Benedict terminated talks with the CCP. The evidence is unmistakable and irrefutable. As the diplomatic cable reveals, Pope Benedict recognized that the Chinese were operating in bad faith throughout the negotiations and terminated them rather than risk a fraudulent and perilous agreement.

Twenty years later, Benedict appears prophetic. The subsequent agreement pursued by Francis and continued under Leo laid bare the CCP’s objective: not peaceful coexistence with Catholicism but its subordination to the Communist Party through coercion, intimidation, and relentless control. Shockingly, the Vatican continues this charade of accommodation with the CCP while Catholics are brutally persecuted by the Chinese government.

Within 60 days of Francis’ election, the moribund China-Vatican talks were reignited when Francis tasked the serial sexual predator Ted McCarrick, who Francis resurrected from banishment to travel to China, to restart talks with the CCP about appointment of bishops in Communist China. McCarrick traveled to China at least three times and reported back to Francis and Parolin the status of his negotiations with the CCP.

On September 22, 2018, the 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. The secret Vatican-CCP pact was brokered in darkness. Eight years later, the fruits of that secrecy are on full public display: broken promises, intensified persecution, and a Church left to bear the cost. The consequences of this pact with the devil are impossible to conceal.

When Hong Kong Cardinal Joseph Zen learned of the impending Vatican deal, he vehemently warned the Vatican against executing any pact with the CCP. Zen predicted that this agreement would be “a total sellout to the faithful,” a “betrayal,” a “surrender,” and “a suicide pact,” which would “deliver the Church into the hands of the enemy,” and a “perverse deception” to the faithful.

As Zen predicted, from the moment the red ink was dry, the CCP violated the secret terms of the deal and also ramped up persecution against the laity and clerics of the Underground Catholic Church who refused to join Patriotic Catholic Church.

Under the covert agreement, Francis, and now Leo, encouraged Chinese Catholics to leave the underground church and join the CCP-created Chinese Catholic Patriotic Church. Many priests, bishops, and laity of the Underground Church refused to do so because, like the beloved Cardinal Zen, and the greatly persecuted Cardinal Kung, they knew the consequences of this monstrous deal for the Catholic Church in China and to their souls.

Under the original 2018 pact, it appeared that the Chinese government would propose names for bishops and the Vatican could exercise veto power over those appointments. In reality, the Vatican never exercised its veto authority. When the Chinese unilaterally appointed bishops, without Vatican approval, the Vatican remained silent and quietly rubber stamped the bishops, some of whom were members of the CCP. When the Chinese government started arresting and harassing Underground Church bishops, priests, and laity, the Vatican remained silent and did not publicly protest, or did it withdraw its agreement.

Eight years into the secret Vatican-CCP pact, the Catholic Church in China lies in tatters: Religious persecution is rampant, human rights abuses intensified and the CCP is tightening the noose around Catholics. The record grows longer every year. Global human rights organizations continue to document an intensifying campaign of persecution against Chinese Catholics while repeatedly urging the Vatican to abandon its pact with the CCP. Yet the Vatican remains silent and unmoved. To its critic, that silence is no longer mere diplomacy — it is acquiescence, inviting charges of complicity through willful inaction.

“In 2024, by renewing a secretive agreement with Beijing, the Vatican is dangerously close to being complicit in the Chinese government’s deepening rights abuses.”

Human Rights Watch and many NGOs, including from within the Roman Catholic Church, have repeatedly criticized those arrangements. Even when the agreement was first signed, it was clear that China under President Xi Jinping was highly repressive toward religious freedom.

“By renewing a secretive deal with Beijing, the Vatican is effectively endorsing the Chinese government’s perversion of religions and is dangerously close to being complicit in the country’s deepening rights abuses. But it still has time to make a U-turn: Make its China agreement public, ensure that it respects freedom of religion, and push Beijing to drop charges and investigations against Cardinal Zen and to free Bishops Zhang Weizhu and Cui Tai. If its Catholic brothers and sisters in China have managed to persist in standing for justice and human rights despite decades of persecution, the Vatican can surely find the moral courage to defend them.” ~ Human Rights Watch

The analysis by the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) described that the CCP’s “sinicization of religion” policy consistently violates the internationally protected right to freedom of religion. The term sinicization means to conform religion to the Chinese culture, but the policy essentially undermines faiths to “the CCP’s political agenda and Marxist vision for religion,”according to the report.

