In 2018, the Vatican signed a document with Communist China, which has become one of the most controversial aspects of Pope Francis’ pontificate and led to a “betrayal” of Catholics in the nation.
The highly secretive Sino-Vatican deal is now in its seventh year after being renewed for the third time in the autumn of 2024. But who actually holds greater power under the deal, and what have the fruits been?
2018: A new deal for a new chapter?
On September 22, 2018, the Vatican announced that it had signed a deal with the Chinese government regarding the appointment of Catholic bishops in China. The Vatican said discussions had been underway for some time, and this new deal was their result. The press release noted:
“The above-mentioned Provisional Agreement, which is the fruit of a gradual and reciprocal rapprochement, has been agreed following a long process of careful negotiation and foresees the possibility of periodic reviews of its application. It concerns the nomination of Bishops, a question of great importance for the life of the Church, and creates the conditions for greater collaboration at the bilateral level.”
The Vatican added it had the “shared hope” with Beijing that the deal “may favor a fruitful and forward-looking process of institutional dialogue and may contribute positively to the life of the Catholic Church in China, to the common good of the Chinese people and to peace in the world.”
A few days later, Pope Francis penned a letter to Chinese Catholics in which he said that the deal, “while limited to certain aspects of the Church’s life and necessarily capable of improvement, can contribute—for its part—to writing this new chapter of the Catholic Church in China.”
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At last, the Pontiff opined, the Holy See and Communist China would be able to cooperate “in the hope of providing the Catholic community with good shepherds.”
The contents of the deal have remained secret, with no sign given by either the Vatican or the Communist authorities in Beijing that its contents will be revealed any time soon. Vatican Secretary of State—and leading author of the deal—Cardinal Pietro Parolin attested in 2023 that such secrecy was “because it [the deal] has not yet been finally approved.”
It is believed to recognize the state-approved church in China and allows the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) to nominate bishops in the nation and engage with the Vatican in a collaborative process over selecting bishops.
The Holy See, namely the Pope, is believed to hold a form of veto power over the bishops nominated by the Chinese government. The deal is also believed to allow for the removal of bishops who are part of the “underground church” in favor of bishops loyal to the Chinese government who are members of China’s state church—the Chinese Catholic Patriotic Association (CCPA)—in what has been billed as an effort to achieve collaborative unity between Rome and Beijing.
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Cdl. Parolin stated in 2023, during an interview distributed to the Vatican press corps, that the Sino-Vatican deal “revolves around the basic principle of consensuality of decisions affecting bishops” and is effected by “trusting in the wisdom and goodwill of all.”
Initially inked in 2018, it was renewed in 2020, 2022 and then in 2024, this time for four years. By the time the “provisional” deal is next up for renewal in 2028, it will be a decade old, a fact that forces questions about the official description of the deal as “provisional.”
Diplomatic Success or Aid to Persecution?
But scarcely had the deal been signed before AsiaNews, an outlet that specializes in highlighting persecution of Christians in the Far East, reported that Chinese Catholics of the Underground Church felt betrayed. “Underground Catholics bitterly suspect that the Vatican has abandoned them,” read an op-ed of November 2018.
For many long years, Catholics of the underground church in China have remained loyal and faithful to Rome despite the increasing persecution levied against them by the Chinese government, as it looks to force Catholics to join the state-approved and Communist-party-aligned CCPA. Such persecutions they have endured out of a desire to remain devoted to the Holy Father and the Holy See rather than to become subjects of the Communist religion promoted by Beijing under the guise of Chinese Catholicism.
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It was for this very reason that Hong Kong’s emeritus bishop, Cardinal Joseph Zen, styled the Holy See’s deal as “an incredible betrayal.” “They’re giving the flock into the mouths of the wolves. It’s an incredible betrayal,” he told Reuters News Agency from his Hong Kong home in 2018.
Cdl. Zen has often spoken out against the dangers of the zeal warning of the plight of China’s underground Catholics, though in recent years has had to avoid the topic due to the delicacy of the situation.
But he is by no means alone. Numerous China experts and observers have warned that by signing a deal with Communist China, the Holy See has indeed left itself open to being used and abused by Beijing. Their voices have been joined by those of official government figures.
Shortly prior to the deal’s first two-year renewal in 2020, former U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo warned that “(t)he Vatican endangers its moral authority, should it renew the deal.” He pointed to an article he penned on the subject in which he stated that “it’s clear that the Sino-Vatican agreement has not shielded Catholics from the Party’s depredations.”
