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Vatican Finally Capitulates to Beijing, Demands Bishops Step Down for Communist-Appointed Replacements

A new report out of China yesterday indicates that the Vatican has now, for a second time, asked a legitimate bishop to step down and give his episcopal see to a Communist government-appointed bishop who was excommunicated in 2011 after being illicitly consecrated without a papal mandate.

Bishop Peter Zhuang Jianjian of Shantou was forced to travel to Beijing last December where an unnamed Vatican prelate — which sources speculate to have been Archbishop Claudio Maria Celli, a negotiator between the Vatican and China — asked him to step aside to allow Chinese Patriotic Catholic Association Bishop Joseph Huang Bingzhang to take his place. He had received a prior request from the Vatican just two months previously in October of 2017.

Though it has gotten far too little attention in the wider Catholic world, OnePeterFive has been covering the developing situation in Vatican relations with China since early 2016 — a situation that has prompted a number of voices to be raised in concern, the most most notable being that of Cardinal Joseph Zen, bishop emeritus of Hong Kong. (Zen has been outspoken for far longer, but recent developments have given him more specific cause for concern.)

In light of this week’s news, we feel that it is critically important for Western Catholics to know some background on the situation, and how every step of the way, Zen has spoken out as a prophetic voice, warning of what would come if the Vatican continued on the diplomatic course begun under Francis.

Zen asked in January, 2016:

Do our officials in Rome know what an election is in China? Do they know that the so-called Episcopal Conference is not only illegitimate, but simply does not exist? What exists is an organism that is called “One Association and One Conference”, namely the Patriotic Association and the Bishops’ Conference always work together as one body, which is always chaired by government officials (there are pictures to prove it, the Government does not even try more to keep up appearances, it starkly flaunts the fact  that they now manage religion!). Signing such an agreement means delivering the authority to appoint bishops into the hands of an atheist government.

Zen went on, speaking of the Vatican’s developing Ostpolitik with Beijing:

What makes me restless is the sight of our Eminent Secretary of State [Cardinal Pietro Parolin] still intoxicated by the miracles of Ostpolitik. In a speech last year, at a Memorial for Card. Casaroli, he praised the success of its predecessor in having secured the existence of the Church hierarchy in the communist countries of Eastern Europe. He says: “In choosing candidates for the episcopate, we choose shepherds and not people who systematically oppose the regime, people who behave like gladiators, people who love to grandstand on the political stage.” I wonder: Who had he in mind while making this description? I fear that he was thinking of a Cardinal Wyszynski, a Cardinal Mindszenty, a Cardinal Beran. But these are the heroes who bravely defended the faith of their people! It terrifies me to realize this mindset and I sincerely hope that I am wrong.

On the day that an agreement is signed with China there will be peace and joy, but do not expect me to participate in the celebrations of the beginning of this new Church. I disappear, I will start a monastic life to pray and do penance. I will ask the forgiveness of Pope Benedict for not being able to do what he was hoping that I could do. I will ask Pope Francis to forgive this old Cardinal from the peripheries for disturbing him with so many inappropriate letters.

The innocent children were killed, the angel told Joseph to take Mary and the Child and flee to safety. But today would our diplomats advise Joseph to go and humbly beg for dialogue with Herod!?

In a blog post in June, 2016 — no longer available online — Cardinal Zen told Chinese Catholics that they could not follow the pope into an agreement with Beijing.

According to La Stampa journalist Giannie Valente, who quoted that post in a disapproving piece that same month, Zen had advised the faithful in China that any agreement between the Vatican and Beijing would “most certainly have the pope’s approval,” and that “at the end of the day, one’s conscience is the ultimate criterion for judging our behaviour. So, if your conscience tells you that the content of whatever agreement goes against the principle of our faith, you should not go with it”.

In August, 2016, in which he devoted much effort to fending off the attack of  for his opposition to the Church’s new direction in China under Pope Francis, Zen made clear that he foresaw today’s events, and that, in his view, they would bring about a “catacomb situation” for faithful Chinese Catholics. He wrote:

We know that in China the atheist regime has always wanted to totally control the religions. Until now large groups of Catholics, both underground and in officialdom, making great sacrifices, remain faithful to the Church founded by Jesus on Peter and the Apostles. But today a specter appears in the horizon, of a statement coming right from the authority of the Church, that tells them to change course. What was declared as opposed to the doctrine and discipline of the Church will become legitimate and normal; everyone will have to submit to the Government that manages the Church; everyone will have to obey to bishops who until today are illegitimate and even excommunicated. So, they have been wrong for decades these poor “confrontationists”?

