The manifest failure of the Vatican deal with China
By Phil Lawler ( bio - articles - email ) | Dec 30, 2024
There’s no need for sophisticated analysis; the numbers tell the story.
In 2018, the Vatican entered into a secret agreement with Beijing, explaining that the goal was to ensure that every Chinese diocese was led by a bishop recognized by the Holy See. That goal is undoubtedly desirable. So after six years under the new arrangement (the details of which we still do not know), how quickly are we approaching that goal?
As we end the calendar year, there are seventy dioceses in China without a bishop. In most cases the sees have been vacant for years—in more than a few cases, for decades.
Oh, but wait; this year four new bishops were ordained in China, approved by both the Holy See and the Beijing government. So that’s progress, right?
At that rate, in only 18 years all those vacant sees could be filled. Of course that assumes that none of the bishops currently serving in China die or retire.
Which is quite an assumption. There are also six dioceses led by bishops who are over 80 years old, and so should be in retirement. Four of these bishops are over 90.
Phil Lawler has been a Catholic journalist for more than 30 years. He has edited several Catholic magazines and written eight books. Founder of Catholic World News, he is the news director and lead analyst at CatholicCulture.org. See full bio.
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Posted by: ewaughok -
Jan. 05, 2025 3:52 PM ET USA
Thanks, Mr Lawler, this must be pointed out. But there will be no change from the Holy Father. Transparency is not his bag. And we must remember that he has more than once actually praised communism: “If I see the Gospel in a sociological way only, yes, I am a communist, and so too is Jesus” (America magazine, Nov. 28, 2022).
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Posted by: grateful1 -
Jan. 04, 2025 1:12 PM ET USA
Thanks for hunting down and publishing these facts, Phil. A lack of transparency pervades every aspect of this pontificate -- financial, diplomatic, political, economic, episcopal.
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Posted by: feedback -
Jan. 02, 2025 8:16 AM ET USA
The agreement of January 2018 between the Shepherd and the wolves is kept secret only from the Catholic faithful (the Sheep). I can't think of a single good reason for this kind of secrecy. It was concocted with a significant involvement of McCarrick - Papal envoy to China at that time - whose own life-long secret moral corruption became publicly known in June 2018, less than six months after the secret China agreement.
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Posted by: Lucius49 -
Dec. 31, 2024 1:19 PM ET USA
A book years ago was called "You Can Trust the Communists: To be Communists." The Vatican knew this once but since the disastrous ostpolitik of Paul VI and the bad Francis sinopolitik there is Vatican amnesia about communism. This diplomacy betrays the Faith the martyrs of the Church in China,the underground Church and in the past the martyrs of the Soviet Union and its satellites. Cardinal Mindszenty, who heroically resisted communism, represents the kind of churchmen we need ,not compromisors.