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Even the U.S. Congressional-Executive Commission on China has publicly noted the direct link between the Holy See’s deal and the increase in Christian persecution in China. In its 2020 report, the Commission said such persecution was “of an intensity not seen since the Cultural Revolution.”
Then, in the 2023 report, the Commission wrote that “the Chinese Communist Party and government have continued their efforts to assert control over Catholic leadership, community life, and religious practice.”
In fact, Pope Francis himself admitted that there would be increased suffering as a direct result of the deal he authorized. Speaking aboard the Papal plane in 2018, he stated about the Underground Church: “It’s true, they will suffer. There is always suffering in an agreement.”
As the Holy See lauds its growing relationship with China, priests, seminarians, and lay faithful of the Underground Church are arrested, tortured, fined and whisked away into undisclosed locations due to their loyalty to Rome and their refusal to join the Communist, state-sanctioned church.
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China’s underground Catholics are much more persecuted as they ever have been, namely persecuted by the Communist authorities, except now the Communist authorities are emboldened to do so via their deal with the Holy See. Indeed, emboldened by the secretive deal, Beijing has only increased its persecution of Catholics.
Has it Worked?
Observers will be wondering if, despite the increase in Catholic persecution resulting from the deal, it has nevertheless produced fruit and brought greater unity between Rome and Beijing of the sort desired by the Holy See. Certainly, Cardinal Parolin and Vatican Secretary for relations with states Archbishop Paul Gallagher, have joined their voices to that of Pope Francis in defending the deal and its efficacy.
“The agreement represents a journey—a slow and challenging journey that, in my opinion, is beginning to bear some fruit,” said Cdl. Parolin in January, echoing comments made to this correspondent last November. For his part, Abp. Gallagher spoke recently of a “greater familiarity now” between Beijing and Rome, enabling them “to be able to relate to each other in a more relaxed manner.”
But contrary to such rhetoric, evidence suggests that Beijing has persistently broken even the terms of the deal, and forced the Holy See into humiliating acceptance of Beijing”s unilateral decisions over appointing bishops. Rather than fostering a working relationship, the Vatican has been bullied and outsmarted into playing second fiddle to the Communist authorities.
A series of Episcopal appointments to Chinese dioceses in the last two years have highlighted who truly wields power. Beijing has repeatedly made appointments and only afterward informed the Vatican about them, sometimes on the very day of the new bishop’s installation.
One such example is that of Bishop Shen Bin, who was installed by the Chinese authorities as bishop of Shanghai in April 2023—a move that the Vatican was not informed of. Shen had been the Vatican-recognized bishop of Haimen, and the Vatican-recognized bishop of Shanghai was actually Bishop Thaddeus Ma Daqin.
The Holy See was forced to capitulate to the demands of Beijing and “recognized” Shen Bin’s installation as bishop of Shanghai two months later. This is only the most prominent example of the real-world implementation of the Sino Vatican deal: Beijing acts, informs the Holy See afterwards, and Rome is then left scrambling to accept the Communist government’s decision.
A number of instances have seen the Vatican issue a press note announcing the installation of a new bishop in China, whilst details issued by the Chinese state-approved church reveal that the bishop had already been installed some months prior. Customarily, the details given by the Chinese state-church do not make any mention of Pope Francis or the Holy See, and thus, as veteran Vaticanist Sandro Magister has commented:
In short, a synoptic reading of the press releases issued by the Holy See and the “Catholic Church in China” with each new episcopal appointment makes it clear that the regime in Beijing is the one running the game.
Sadly, but not unexpectedly, evidence highlights that not only has the Sino-Vatican deal betrayed China’s underground Catholics and led to their increased persecution, but it has also failed on the very point which officially sought to achieve—the installation of bishops via a joint process between Rome and Beijing in an effort to build relations between the two parties.
Such a failure should be no surprise. Indeed, even sidestepping the controversial nature and origins of the deal itself, an astute observer has warned that such a deal could never have been expected to succeed.
“Diplomacy has its place. Negotiations are necessary,” Benedict Rogers—trustee and co-founder of Hong Kong Watch—told me. “Reconciliation is laudable and should always be an objective for the Church. Naivety is forgivable. But complicity and appeasement—to which the Vatican’s approach is moving perilously close—have no place in Catholic social teaching.”
Michael Haynes is an English journalist based in Rome as part of the Holy See Press Corps, writing chiefly on LifeSiteNews and PerMariam.
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