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Brief
History of the Development of the Roman Catholic Church since the Rise of the
Communist Government in China
State
Control of Religion in Context:
The Roman Catholic Church
 China
turned Communist in 1949. Almost immediately, the new Communist government
started putting pressure on the Roman Catholic Church. In 1951, the papal
nuncio, Archbishop Riberi, was expelled from China. The Chinese government
formed the Three Autonomies Movement to organize the clergy to abandon
the Holy See under the excuse of patriotism and nationalism. By 1953, many
Chinese and foreign bishops and priests and laypersons were arrested. Many died
in jail. Pope Pius XII, in his encyclical Ad Sinarum Gentem on October 7,
1954, warned the Chinese pastors that "the Three Autonomies"
seeks "to establish finally among you a national church which no longer
could be Catholic . . ." In 1955, a mass arrest took place in the Shanghai
diocese by the Chinese government. In one night on September 8, 1955, more than
200 clergy and faithful, including Bishop Ignatius Kung, the Bishop of Shanghai,
who refused to support "the Three Autonomies" movements to be
independent of the Holy See, were arrested. Bishop Kung's fidelity and
resistance was an inspiration for the bishops and thousands of Catholics
throughout China. The unyielding fidelity of these pastors and the blood of the
martyrs encouraged the entire Catholic community in China. Failing to eradicate
the Catholic Church, the Chinese government created in 1957 its own Church,
called the Chinese Catholic Patriotic Association (CCPA).
The Catholic Church in China, therefore, has two faces: the
government-established Chinese Catholic Patriotic Association (CCPA) and the
Roman Catholic Church (RCC) that became illegal and was forced underground.
CCPA -- The Chinese Government officially recognizes only those pastors
who openly declared their independence from the Holy See and joined the
autonomous CCPA. The CCPA takes its orders only from the State Council's
Religious Affairs Bureau, which is an agency under the United Front Department
of the Communist Party. It does not recognize the supreme administrative,
legislative, and judicial authority of the Pope, even though it does recognize
the Pope as "the spiritual leader" of the Catholic Church. The CCPA,
for example, has appointed and ordained its own bishops mostly without the
permission of the Pope, especially in the early days. It does not take its
mandate from the Pope. It does not recognize the Pope as the leader of the
universal Roman Catholic Church. It declared its autonomy from the Pope.
Therefore, it does not recognize that the Pope has authority over the Catholic
Church in China. Apparently referring to the CCPA, Pope Benedict XVI said:
"the proposal for a Church that is independent of the Holy See in the
religious sphere is incompatible with Catholic doctrine. The claim of some
entities . . . to place themselves above the bishops and to guide the life of
the Church does not correspond to Catholic doctrine. . ." In his speech on
December 3, 1996, the late Pope John Paul II, apparently referred to the CCPA as
"a Church which does not respond to either the will of the Lord Jesus, or
to the Catholic faith."
RCC
-- A Roman Catholic must accept the supreme authority of the Pope as the leader
of the universal Roman Catholic Church, no matter how unfavorable the
circumstances are. A Roman Catholic cannot accept just any other Church (like
the CCPA) as a substitute without abandoning his faith and status as a Roman
Catholic. A Roman Catholic in China therefore cannot join the Patriotic
Association.
Through
the many encyclicals and apostolic letters, Pope Pius XII, Pope John Paul II and
Pope Benedict XVI have repeatedly reminded the Catholic Church in China of this
basic doctrine of the Catholic Church. The Roman Catholic bishops in China were
steadfast in their loyalty to the Holy See as reflected by Bishop Kung's
response to the Chief Prosecutor when he tried to offer Bishop Kung the
leadership in the "Three Autonomies Movement" on the eve of his
trial in 1960: "I am a Catholic bishop. If I leave the Holy Father, not
only would I not be a Bishop, I would not even be a Catholic. You can cut off my
head, but you can never take away my duty." For this, Bishop Kung
disappeared in a Chinese jail for more than 30 years.
By
remaining loyal and obedient to the Pope, and remaining in full communion with
the Holy Father and the universal Church, the Roman Catholic Church in China is
outlawed by the Chinese government and is generally known as the underground
Church. The late Pope John Paul II, in his message to China on December 3, 1996,
proudly proclaimed the underground RCC as "a precious jewel of the Catholic
Church" and said: "The Bishop must be the first witness of the faith
which he professes and preaches, to the point of 'shedding his blood' as the
apostles did and as so many other Pastors have done down the centuries, in many
nations and also in China."
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The
Status of Chinese Bishops
Paraphrased below are His Holiness
Pope Benedict XVI's elaborations in his letter to China in 2007 on status of the
various bishops currently in China.