For example, sinicization policy mandates the following violations:

~ Chinese officials have ordered the removal of crosses from churches and have replaced images of Christ and the Virgin Mary with images of President Xi Jinping, according to the report.

~ They have also censored religious texts, forced members of the clergy to preach CCP ideology, and mandated the display of CCP slogans within churches.

~ They have subordinated religions to the communist party, and the government forces religious groups to enroll in various “patriotic religious associations” and their local branches.

~ This policy includes instructing churches to remove images of the Ten Commandments and replace them with sayings of Chairman Mao and Xi. Removing Crucifixes from Churches and replacing them with Chairman Xi Xinping’s photo.

~ For Catholic churches, this means enrolling in the Bishops’ Conference of the Catholic Church in China, which is officially under the control of China’s State Administration for Religious Affairs and the CCP’s United Front Work Department.

The punishment for failing to join the Patriotic Catholic Church can be onerous:

~ Anyone who practices religion outside of the state-approved associations is considered to be in a “cult” and subjected to anti-cult provisions in Chinese law, a policy that has resulted in mass arrests and imprisonment, according to the report.

~ Chinese officials have enforced the anti-cult provisions against underground Catholics who do not recognize the authority of the government-backed clergy and the distortion of the faith.

USCIRF found that the CCP considers Underground Catholics to be a threat because they do not recognize the government’s purported authority “to dictate religious doctrine and regulate religious affairs.”

Incredibly, the Vatican remains silent — choosing to side with the communists over faithful Catholics while this explosion of persecution occurs throughout the implementation of the Vatican-China agreement.

The Vatican, by its submission to the CCP, abandoned all Chinese Catholics to the brutal whims and repressive domination of the CCP, thus elevating the Communist agenda as an ideological requirement of Chinese Catholics. Even more problematic, Rome now finds among its episcopacy, members of the CCP, who are required to promote atheistic Communist ideology.

Nina Shea, the director of the Hudson Institute’s Center for Religious Freedom and a former commissioner of the USCIRF, stated that the CCP is “trying to sever the Catholic Church in China from the pope.”

“Catholic bishops are special targets because of their essential role within the hierarchical Church in ensuring communion with the successor of St. Peter. Those who resist [government intrusion] are placed in indefinite detention without due process, banished from their episcopal sees, placed under indefinite security police investigation, disappeared, and/or prevented from exercising their episcopal ministries.”

Shea further noted that the Vatican-China agreement “makes no accommodation for bishops who resist joining the association for reasons of conscience, nor does it address religious persecution” and that religious persecution under Xi is “the most repressive for Chinese Catholics since the Mao era.”

“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. He should also press the government to end the persecution of underground churches, clergy, and worshipers.”

The recent intensification includes subjecting clergy to intense political or ideological training. Greater restrictions have also been imposed on religious activities on official church premises, including registration requirements for church services and the prohibition of religious education for children at home and of charitable activities tied to religion.

Chinese authorities adopted the following law:

“Provisional Regulations on the Standardized Management of Exit-and-Entry Travel Documents for the Catholic Clergy” in December 2025. All clergy members must surrender their passports to be held by the “Two Associations” of the state-controlled official church: the Chinese Catholic Patriotic Association and the Christian Council. Regardless of the reason for travel, clergy must submit a written application at least 30 days prior, detailing the purpose, itinerary, and a signed letter of commitment.”

1. The Human Rights Watch World Report on China criticized the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) mandate that all religious practice align with state ideology and Han-centric policies. Key findings from recent investigations include:

   a. Coercion: Authorities routinely threaten, arbitrarily detain, and harass underground clergy who refuse to submit to state control.

Vatican Agreement Impact: “A controversial agreement between the Vatican and China—which was renewed for a third time, most recently in October 2024—gives Beijing the power to nominate bishops. Human Rights Watch states that the government has exploited this to sever underground communities’ ties with the Pope and force them into the state-sanctioned church.” ~Human Rights Report 2025

Human Rights Watch describes the deleterious impact of the Vatican-CCP Agreement. “A decade into Xi Jinping’s Sinicization campaign and nearly eight years since the 2018 Holy See-China agreement, Catholics in China face escalating repression that violates their religious freedoms,” said Yalkun Uluyol, a China researcher at Human Rights Watch. “Pope Leo XIV should urgently review the agreement and press Beijing to end the persecution and intimidation of underground churches, clergy, and worshipers.”

