Vatican-China agreement: Catholics keep the faith in historic deal despite slow progress

Beijing and the Holy See signed a landmark agreement concerning the appointment of bishops in China in September 2018

Vatican ‘conscious agreement will not solve everything ... [but] provides foundation to resolve key religious conflict’

Reading Time:5 minutes

Published: 12:00pm, 20 Jul 2020Updated: 8:55pm, 20 Jul 2020

This is the last in a three-part series examining the role of the Roman Catholic Church in China and how the difficult and complex relationship between the Vatican and Beijing has shifted and evolved since the Communist Party broke diplomatic ties in 1951. This instalment looks at how Catholics continue to be persecuted despite a landmark deal being signed between the Vatican and Beijing in 2018.

If James Su Zhimin is still alive, he would have turned 88 this month. While he has not been seen for 17 years, Su is still listed by the Holy See, the worldwide government of the Catholic Church, as the Bishop of Baoding in China’s Hebei province.

Between 1956 – five years after the Vatican and Beijing broke off diplomatic relations – and 1997, Su was arrested at least eight times, spending more than 30 years in prisons and labour reform facilities for refusing to switch allegiance from the Pope to China’s state-sanctioned Catholic Church.

He was last seen in 2003, when he was in hospital. Since then, no one has had any news about him and the authorities have been silent about his whereabouts and status. Many fear he might already be dead.

Hopes rose that the Chinese government might be more willing to share information about so-called underground bishops like Su when Beijing and the Vatican signed an agreement two years ago to address the decades-old problem of bishop ordination in mainland China.

In June last year, the Vatican publicly asked Beijing to stop pressuring clergy who wanted to remain loyal to the Pope. Photo: AFP

However, it seems the agreement, which will expire in September unless it is extended, has contributed little in the way of rapprochement between the Holy See and Beijing or greater freedom for Catholics in China.