My appeal is to prepare the minds for such an eventuality, which once seemed impossible, now it looks very likely. What to do? Accept to go back, as Valente says, to the catacomb situation, which is not the ordinary situation. But, when the ordinary is illegitimate and the legitimate is not allowed, there is no choice but to hold to the legitimate in a extraordinary way.

In October, 2016, during a visit to the US, Zen beat the drum again:

“The Chinese government has not made any concessions in the negotiations,” he told the Chinese-language World Journal in New York. “There are some things that we cannot make compromises.”

He told the newspaper that Pope Francis was from South America and was sympathetic to communists: “He does not understand the Chinese Communist Party at all.”

[…]

During his visit, Zen had said that he believed it was only a matter of time for the Vatican and Beijing to establish diplomatic ties.

“Taiwanese people should make preparations for ‘being abandoned,’ or losing diplomatic relations,” he said.

Veteran Vatican watcher Sandro Magister also confirmed in August, 2016, that the pope was

preparing…to grant the communist authorities the privilege of selecting candidates. And he is exiling to an island in the Pacific the highest ranking Chinese archbishop in the curia, contrary to the agreement.

The exiled archbishop was, according to Magister, Zen’s

fellow countryman bishop and friend Savio Hon Taifai – he too a Salesian like the cardinal – called by Benedict XVI from Hong Kong to Rome in 2011 as secretary of the congregation for the evangelization of peoples, but now dispatched by Francis to an island of the Pacific Ocean, as apostolic administrator of Guam, with an unexpected appointment last June 6.

The term of Hon’s appointment in Guam lasted until October of 2016, when he was named Apostolic Nuncio to Greece — keeping him out of China, where he said in 2011 that

the planned ordination of priests by the Chinese Patriotic Catholic Association meant “division … causes great pain to the entire body … [the] whole body is scarred and bleeding”, because no bishop can be validly appointed without a papal mandate. He added that those who have resisted the will of the party, such as Monsignor Li Lianghui (Cangzhou, Hebei) are now in isolation, forced to undergo political re-education classes. He said that Chinese priests and bishops must show “some backbone” and resist government pressure out of love for Church unity and the memory of the many heroic witnesses to the faith of the past decades. Hon has sought without success to win the release from prison of two imprisoned bishops, James Su Zhimin of Baoding and Cosma Shi Enxiang of Yixian.

This is what the Vatican is capitulating to. Political re-education. A government that persecutes priests and bishops. A decade ago, the late Cardinal Kung said:

I believe that most if not all of you who are here today understand that there is no religious freedom in China. Yet you may be shocked to learn that all of the approximately 40 underground bishops in China have been either arrested and are now in jail, or under house arrest, or under strict surveillance, or in hiding, or simply have disappeared.

We know for sure that six bishops are now in jail. … They are all in their 70’s or 80’s. Three of them have disappeared. (HAN, Shi and SU). Out of these three, Bishop Su has disappeared for approximately 10 years, Bishop Han has just disappeared approximately one year ago after being detained approximately 5 years, Bishop SHI has disappeared almost six years. We do not know whether they are dead or alive.

[…]

Priests, seminarians, nuns and laypersons face similar harassment. We know for sure that there are approximately 25 of them in jail or in labor camps. This list is by no means complete, because of the difficulties in obtaining details. Many cases are not reported here. My educated guess is that there are hundreds in jail. Sometimes, the government simply removes a priest or bishop and do not place them into the jail system, so that there is no official record of this religious prisoner. This is one of the new methods of persecuting the underground church.

Returning to the present issue, the Vatican’s most recent orders for the 88-year-old Bishop Zhuang to step down came with an empty concession:

The Holy See delegation demanded Bishop Zhuang to retire just as what was in the letter dated Oct 26 but with one addition term seems to console the elderly bishop, and that is, he could nominate three priests for Bishop Huang to pick one as his vicar general, the source continued.

“Bishop Zhuang could not help his tears on hearing the demand,” the source said, adding that “it was meaningless to appoint a vicar general, who is still a priest that Bishop Huang could remove him anytime.”

Meanwhile, another similar move was taking place elsewhere in China:

While Bishop Zhuang was summoned to freezing Beijing, the Vatican delegation reportedly went southward to eastern Fujian province to meet with Bishop Vincent Zhan Silu, one of the seven illicit bishops awaiting the Vatican to recognize.

Local sources said Bishop Joseph Guo Xijin, the ordinary bishop of Mindong belonging to the underground community, was asked to downgrade himself as assistant of Bishop Zhan, with one of the sayings was that he has to downgrade to become a coadjutor bishop.