On April 7, 2026, Human Rights Watch sent a summary of its findings seeking comment from the Chinese government and the Holy See. Neither has responded.

A member of an underground church, who left China in 2024, underscored the deep betrayal and appeasement by the Vatican that strengthened Communist control to destroy the Chinese Catholic Church.

“The (2018) Vatican agreement was used by the Chinese Communist Party as the most intelligent weapon to legally destroy underground churches. In practice, they arrested priests and bishops from the underground churches and told them: “The Vatican has ordered you to join the Patriotic Association.” The current reality has forced many priests into what they see as a double bind: join the Patriotic Association and betray their faith or refuse to join and lose their livelihood and face arrest.”

CCP intensifying ideological control over the Patriotic Catholic Church

Catholic priests are now required to submit their teachings for review and approval by relevant authorities, in addition to longstanding state control over religious publications, said two experts on the situation of Catholics in China.

The tightening of ideological control is also evident in religious regulations and official documents issued since 2018. In December 2023, the Patriotic Association published a five-year plan to promote further Sinicization of Catholicism, calling for church doctrines, governance, rituals, and even church art to develop Chinese characteristics “compatible with socialist society.” The plan makes no reference to the Holy See or the 2018 agreement and instead urges adherence to Xi’s guidance with Sinicization, a term mentioned 73 times in the plan.

In September 2025, the Chinese authorities issued an Online Code of Conduct for Religious Professionals, banning the online circulation of unauthorized religious content and effectively limiting public access to religious teachings outside government control.

In December 2025, the National Religious Affairs Administration initiated a nationwide campaign — “Study the Regulations, Observe Discipline, Cultivate Virtue, and Build a Good Image” (学法规、守戒律、重修为、 树形象) — which the Patriotic Association’s vice chairman, Bishop Meng Qinglu, said aimed to promote the Sinicization of Catholicism and patriotism by making the study of laws and Xi’s discourse compulsory.

Increasing surveillance and restrictions on religious activities

In recent years, the Chinese government officials have also increased surveillance over official Catholic churches. The authorities have installed cameras inside some churches to monitor activities.

A Catholic who left China in 2023 described to Human Rights Watch what happened after their congregation was forced to join the official patriotic church:

After forcibly joining the official church, our church was in a state of panic, and some priests were forced to leave the country. We felt the Chinese government became more heavy-handed after the agreement. We started praying like we were thieves, gatherings for major holidays disappeared. We used to have mass in hours that everyone could join, which changed to unreasonable hours, so people cannot join.

The authorities also cancelled our choir singing and shuttered windows of the church so that prayers are not visible from outside. Children growing up now have no memory of church prayers or ceremonies. The church premises are strictly regulated, and we cannot bring children since bishops and priests are very much afraid of the government. At one point, before escaping China in 2023, I stopped going to the church to avoid government surveillance.

China Aid is reporting that:

The authorities now have started to strictly implement such bans, which a Catholic with firsthand knowledge of conditions in Shaanxi said in January 2026 “is aimed at cutting generational ties within the Catholic community.” The authorities closed a church in Xuchang city in Henan province in December 2025 because it “violated relevant regulations by allowing minors to enter the church to play music instruments,”

China Aid is calling for Leo to terminate the agreement with China and “stop compromising with the persecutors.”

A September 2025 internal document attributed to the Central United Front Leading Group, a high-level government body responsible for leading United Front work that Human Rights Watch reviewed says that parents in China “must not organize … home-based religious education to instill religious ideas to their children.” The document also tells schools to “guide students to proactively report” any such instances to the relevant authorities.

There are also credible reports that Chinese authorities in recent years have shut down orphanages across the country, especially since the 2018 revised Regulations on Religious Affairs restricted the ability of individuals or organizations to engage in religiously oriented charitable activities. Monitors of the situation of Catholics in China said in March 2026 that “over the last decade, (the Chinese) authorities removed the legal status of almost all social welfare facilities (owned by Catholics), including orphanages and centers for children with disabilities. Many of these children knew only the Catholic orphanages as their home and were suddenly ripped out of that safe environment and sent to a state institution.

