The true picture of China’s Catholics

• Source: Global Times
• [13:35 April 22 2009]
• Comments

Last weekend, millions of Catholics around China enjoyed Easter, lighting the Holy flame, celebrating mass and welcoming newly baptized Catholics. According to the Chinese Patriotic Catholic Association (CPCA), there are about 5.6 million Catholics who have registered with the government in China.

But the embarrassing thing is that some bishops of the registered church are not recognized by the Vatican, since their bishops are elected by church members themselves and have to be approved by the government. According to the CPCA, there is also a controversial group of unregistered congregations with an estimated 12 million followers who are loyal to the Pope. Since they refuse to register, however, they are not recognized by the government.

China’s Catholic Church is divided by those who attend mass at official churches and those who go to unregistered churches. The causes for this division are complex. After the founding of the People’s Republic of China in 1949, the Vatican refused to recognize the country and prohibited Chinese clergy and followers from supporting the new government. In 1958, the Vatican disapproved of several candidate bishops elected by Chinese parishes and threatened them with excommunication. This saddened China’s Catholics and forced their churches to either become officially recognized and select and ordain bishops by themselves, or to remain loyal to the Pope and go “unregistered.”

Official churches are now facing a lack of bishops. As there are no diplomatic ties between China and the Vatican, the Chinese government evaluates and qualifies bishop candidates instead of the Pope. The government, which has been considering normalization of Sino-Vatican relations and ending such misunderstandings, has postponed the appointment of several bishops, leaving vacancies in 40 of China’s nearly 100 dioceses.

Unregistered churches have unique problems. Most serious is the lack of supervision that has led to illegal activities among unregistered congregations. Unrecognized by the government, illegal forces sponsored by groups that are hostile to China can influence the members of these congregations.

In order to break the ice, normalization of Sino-Vatican relations is necessary. A scholar at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences remarked that there are two obstacles in establishing diplomatic relations between China and the Vatican. One is the Vatican’s so-called “diplomatic relations” with Taiwan, and the other one is the issue of bishop appointments.