One of the sources said, signing a document to accept “voluntary” downgrading himself as the coadjutor bishop was also one of the conditions the government officials put forward to Bishop Guo in order to recognize him when he was under one-month detention before the Holy Week in 2017.

Bishop Zhan declined to confirm the meeting or disclose details about his recognition progress with the Holy See.

The meeting in Funjian province was apparently kept a secret from the underground clergy:

An underground priest in Mindong said he did not know about the Vatican delegation’s visit. “We of course feel hard to accept but do we have the rights to oppose the Vatican?” he said, but adding that if thing goes that way, “I may consider to quit and leave my priesthood.”

According to the AsiaNews report, the Holy See was considering recognizing seven illicit bishops, of whom three were publicly excommunicated for being consecrated without a papal mandate, in exchange for the Chinese government’s recognition of 20 bishop candidates put forward by the Holy See.

Thus far, Cardinal Zen has remained silent on the recent developments. One is left to wonder if he is simply honoring his word in the face of a hopeless situation:

On the day that an agreement is signed with China there will be peace and joy, but do not expect me to participate in the celebrations of the beginning of this new Church. I disappear, I will start a monastic life to pray and do penance. I will ask the forgiveness of Pope Benedict for not being able to do what he was hoping that I could do.

Pray for China’s Catholics. We are all weary and heartbroken by the scandal of the present pontificate, but theirs is a suffering far more tangible than most of us will likely ever experience.

128 thoughts on “Vatican Finally Capitulates to Beijing, Demands Bishops Step Down for Communist-Appointed Replacements”

  1. So Bergoglio sold faithful Catholics in China down the river? Rome has become the seat of the antichrist as our Lady of LaSalette said would happen.

    Reply
      • Especially within. However, that consecration will be made “late but not too late” and you will see this short lived complete triumph of communism implode almost immediately after the consecration is made. Jorge can’t make it even if he wanted to, he doesn’t count, it must be made by Pope Benedict or his lawfully elected sucessor.

        Reply
  2. What recourse does the underground Church have in this situation? They can obey apostate communist-appointed bishops of the ‘patriotic church’ (which isn’t Catholic; sorry, but I have zero respect for these men and I would not obey them under any circumstances) or the underground bishops, what remains of them, can press on without papal mandate given their extraordinary situation (similiar to the SSPX), and risk being excommunicated in addition to being declared enemies of the state. Rome has just turned its back on the faithful in that country and abandoned them to the wolves. Very angry about this.

    Reply
    • I believe he’s waiting for Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI to die before doing such things as opening canonization cases for liberation theologians and socialists. This is just the tip of the iceberg.

      Reply
  3. Saint Francis Xavier, pray for the poor LEGITIMATE FAITHFUL Catholics and their Shepherds. I do not believe that those bishops consecrated without papal mandate are wrong to continue their work. If this is not a time of common error, no such thing as common error can exist. The Church has always taught that in time of common error the faithful may legitimately receive the sacraments from any validly ordained priest or bishop. I pray that these poor faithful Catholics never give up their faith even though the Vatican has thrown them to the wolves.

    Reply
  4. Is there any longer a question as to what occupies the Chair of Peter?
    The faithful of China, welcomed into the Bergoglian nightmare, after all they have endured.
    The Society of Judas has the reins.

    Reply
  5. There’s one more thing; the thirty pieces of silver. What is Bergoglio’s “reward” for his treachery? It will be an official invitation from the Chicoms to visit China. The opportunity to make a grand entrance, to go where no Pope has gone before, to be acclaimed by The New York Times, CNN and Newsweek, to be hailed as a latter day Francis Xavier.

    How desperately sad for the underground Church. To be told, in effect, that all its sacrifices, all its suffering, its heroic fidelity was for naught. All sacrificed on the altar of Bergoglio’s ego. What does he care for bishops who’ve spent half their lives in prison or labor camps? What does he care for the poverty and penury of those who’ve refused to compromise with the red dragon? Nothing……he cares nothing.

    Now excuse me while I go vomit.

    Reply
    • Not for naught.

      All for the Immaculate Heart’s Triumph.

      The Red Dragon waits to devour and spews its blasphemies.
      She waits in the silence in the desert of Adoration.
      Watch and pray.

      “Sin is behovely. But all shall be well, and all shall be well, and all manner of thing shall be well….”

      Maranatha.

      Reply
    • We have a pope that is afraid to suffer for the faith and support those who do all in the name of a false peace. This pope’s “utopia” is NOT heaven on Earth. As the BVM told Saint Bernadette, “I cannot promise you happiness in this world, only in the next”.

