THE VATICAN UNHOLY DEAL WITH CHINA YOU DIDN’T KNOW FACED BETRAYAL
On 22 September 2018, the Vatican and Chinese communist party government signed a deal which was termed as the Historic agreement concerning catholic bishop appointment in china. This meant that the state-recognized catholic church in china would be loyal to the Chinese communist party.
By this agreement, the Chinese government would recognize The Pope as the head of all the Chinese Catholics and china would recommend bishops before they are appointed by the pope. The agreement would give the pope the authority to veto any bishop which china recommends. Somehow this was understood as the way forward since it made pope recognized several bishops appointed by Chinese officials yet those bishops had been excommunicated by the Vatican earlier.
It sounds like an agreement that would improve the relationship between the Vatican and the Chinese Atheist government who regularly persecutes a lot of religious believers in china but it does little in improving the relationship
A lot of critics including catholic ministers wondered how this could work since it basically likes striking a religious deal with the devil himself. Just imagine allowing an atheist group to recommend a religious leader and how absurd that can be? The Chinese government doesn’t have any good reputation in maintaining any deal or keeping their international commitments, for instance, they breached the Sino-British agreement they made with the British over Hong Kong by interfering into Hong Kong’s political affairs as well imposing controversial national security law on Hong Kong eroding its freedom.
Despite the deal made between the Vatican and Beijing, the Chinese government continued including the catholic church in its religious crackdown. As of 26th October 2018, AsiaNews reported that the government destroyed two Marian shrines located in Shanxi and in Guizhou.
In addition, the Chinese hackers named RedDelta believed to be state-sponsored in China has infiltrated the Vatican computer networks in the past three months as per the report by expert cybersecurity group call Recorded Future. This happens yet the Vatican is supposed to begin a sensitive negotiation with Beijing in September about the extension of the 2018 agreement and the stance of catholic worship places in china. Information gathering on Buddhists, Tibetans, Muslim Uighurs, and Falun Gong outside China are always done through cyberattacks by Chinese Hackers and authorities.
This would keep you wondering what kind of agreement was made since China doesn’t keep its part but however, it has been realized that the Vatican as well the pope has been quiet about china’s injustices on different religious groups. This would make us think or come to the conclusion that the agreement was made to benefit China politically since it would silence the Vatican from saying anything wrong about China's misbehavior because the Vatican would be afraid of the agreement termination. Though on July 5th Pope Francis’s blessing at st Peter’s Square had a message for Hong Kong which has annoyed China causing them to launch different attacks on the Vatican.
A brief history of the catholic church in china, china has about 12 million Catholics and Christianity has existed in China since the Tang Dynasty in the 8th century AD. When the communist party of china came to power in 1949, Catholics, Orthodox, and protestant missionaries were chased away from china and the religion was looked at as the manifestation of western imperialism. Even in 1957, the government went far as establishing the Chinese Patriotic Catholic Association which started appointing Bishops and rejected Holy see by the Vatican.
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