cross-posted from: https://lemmy.sdf.org/post/34454453
The new Pope, Leo XIV, should direct an urgent review of the Vatican’s 2018 agreement with the Chinese government that allows Beijing to appoint bishops for government-approved houses of worship, Human Rights Watch said today. He should also press the government to end the persecution of underground churches, clergy, and worshipers.
The Chinese government has continued to install Chinese Communist Party-compliant clergy. AsiaNews reported that during the mourning period for Pope Francis, who died on April 21, 2025, that the Chinese government had moved forward on the appointments of an auxiliary bishop in Shanghai and the bishop of Xinxiang, Henan province.
“Pope Leo XIV has an opportunity to make a fresh start with China to protect the religious freedom of China’s Catholics,” said Maya Wang, associate China director at Human Rights Watch. “The new Pope should press for negotiations that could help improve the right to religious practice for everyone in China.”
The Chinese government has long restricted the country’s estimated 12 million Catholics to worship in official churches under the leadership of the Chinese Patriotic Catholic Association, and has persecuted Catholics who have attended underground “house churches” or pledged allegiance only to the pope. The government has conducted frequent raids on underground churches and arrested unapproved clergy and congregants.
Pope Leo should press the Chinese government to immediately free several Catholic clergy who in recent years have been imprisoned, forcibly disappeared, or subjected to house arrest and other harassment, Human Rights Watch said. They include James Su Zhimin, Augustine Cui Tai, Julius Jia Zhiguo, Joseph Zhang Weizhu, Peter Shao Zhumin, and Thaddeus Ma Daqin, as reported by the Hudson Institute.
The 2018 Provisional Agreement regarding the Appointment of Bishops, the full text of which has never been made public, ended a decades-long standoff over who had the authority to appoint bishops in China. Under the agreement, Beijing proposes future bishops, and the pope has veto power over those appointments.
Since the 2018 agreement, the two parties have agreed on the appointment of 10 bishops, covering about a third of the over 90 dioceses in China that remained without a bishop. The Vatican has never exercised its veto power, however, even when the Chinese government violated the agreement by unilaterally appointing bishops in 2022 and 2023, appointments that Pope Francis later accepted.
In a 2024 news statement renewing the 2018 agreement, the Vatican stated that it aimed to “benefit … the Catholic Church in China and the Chinese people as a whole.” The Holy See and the Chinese government have renewed the agreement three times.
The Chinese government, which restricts all religious practice in China to five officially recognized religions, regulates official church business and retains control over personnel appointments, publications, finances, and seminary applications.
Maybe. I have no clue about this stuff and heard his name for the first time last week when he was elected. Let's see what happens ...
Addition:
Pope Leo XIV calls for peace in Ukraine and Gaza in symbolically rich blessing on Mother’s Day
There are also reports that Pope Leo, in first known call with foreign leader, speaks to Ukraine's Zelenskiy
There will always be war. The only way to effect positive change and thwart evildoers is by truly standing on the principle of “We’ll fight you to the death over this.”
Lets hope for the best