      Reply
      • Bergoglio isn’t afraid to suffer for the Faith. He doesn’t have faith in the first place so why should he care about all those fools who do.
        He’s just a Commie bishop in Rome approving Commie bishops in China.

        Reply
    • What a vain man filled with a lust for the transient glories of this world. He might find that a certain warm place is not empty like the Jesuits claim.

      Reply
      • As Padre Pio said to a man who told him he didn’t believe in hell. “You will when you get there.” Bon voyage, Senor Bergoglio.

        Reply
  6. JAN 16, 2018 BRIAN KELLY
    Cardinal Kung Foundation Christmas Newsletter 2017 (Please help the persecuted Church in China):

    Communist China announced a new Savior In recent months, local government officials visited many Christian-populated villages to implement a Property Alleviation Campaign. They proclaimed a new “savior”: “Jesus won‟t save you – President Xi Jinping will! ” Families who replaced their crosses or the religious images in their homes with the portrait of President Xi were given a quota from the Poverty Relief Fund. The Washington Post reported, “in Jiangxi province’s Yugan county, villagers “willingly‟ removed 624 religious posters and images and replaced them with 453 images of Xi. Villagers were told that they cannot count on God to lift them out of poverty, but to “rely on the Party.” This brings nightmares to those who are familiar with the history of China, such as the Cultural Revolution and the Red Guards, watching this building of another “cult of personality.”

    Reply
    • Thanks for the comment, Barry. The Cardinal Kung Foundation deserves our support. Even if you cannot offer financial donations, there is a system whereby they will assign you an underground priest’s name, for whom you can pray daily. It gives me great satisfaction to have this spiritual bond with a fellow Catholic giving his life for the Faith, even though I will never meet him. I recommend it, if nothing else.

      PRAYER SPONSOR –
      Members pray for a specific religious in China The life of an underground clergy or religious is a harsh one, filled with long hours, poverty, risk of harassment, arrest, interrogation or house arrest from a hostile Chinese government.

      A Prayer Sponsor will be assigned a name of an underground clergy or nun as one’s spiritual partner in their ministry. Your daily prayer will support this clergyman or nun with the grace and wisdom to be a courageous witness of Christ and to spread the gospel in China.

      We will send you a wallet-sized card printed with the name of this clergyman and the Cardinal Kung’s Prayer for China.To join this program, please contact us : ([email protected]) with your name, address. There is no cost to join this program.

      Reply
  7. Why not sending a Vatican prelate to North Korea as well? No doubt that Kim Jong-un has a lovely tin of half rotten candidates that might charm the Vatican. At least that would be Ostpolitik at its best!

    Reply
  8. What a bunch of weak, cowardly, men. I’ve got one for you, step aside and let a real force of greatness take care of this. Oh and by the way I am speaking of the Holy Trinity who can do more in an hour than man can do in an eternity.

    Reply
  9. Watching events unfold, so breathtakingly quick that most seem dazed almost sleep walking–it must all be assumed that what’s occurring under our noses is integral to the “New Paradigm” master plan to secularize the Church and recreate God in Man’s image.

    Reply
    • Yes indeed, as the secular society that we live in IS already.

      Call it illuminism, secularism, luciferianism, humanism, paganism or the occult: Satanically possessed.

      Modern Western civilization has no moral legitimacy (and no future) because it is based on a rebellion against God.

      Humanity has been hijacked by psychopaths intent on destroying the “old order” and building a bizarre, solipsistic, violent, depraved dystopia in its place.

      These psychopaths control our government’s credit AND the Mass Media. Thus, they are able to PURCHASE our “Leaders” and dupe Society into embracing its own downfall.

      Reply
    • We really can’t keep up with it anymore. The assaults from this man come now daily and sometimes several in one day. And the ‘Bishops’ are blind, deaf and dumb. They are rolling out the red carpet for the savage wolves to eat us alive. It’s really akin to the ‘Nightmare on Elm Street’ on steroids. Quite disastrously astounding.

      Reply
      • We need to stand tall. Christ warned us that a time of test will come, that the assault against Christ and the Gospel will be relentless. The gospel of the”New Paradigm” shreds Christ’s Gospel with Wicked Claw. We know who authored the Gospels of the Church. It is impossible that Christ would contradict himself after two thousand years of Apostolic Tradition and testament to that Gospel by the Saints and the blood of the many Martyrs. We know who authored the new paradigm gospel. It is without any doubt whatsoever that it is not Jesus Christ, or the Holy Spirit, who does not contradict the Son or the Father. We are either cowards and faint away in fear and self inflicted confusion, or we gird our loins and fight to the end the Evil that is ensconced at the Vatican.

