US government report discusses China’s repression of Church

October 12, 2016

The Congressional-Executive Commission on China has issued its annual report on human rights in China.

The Commission noted that “the government and [Communist] Party continued efforts to control Chinese Catholic leadership and religious practice”:

The government continued to deny Catholics in China the freedom to be ministered to by bishops independently approved by the Holy See, instead continuing to require Catholic bishops to be selected and ordained by state-controlled organizations without Holy See approval. The government also continued to harass, detain, or hold incommunicado certain Catholic leaders.

The Commission added that

at the April 2016 National Conference on Religious Work, an official characterized the Holy See’s competing control over Catholic church hierarchy as a “[problem]that need[s] to be urgently solved.’’ At a February 2016 meeting of the two state-controlled Catholic organizations, the Catholic Patriotic Association (CPA) and the Bishops’ Conference of the Catholic Church in China (BCCCC), leaders emphasized the importance of working toward ‘‘national rejuvenation’’ through the ‘‘sinicization’’ of church practice and doctrine.

The Commission also took note of recent government repression of the Church in Zhejiang, Sichuan, and Hebei provinces.

 

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Further information:

• Annual Report 2016 (Congressional-Executive Commission on China)
• Federal Commission Issues Report on Human Rights In China (Religion Clause)