State-Controlled Catholic Church Celebrates Independence from "Foreign Interference"

February 1, 2009

China's state-controlled Catholic church held a meeting in December to celebrate the Chinese church's policy of appointing bishops independently of Holy See practices for designating the religious leaders. The Catholic Patriotic Association (CPA) and the Chinese Catholic Bishops Conference, the two Communist Party-controlled organizations that lead China's state-sanctioned Catholic church, convened the meeting on December 19 in commemoration of the 50th anniversary of the church's policy of "self-selecting" and "self-ordaining" bishops, according to a December 19 Xinhua report.

China's state-controlled Catholic church held a meeting in December to celebrate the Chinese church's policy of appointing bishops independently of Holy See practices for designating the religious leaders. The Catholic Patriotic Association (CPA) and the Chinese Catholic Bishops Conference, the two Communist Party-controlled organizations that lead China's state-sanctioned Catholic church, convened the meeting on December 19 in commemoration of the 50th anniversary of the church's policy of "self-selecting" and "self-ordaining" bishops, according to a December 19 Xinhua report. (For overseas reporting on the meeting, see a December 19 Union of Catholic Asian News report and December 20 Asia News report.) Du Qinglin, head of the Communist Party's United Front Work Department and vice-chair of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, said at the meeting that the church began "self-selection" in 1958 to address bishop shortages, "eliminate foreign interference in internal affairs," and "withstand the threat of 'ruthless punishment' from foreign forces." Du called on Catholics to "unflinchingly" continue the church's policy of independence and said that as one of the pre-conditions for improving Sino-Vatican relations, the Vatican must not interfere in China's internal affairs, including by "using religion to interfere." As noted in the Congressional-Executive Commission on China 2008 Annual Report, the two countries do not maintain diplomatic relations.

As reported in the CECC 2007 and 2008 Annual Reports, although CPA policy requires that the registered church depart from the practice of recognizing Holy See authority to select bishops and instead make bishop selections based on its own internal procedures, in recent years the CPA has tolerated discreet involvement by the Holy See in the selection of some bishops. The church ordained a total of five bishops in 2007 all of whom had Holy See approval, after breaking with the practice of ordaining Holy See-approved bishops for some appointments in 2006.

The Holy See-selected bishops who serve China's unregistered Catholic church community continue to remain vulnerable to government abuse, the CECC reported in its 2008 Annual Report. The approximately 40 bishops who serve the unregistered church are reported to remain in detention, confinement in their homes, in hiding, or under strict surveillance by the government. In the past year, authorities continued their pattern of detention and harassment of Jia Zhiguo, the unregistered bishop of Zhengding diocese in Hebei province. Authorities also have harassed registered bishops, in some cases coercing them to officiate consecrations for the registered church.

For more information, see section II--Freedom of Religion in the CECC 2008 Annual Report.