        Reply
  10. The situation in China has been reported on by the Cardinal Kung Foundation for decades. The present action by the Vatican was foreseen long ago by those who have been keeping up with these events.

    The Patriotic Association is not Catholic. It is a pro-abortion communist organization. Some of its priests were ministering in Catholic parishes in the U.S., with full knowledge of the U.S. bishops. This was reported by The Wanderer nearly 30 years ago.

    It was the height of hypocrisy.

    The priests of the Society of Saint Pius X were not permitted to exercise their functions in Catholic parishes, but priests who belong to an excommunicated, pro-abortion organization were allowed to do so.

    The filth and error in the Church has reached epic proportions.

    Reply
    • I completely agree. What happens here is simply in line with the current policies of the Pope and the Vatican. Francis is himself a neo-marxist and so are his important supporters in the Vatican. He has downplayed all the pro-life issues, and thus it is no surprise that he now agrees to appoint bishops coming from a pro-abortion communist organization.

      Actually I think that Francis would prefer the communist bishops even without pressure from the Chinese authorities. Probably he welcomes this pressure, because thanks to it he can cover up his true intentions and play the publicity game that he had no reasonably choice but to give in.

      These new bishops will only strenghten the Pope’s position, because they’ll help him to further undermine the Catholic faith, the very job he is so good at. So don’t think Francis has any qualms or scruples here. He is just doing “under pressure” what he intended to do all along.

      Reply
    • The communist church doesn’t have Apostolic Succession so it is a DEMONIC Fake Church! Frankie likes Marxist Fake Church!

      Reply
    • Christopher Ferrara has an excellent article on Fatima Network: ” Vatican Betrayal”

      Now I see more and more of the ineptness and weakness of recent past popes.
      It stifles the mind.

      Reply
  11. So a legitimate Bishop was asked by Rome to give over his stewardship to a “Bishop” appointed by the government? Might as well ask him to give up his faith and soul as well. I guess the lives of the martyrs mean nothing just like testimonies of the abuse victims

    Reply
    • If the government of the United States demanded that liberal bishops in the US be relieved of duty and be replaced by presbyters from the Society of St Pius X, I think we know Francis would not entertain the possibility. It is the demand to replace faithful bishops with Communists that the Vatican wants to surrender to.

      Reply
      • Strangle us, spit on us, smack us, slander us, kick us, drag us, kill us….none of this, will ever remove The Church and The Truth that presides over The Church for all eternity..

        Reply
      • What is your point saying that this has happened before? Is it that if a bad thing has happened before, than it’s not as bad as if it were the first time it happened, ever? Or that we should only have outrage the first time something bad happens and all subsequent bad events that are similar should be accepted as the norm and should by no means justify any distress?

        Reply
        • I’ve been down the road of presuming the worst motive out of every action Francis does and it’s not good for the soul. Trads are particularly vulnerable to assuming the worst about this papacy.
          The reality is rooted in pragmatism than apostasy. By recognizing 6 or 7 “Party” Bishops (one has died), the Chinese government will recognize up to 60 from the currently underground Church, which will allow Catholicism to come out of the shadows and set roots before Protestant heresy flourishes. Should he? Will the 6 be orthodox or moles? Can they be rehabilitated? I’m not sure, but it seems to be a net positive overall, though I would clearly prefer he not make this move and stayed along the previous mind of Cardinal Zen. As I can’t influence it, either way, I will pray for a good outcome and offer reparation for the injustice of the deposal of the “good” bishops and that it be righted.

          Reply
          • the party bishops supports abortion to go along with the chinese communist party’s agenda. what’s the cost to alter one’s faith? A whole lot more “fake” followers with generous donations? When a religious sect calls itself patriotic association and asks the Pope in Rome to severe its tie with the churches in Taiwan and recognize communist party as the representation of china. you know they are more about spreading communism around the world, instead of spreading Catholicism
            https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bx4UPI1L-3U&t=11s

  12. It was the persecuted Church which brought my husband and I back to the Catholic Church in 2007. We have supported them ever since and through Aid to the Church in Need. This really bothers me. This is betrayal of every martyr that ever was. I know the old French kings did have a time when they insisted on choosing or confirming the French Bishops and this was a difficulty with the Pope of the day; but they didn’t make Catholic martyrs or persecute Catholics. At least the French Kings were Catholics, their demands weren’t right but this Chinese affair is an another league altogether.

    This Pontificate is a political pontificate…it is very corrupting.

