He added that Catholics in particular have faced widespread persecution.
“Being Catholic, above all, makes one suspect in the eyes of the current authorities in Beijing. Catholics are not allowed to join the military, the Communist Party or hold any sensitive government position, so they are already in a sort of Dhimmi status – to use a Muslim term referring to second-class status – within Chinese society,” Mosher said. .
In 2018, the Vatican signed a confidential agreement with the CCP that would require the regime to consult the Holy See on the appointment of bishops. This agreement was renewed in 2020 and again in 2022.
Cardinal Joseph Zen Ze-kiun, 91, bishop emeritus of Hong Kong and a staunch defender of religious freedom and democracy, sharply criticized the deal with Beijing, calling it a “betrayal” of China’s underground church.
The deal failed to achieve its purported goal of helping the Catholic Church in China, Mosher told CNA.
“The Sino-Vatican agreement has not contributed to the expansion of the Church in China. For this China observer, the Sino-Vatican agreement is instead being used by the CCP to accomplish the slow decapitation of the Catholic Church in China. This is certainly the goal of Xi Jinping, a brutal dictator cut from the same cloth as Mao Zedong, Adolf Hitler and Joseph Stalin,” Mosher said.
“Keep in mind that of the 104 CCP-defined dioceses in China, at least 36 remain without a bishop. Most others are led by bishops who are quickly approaching, or well past, retirement age. The Vatican’s acceptance of one or two CCP-nominated bishops each year will not begin to offset the current attrition in their ranks, much less fill the dozens of empty seats,” he said.
Zelda Caldwell is an editor at the Catholic News Agency based in Washington, DC. She previously worked for Aleteia, as news and culture editor.
