As the 2018 Vatican-China agreement expires in September, the CCP is stepping up the persecution of Catholic conscientious objectors through harassment and indoctrination.
by Wang Yong
AsiaNews reported July 8 that bishops and priests in the unregistered Catholic diocese of Yujiang, Jiangxi province, are “barred from any pastoral activity,” calling the situation “worse than before.”
According to new information received, the government has forced some of the diocesan priests who refuse to join the Chinese Patriotic Catholic Association (CPCA) to attend a 3-day patriotic training in April.
One of the priests who attended the event said bitter winter that participants were pressured to follow government orders. The priest remains determined not to join the CPCA because he considers the acceptance of the CCP’s demands a “treason of God”.
Another priest from the diocese also expressed his firm resolve to resist the CCP’s continued persecution and pressure. “I would rather spend my life in prison than join the Patriotic Church,” the priest said. “Joining the CPCA means worshiping the Communist Party, not God because he’s one of the Party’s pawns – he does what the Party orders. When told to sing the national anthem and raise the national flag, CPCA does so like a puppet.
In defiance of 2019 Vatican guidelines that allow priests and bishops of what was known as China’s underground Catholic Church stay out of the CPCA for reasons of conscience, the CCP persists in forcing all Catholics in China to be controlled by it. As the 2018 provisional Vatican-China agreement nears expiration, Chinese authorities are stepping up the persecution of those who refuse to join the ACPC.
On March 8, the government of Handan, a city prefecture in the northern province of Hebei, placed an 83-year-old Catholic priest under house arrest in a hotel to coerce him into joining the CPCA. Three days later, the priest was taken to hospital with stroke symptoms and authorities sent him back to his hometown, banning him from celebrating mass and other religious services.
A Catholic from Handan said bitter winter that on March 13, while the priest was still in hospital, the local government assigned specialist personnel to monitor the churches where he served and warned their congregations not to gather again. According to the believer, the government aims to permanently close these churches.
“By forcing us to join the CPCA, the CCP aims to put us under its rule,” said a priest from an unregistered church in Shijiazhuang City, Hebei, who has come under intense pressure to join the Patriotic Church in June. “We will not deny our faith. We do nothing wrong by standing up for truth and justice.
In the diocese of Mindong in Fujian province, government intimidation of Catholic conscientious objectors escalated after Father Huang of the parish in Saiqi city was tortured into joining the CPCA in April. .
“At first, the 23 priests in the diocese agreed to refuse to join the CPCA, but the government arrested some priests, including Father Huang, and made them join,” a priest from the diocese said. He added that some priests had to go into hiding to escape torture and persecution.
“During the Cultural Revolution, it was not easy to find someone on the run, but with high-tech surveillance equipment now permeating every corner, there is no place to hide,” explained the priest. He also revealed that seven sick elderly priests, who refused to join the CPCA, were ordered to “retire”, prohibited from holding religious ceremonies. Another priest explained that with this decision, the government wanted to silence those respected priests who could influence their congregations.
According to some Catholics in Mindong Diocese, local officials frequently harass priests to join the CPCA because their superiors assign them quotas: hitting or missing means being rewarded or punished.