    Reply
  13. A grandfather tells his elder son : “I request – and will soon demand – that you abandon your very own family as father so that the known abusive ( and wealthy ) man that has hunted your children for years may establish a possible business tie with me. If that means that a number of your children will be abused, well know that I am heartbroken, see?”

    Reply
  14. The persecution of faithful lay persons and clergy and religious continues by the heretical modernist ones in high places. They HATE holiness!

    Reply
  15. I’ve been working in provincial China for the past ten months. Some observations, just for readers’ interest:

    1. A comment below says that Marxism has ruled in the Vatican since 2013. Nonsense – it goes way back, to the deliberate placement of Communists and homosexuals into the priesthood in the 1930s and after by the Soviets. All we see in the Church now is the fruit of that – apostasy, heresies on all sides, doctrinal and liturgical meltdown, the pandering to tyrannical regimes on the left (Venezuela is the latest). The infiltration saw its victory in the Metz Agreement under John XXIII and the refusal of the evidently (to me, at least) false Council Vatican II to condemn even the greatest obvious evil of its time – Communism. Rome is still wedded to its “Ostpolitik”, to the great harm of the Church and Faith.
    2. Just as Cardinals Slipji and Midzenty (and others) were thrown to the wolves by Paul VI, so Bergoglio is doing the same to the brave Catholics of the Underground Church.
    3. Since I have been here, I have tried to study the Chinese closely. They are an easy-going, hospitable people soaked in the superstitious paganism of Buddhism coloured by the actively-taught atheism of the Party through school indoctrination and total TV control. I have met some Christians, albeit the “half” or “quarter” Christian of a local Evangelical group. I’ve been able to give a blessed crucifix and a Rosary to one such person which is about the most useful thing I’ve done since I’ve been here. I asked this person how I would go about finding the Underground Catholic Church here – she didn’t have a clue. There is a Patriotic Association Catholic Church where I am but I have not been near it, as they are schismatics and Scripture forbids us to have anything to do with such people.

    Reply
    • Fr. Hesse said that LeFebvre named 1958 as the “year zero” of the revolution only because knew that almost nobody could handle the truth. Namely: Leo XIII’s Sec’y of State was a Freemason, and would have become Pope except that the Emperor vetoed him, and that under BXV, and the two Piuses, the liturgy was heavily damaged, and the Church was a shambles when Pius XII died. Obviously, the rot was under the surface.

      Reply
      • Agreed. In retrospect, the entire liturgical reform of the 20th century all began with Leo XIII’s commission, largely executed by St. Pius X. While undoubtedly personally holy and orthodox, his precedents for the sole use of papal authority in his breviary reform paved the way for Paul VI to do the same thing to the Missal.

        Reply
    • When we visited China during my Senior year of high school, we were there on a Sunday. I had told my parents I was going to find an Underground church to attend but they advised me against it. Honestly, I did not even know the first place to look. I was surprised as we walked through Beijing and Shanghai that I saw a crucifix and a few images of Our Lady for sale. Maybe I should have asked the person selling them, but I could say almost nothing in Chinese. One of my companions on the trip was an Evangelical Protestant and he told me he had brought along a Bible in Chinese that he planned to leave in our hotel room for someone to find. I’m not sure if he did that or not but one of our last night’s at the hotel we ran into a Chinese Christian who had returned to China to be a missionary. He spoke English so we talked to him for a little bit, told him that we would pray for him. I have no idea what ever happened to him.

      Reply
      • I’m not surprised that you couldn’t find an Underground parish. I’m sure they are very careful about keeping it secret. After all that is the whole idea of being underground. No way could anyone in public find it. If they could, the Chinese government would raid the place in minutes and shut them down.

        Their situation is probably similar to the Recusants, and I think they have to constantly move around, and change Mass times at the last moment, to avoid being tracked. And they probably have some method of greeting each other in order to detect infiltrators.

        As for how they joined, I would think that most of them are descendants of the original members, so they have access to this assembly. If one is not related to a member, my guess is that you would only find out about it from previous members, who went “patriotic.”

        Reply
  16. Of all the news I’ve heard over the past months, this is perhaps the saddest. Millions have Catholics have been delivered into the hands of the communists.

    St. Pius X, pray for us!

    Reply
      • God give us the strength and the GRACE to withstand the assaults yet to come from this evil depraved papacy. The time of ‘mercy’ is quickly morphing into the time of ‘justice’.

        Reply
  17. I think the closing is overly optimistic:

    Pray for China’s Catholics. We are all weary and heartbroken by the scandal of the present pontificate, but theirs is a suffering far more tangible than most of us will likely ever experience.