Restrictions on clergy travel, foreign ties

In December 2025, the government issued the Provisional Regulations on the Standardized Management of Exit-and-Entry Travel Documents for Catholic Clergy, which ordered all Catholic clergy, including bishops, priests, deacons, and nuns, to submit their travel documents to supervising departments. Clergy can only get their travel documents back after applying to relevant departments for approval, a requirement even for personal travel. In recent years, the Chinese government has increasingly imposed arbitrary restrictions on people’s internationally protected right to leave their country.

• Recognition of Government Authority: Priests must acknowledge the authority of the Chinese government over the church.
• Rejection of Papal Authority: They are required to renounce the authority of the Pope, which is a significant departure from traditional Catholic doctrine.

State‑controlled bishops and clergy are instructed to preach party documents while Catholic teaching remains absent and barred. Catholic training in Beijing is centered around the teaching of Xi Jinping and not the Catholic magisterium.

“A decade into Xi Jinping’s Sinicization campaign and nearly eight years since the 2018 Holy See-China agreement, Catholics in China face escalating repression that violates their religious freedoms,” he said. He has urged Pope Leo XIV to “urgently review the agreement and press Beijing to end the persecution and intimidation of underground churches, clergy, and worshipers.”

Neither Francis nor Leo XIV has spoken up against the accelerated ideological control, surveillance, and travel restrictions of China, 12 million Catholics, with Pope Leo XIV having rubber-stamped Beijing’s five latest bishop appointments. The Vatican’s silence has emboldened Beijing to increase its stranglehold on all Catholics, both in the Patriotic Church and Underground Church.

According to the Human Rights Watch report, some underground Catholics said they felt betrayed by the Vatican, and dozens of Catholics interviewed by one expert reported feelings that the Vatican is also “coming after them.”

A priest living abroad fears that because new bishops are not being appointed for the underground church, “in the long run, underground Catholics [in China] will be gone.”

Following the implementation of the Regulations on Religious Affairs in 2018, (before the execution of the Vatican pact) provincial governments have banned minors from attending any religious-based activities, prohibited religious curriculum in schools, engaged in campaigns to discourage children from religious conviction, harassed families, and have even similarly cracked down on the cultural and linguistic expressions and practices of religious minorities throughout the nation.

The highly respected 2020 Jubilee Report highlighted the following human rights abuses against Chinese children:

i. Christian children are punished, threatened, excluded, and rebuked for their families’ and their own religious affiliation.

ii. Christian children under the age of 18 years are prohibited from attending religious worship services and events.

iii. Christian children are prohibited from receiving religious education and face persecution for revealing their religious affiliation in school.

iv. Christian children and their teachers are forced into anti-religious and pro-atheist indoctrination excursions and programs.

v. Christian families are wary of private worship as a result of the government’s multi-faceted crackdown on religion.

This report offered a detailed analysis of the ways in which children of all religious convictions in China are deprived of their rights to freedom of belief at the hands of the oppressive Chinese Communist Party and municipal governments across the country.

The Committee on the Rights of the Child raised the alarm regarding the People’s Republic of China’s breach of the Convention on the Rights of the Child article 14. The Committee recommended that the government of China to “take all necessary measures” to “effectively guarantee the right of freedom of thought, conscience and religion for those under 18.” The CCP ignores the international human rights community and continues to suppress all religious practices for children.

Notably, the Vatican entered into its secret pact with the CCP after these repressive laws were imposed on children. The Vatican remains complicitly silent about these egregious human rights violations against children in China, despite its incessant stance for human rights for illegal migrants.

History will not judge the Vatican-China agreement by the promises made in secret, but by the faithful who paid the price in public. Every imprisoned bishops, every shuttered church, and every persecuted Catholic stand as an indictment of a policy that placed diplomatic accommodation above the defense of the Church’s own flock in China.

The tragedy of the Vatican’s agreement with Beijing is not merely that it failed to restrain persecution, but that it has become inseparable from the very persecution it was meant to alleviate. No diplomatic objective can justify a policy that in the eyes of the world has left China’s Catholics abandoned to an increasingly hostile regime.

The verdict belongs to history, not to the diplomats. Agreements may be signed in silence, but they are judged by their consequences. If the price of preserving a diplomatic pact is the continued suffering of faithful Catholics under an authoritarian regime, then the agreement has failed its highest moral test.

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