"Some Chinese bishops, who have received
episcopal ordination in communion with the pope, not wishing to be subjected to
undue control exercised over the life of the Church, and eager to maintain total
fidelity to the pope and to Catholic doctrine, have felt themselves constrained,
not without suffering, to opt for clandestine underground consecration. The Holy
See hopes that these legitimate pastors may be recognized as such by the civil
government.
Other pastors, however, under the pressure of
particular circumstances, have consented to receive episcopal ordination without
the pontifical mandate, but have subsequently asked to be received into
communion with the pope. The pope has granted them the full and legitimate
exercise of episcopal jurisdiction. Unfortunately, some of these legitimized
bishops have failed to provide any clear signs to prove that they have been
legitimized.
Finally, there are certain bishops - a very
small number of them - who have been ordained without the pontifical mandate and
who have not asked for or have not yet obtained the necessary legitimation.
According to the doctrine of the Catholic Church, they are to be considered
illegitimate but validly ordained as long as it is certain that they have
received ordination from validly ordained bishops and that the Catholic rite of
episcopal ordination has been respected. Therefore, although not in communion
with the pope, they exercise their ministry validly in the administration of the
sacraments, even if they do so illegitimately."
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The
Persecution of the Roman Catholic Church
Even to this day, the Chinese
Government considers the part of the Roman Catholic Church that is still
underground illegal. Thus, Holy Mass, catechism classes, baptism and other
religious services for many Roman Catholics that are still underground must be
conducted in private homes and in secret with risks of exorbitant fines,
imprisonment, house arrest, physical tortures, and labor camp internment.
One of the oldest Marian shrines in
China is Our Lady of Dong Lu in Hebei, approximately 100 miles from Beijing. It
is the home to 40 of the 120 martyr saints canonized by Pope John Paul II in
October 1, 2000. During May each year for the last approximately 100 years,
there were continued pilgrimages from thousands of Catholics throughout China.
However, in April and May, 1996, the Chinese government mobilized 5000 troops,
supported by dozens of armored cars and helicopters, destroyed and leveled that
Marian shrine, confiscated the statue of the Blessed Virgin Mary and arrested
many priests.
Currently, every one of the approximately 35
underground bishops of the RCC is either in jail, under house arrest, under
strict surveillance, or in hiding. Bishop
SU Zhimin, the underground Bishop of
Baoding, Hebei was arrested in 1996, escaped, and rearrested in 1997. There has
been no news on this bishop for many years. Bishop
AN Shuxin, the underground Auxiliary
Bishop of Baoding, Hebei, was arrested in 1996. He was released on August 24,
2006 after more than 10 years confinement in prison. Bishop
SHI Enxiang, Bishop of Yixian, Hebei,
was arrested on April 13, 2001. He is now more than 80 years old and has been
detained for more than 6 years. We do not know his whereabouts or his condition.
Bishop GAO Kexian,
Bishop of Yantai, Shandong, was arrested in October, 1999. We did not know where
he was until he died in jail in January 2005. His cause of death is unknown. Bishop
YAO Liang, the auxiliary bishop of the
diocese of Xiwanzi in Hebei, was arrested on March 31, 2005, released, and
arrested again on July 30, 2006. He is in his early eighties. We do not know
where he is detained or his condition. Bishop
ZHAO ZhenDong, Bishop of Xuanhua in
Hebei, was arrested in December 2004. He died shortly after he was released. He
was 87 years of age. Bishop HAN
Dingxiang , Bishop of Yong Nian, Hebei,
was arrested in December 1999 and was held in an unknown place for his last two
years. He died last year in a very suspicious situation. He was cremated and
buried within six hours of his death without any religious ceremony.
Priests, seminarians, nuns and laypersons face similar harassment. Many
of them are in jail.
In 1997, the Cardinal Kung Foundation published a secret Chinese
government document entitled "The Procedures Legally to Implement the
Eradication of Illegal Activities/Operations of the Underground Catholic
Church." This document recommended steps to be taken to destroy the
Underground RCC. These steps included "destroy[ing] the organization of the
Catholic underground forces," "cut[ting] off foreign contacts with
local illegal elements," and "destroy[ing] the Church's illegal
assembly place[s]." On January 26, 1997, the New York Times
referenced this document in an article entitled "Catholics in China: Back
to the Underground."
The points described above are but a few of the many examples of the
harsh and ongoing persecution of Underground RCC clergy and laypersons in China.
The Cardinal Kung Foundation has documented many other instances in its press
releases and other reports. These press releases and reports can be viewed and
obtained on our Press Release page.
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