China’s Catholic bishops back worship limits, prompting call for Vatican action

The state-sanctioned Bishops’ Conference of the Catholic Church in China (BCCC) backed the government’s ban on unregistered clergy engaging in pastoral work and using unapproved sites for worship.

The BCCC said in a Feb. 4 statement that “religious groups must comply with relevant laws and regulations when conducting religious activities,” describing compliance as a matter of “national and public interest.” The statement aligned with the Chinese Communist Party’s controls over the region.

Nina Shea, Hudson Institute senior fellow, called on Pope Leo XIV to summon the Chinese Catholic bishops’ conference for supporting the “suppression of Chinese Catholicism.”

“That the heads of these entities are the bishops of Beijing and Shanghai, China’s most important dioceses, is shameful,” she told EWTN News. “Pope Leo should immediately summon them to Rome to review their episcopal authority.”

Chinese Communist Party (CCP) controls stipulate that religious activities occur in “registered” religious venues by “certified and registered religious personnel.”

Though the bishops noted religious groups may request to carry out their activities in a temporary location with prior permission from the government, no unauthorized clergy may ever preside over such activities for any reason, according to Article 40 of the Regulations on Religious Affairs.

Shea, who also directs the Center for Religious Freedom, said: “Supporting the CCP ban on unregistered clergy and churches directly conflicts with Vatican policy.”

“[Pope Leo] should disclose the content of the Holy See’s provisional agreement with China and review whether this new Chinese policy constitutes a breach of the agreement’s terms or even of its spirit,” she said.

Shea cited a 2007 letter from Pope Benedict XVI to the Chinese Catholic Church in which the late pontiff described the Chinese government’s bid to impose its own structure on the Church in China as “incompatible with Catholic doctrine.”

Shea said the Vatican’s 2019 pastoral guidance to members of the Chinese Catholic Church affirmed that a cleric had the right to “individually follow one’s conscience on whether to refuse to take the pledge renouncing foreign influence, such as papal influence — a pledge required to register with the state’s Chinese Patriotic Catholic Association and its bishops’ conference.”

“This new position in support of banning and criminalizing those clergy who refuse to take the pledge renouncing papal authority lays bare these entities as mere party tools for communist control and suppression of Chinese Catholicism,” Shea said.