    This is going to be the fate of all who look to Pope Frankie the Evil for leadership. He’s not a shepherd. He’s a wolf. He’s not here to guide us, or protect us. He’s here to feed us to his overlords in Hell.

    Frankly, I think Pope Frankie the Evil is no longer as disrespectful or as accurate as it can be. Maybe Pope Francifur is better?

    I don’t care if he’s validly elected, the one true Pope, or anything else. He’s an anti-Christian pope. There is no room for any reasonable doubt.

    Reply
  18. Ah… the fruits of Dialogue and Ecumenism!

    Remember folks, that these ‘bishops’ will be eligible and voting in the next conclave!

    But considering the Marxist leanings of Western bishops, it probably wouldn’t make much of a difference from the batch we’ve already got!

    Our Lady of Fatima was right.

    Every other moron who bet against her was wrong. And every moron that still pretends the 84 Consecration of the world was satisfactory to meet what was demanded of by God Himself needs a lobotomy alongside a token Pontifical Order of St. Gregory the Great medal for your efforts helping to cover up for the regime.

    Reply
    • Of course, they would need to be cardinals.

      IIRC, these “patriotic” bishops are all, or mostly, living in concubinage, or gay, etc.

      Reply
    • Hard words, but fair, on the defenders of the 84 consecration.

      Scant consolation, but at least Chinese Marxists have no time at all for the LGBT+ agenda.

      Reply
  19. Are there precedents for this in the history of the church?

    I feel like we are being flooded with pro-leftist and un-catholic moves right now.

    Reply
    • Closest I can think of was when the Pope told the Cristeros to disarm and blindly trust the government.

      But in that case the Pope was at least honestly gullible.

      Reply
    • The precedent of the good Bishop’s “disobedience” in refusing to step down and resign in favor of an illegitimate bishop can be found in Archbishop Lefebvre. His “disobedience” was in the case of emergency and well-founded; just as this Chinese Bishop’s is.
      In the future, the Pope will only recognize successors to the illegitimate Bishops; while refusing legitimate successors to the true underground Bishops. This raises the specter of +Lefebvre yet again. Would they be in the right or in the wrong to act in the case of such an emergency?

      Obviously, they would be justified in ordaining Bishops outside of the Pope’s support.

      Reply
      • Very well said, tallorder.

        You could only improve on this by handing over the keys to a Lamborghini (a 1960s 350GT, please – these days, they only make batmobiles).

        Reply
  20. There have, of course, been wicked popes in the history of the Church; men who led lives of self-indulgence and wanton dissipation. Bu I doubt if any of them gave so much as a single thought to the good of the Church. I’m sure none of them had the deliberate intention of re-modeling the Church in their own corrupt image and likeness. I’m sure not a single one of them entertained such a though. But in the case of Jorge Mario Bergoglio, this is the sole raison d’etre of his ‘ponticate’. His crimes, and the crimes of those responsible for his being there, are far, far more egregious and evil.

    Reply
  21. Donald Trump is standing between the innocent, and the Satanists in the government, the Vatican, the hierarchy and the clergy, the press, academe, etc., which is why they rage against him with unprecedented malice.

    Reply
  22. Glad Bergoglio was not Pope when lech waleasa and k. Wojitwa bishop in Cracow Poland were struggling against repression of Gen Jaruzelski and red Russia…. This China cowardice along with Luther statues and stamps at the Vatican is SHOWING Bergoglio Francis wayward papacy promoting a cino scarcely Roman or Catholic Church ……. Homosexuals pederast clergy cover ups in Argentina, Honduras ,Italy-involio ,Ireland – Farrell,,Belgium-Daneels, Germany , France and the Vatican itself . Things go from bad to awful there to say the least.

    Reply
  23. My initial reaction is to follow the money… the German Catholic Church took in 7.1 Billion Dollars in taxed tithing from the German Government.. the Faithful Underground Bishops and Cardinals in China are poor…the Chinese Patriotic Church is well funded.. on every level,the vatican and Pope Francis have sold out the faithful for money or political favor…it makes sense right , just imagine one of those effeminate priests or bishops that loiter around Francis being told to renounce our faith or they will be martyred like St Thomas More..impossible for that to happen now, they would have to have faith to begin with . what a joke.. posers and fakers..I guess we should really pray for their souls..God knows all…

    Reply
  24. When I go to confession as of late, it seems that my confessor in a certain sense makes light of my offenses. Not that I do of course, but it’s the sense I get from him. And then I wonder if he may be so dumbstruck at the offenses WITHIN the Church that mine seem more like little ‘character flaws’ and not really sins after all. I sometimes imagine him saying: ‘What you see going on in Rome….now THOSE are REAL offenses.” One time not long ago, he forgot to give me any penance at all!! (but I said a Rosary at adoration) Of course, as anyone can see, there is a real DANGER in this thinking but it’s almost human nature to sometimes think this way. All I care about is that he give me absolution which thank the dear Lord he always does, but even our priests are being ‘desensitized’ by the EVIL going on. The EVIL is so profound, so gargantuan and so SATANIC and it happens almost on an hourly basis as of late. Please dear Lord, through the crowning of thorns, help us to think with the way YOU THINK!!!

