They stand as a testament to the reality that China represses the Catholic Church along with all its other religions.
By Nina Shea | Hudson Institute | Oct 22, 2024
Pope Francis remains enthusiastic about the Vatican’s provisional agreement with China on the appointment of bishops. He recently told journalists it is a “good result” of dialogue. Yet repression against the Catholic Church in China has intensified since the deal was signed in 2018.
At least ten Chinese Catholic bishops, all Vatican-approved, are currently in indefinite detention, have disappeared or been forced out of their episcopal posts, or are under open-ended investigation by security police. To evade Western sanctions, the Chinese Communist Party uses less bloody and more hidden methods of coercion against these bishops than the show trials and physical torture of the Mao era.
Baoding’s Bishop James Su Zhimin suffers the longest continuous secret detention: 27 years so far, after he led a large procession to a Marian shrine. The CCP had previously imprisoned and severely tortured him. Wenzhou’s Bishop Peter Shao Zhumin is in secret detention, following an arrest last January. He has been placed in secret detention without due process six times since 2018. Bishop Augustine Cui Tai of Xuanhua diocese was last arrested in April 2021 and placed in secret, indefinite detention for the fourth time since the agreement was signed. This continues a cruel 30-year pattern against him.