances's socialist-Progressive comments that cut against Catholic and Christian theology and tradition, it appears to be time for the Vatican and bishops around the world to force this socialist-leaning Pope into retirement before he does even greater damage to the Church and Christendom in China and elsewhere. Repudiating the China deal should be uppermost on the to-do list of a new Pope. Meanwhile, we pray for our Christian brothers and sisters in China and we send them a message of solidarity in their darkest hour -- sadly brought about by the 'Holy Father' whom they thought was their Shepherd and the Defender of their Faith.