    Reply
  25. Bergoglio is an evil man. I don’t want to hear any talk about “his love of the poor” or his “good heart.” He is truly a malevolent reprobate.

    Reply
  26. Is Guam the new Patmos? Seems like that is the favorite for Francis to exile those whom he disfavors. It’s funny though because my brother-in-law, who was stationed there with the Air Force, says it’s a beautiful place to live.

    That being said…what a slap in the face to all the faithful Catholics who remained loyal to the Pope and suffered grave persecution for not accepting bishops consecrated without his approval to now have the Pope offering recognition to those same “bishops.”

    Reply
  27. The Catholic Patriotic Association is not Catholic, and was officially condemned by Pius XII in 1957. They’re a communist-front organization.

    Reply
    • Exactly. This is the equivalent of approving Atheists as the appointers of Bishops, who are themselves agents of the Atheists and are Atheists themselves. Wait a minute this isn’t the equivalent of that, this is what this is… This Gallicanism and Lay Investiture on Steroids…

      Reply
  28. While regretful, it seems the gnashing of teeth is a bit… overstated and this more resembles the Concordat of 1801 than even Paul VI’s and Cardinal Mindzenty.

    Reply
    • I’m not well informed enough on the Chinese situation to have an independent opinion, but I do know the two points of comparison you mention. If you’re able to take a moment to expand a little on this, Uxi, I’d be interested to see what you have to say.

      Reply
    • I’ve just spotted that in a comment far below, you do actually expand on this, Uxi, and I take your point regarding the Concordat.

      Reply
  29. My family will add a Chaplet of Divine Mercy each day for an end to this persecution, both by the Chinese government and by the Holy Father. Remember: “In the end, my Immaculate Heart will triumph”

    Reply
    • But in the end satan and his communism will be crushed under the heel of Mary. Don’t stop hoping and praying. It will be a glorious Triumph.

      Reply
  30. This is not only a betrayal of the underground Catholic Church in China, but in a certain sense a betrayal of the blessed martyrs of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church and all who suffered – and still suffer – under Communism.

    Our Ukrainian Greek Catholic clergy and faithful either went underground or to the gulags. Holy martyrs like Blessed Nicholas Charnetsky, Blessed Vasyl Velychovsky (his shrine: http://www.bvmartyrshrine.com), Blessed Tarsykia and all the holy martyrs who died rather than betray Christ and His One True Church will accompany Our Lord on Judgement Day.

    Today is the feast of St. Gregory the Theologian. Gospel: John 10:9-16.

    O Holy Father Gregory the Theologian, pray to God for us sinners!

    Reply
  31. So many excellent comments here. These are unique and dangerous times.

    I cannot fathom the sense of betrayal being suffered by the faithful Catholics in China. Additionally, brushing aside all of the pettyfogging and/or obfuscating arguments to the contrary, is this betrayal any worse than the refusal to carry out the request of the Mother of God to Consecrate Russia to Her Immaculate Heart ??

    Matthew 24:22 22″If those days had not been cut short, no one would survive, but for the sake of the elect those days will be shortened. Please God, intervene, have mercy on us.

    Reply
  32. The weakening with reagards to China started under Pope Benedict. Under his pontificate, The Vatican started to give approval and recognition to bishops of the schismatic Patriotic church orginazation. Make no mistake, the church is a schismatic one that is completely under the control of the Communist state. Pope Benedict’s wish was to see “one church” in China. The Patriotic church with the underground Catholic Church loyal to the Pope and the Church, he saw as basically compromising “one church.”

    Now with Pope Francis, we see the underground church completely thrown under the bus in favor of the Communist controlled one. The Vatican and Pope Francis have made their choice and it is a schismatic church that China will still control. China will continue toy and play with the Vatican.

    Reply
  33. The bishop of Rome is infatuated with anything socialist/marxist. He cannot look away from the hammer and sickle. It is no threat to PF, it is his friend.

    Reply

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