China Steps Up Persecution of Christians As Pope Leo Sticks with Secret Vatican Deal
British parliamentarians plead with tight-lipped pontiff to speak out on Catholic media baron’s incarceration
Communist China is intensifying its crackdown on Chinese Catholics who conscientiously object to a pact between Rome and Beijing. Meanwhile, Pope Leo XIV shows no signs of ending the clandestine deal Pope Francis struck with China in 2018.
The conscientious objectors are part of the underground Catholic Church, which remains loyal to the Vatican despite its concordat with the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). Critics have slammed that as a betrayal of faithful Catholics and an appeasement of the Communist regime.
The crackdown on the underground church has reached alarming proportions, particularly in the Wenzhou diocese, in the southeastern province of Zhejiang, the blog Bitter Winter reported on July 11.
The surge in persecution began in spring 2025 with the orchestrated arrests of priests, nuns, and lay Catholics. Communist authorities closed churches and coerced the faithful into complying with the state-approved Chinese Patriotic Catholic Association (CPCA).
Communists Target Faithful Bishop
Bishop Peter Shao Zhumin, who is not recognized by Beijing and has refused to register with the CPCA, is the target of the latest crackdown. Shao received an episcopal papal mandate from Pope Benedict XIV in December 2007 and was consecrated as bishop in November 2011.
Communist authorities are attempting to break Shao by leveraging accusations of “illegal migration” against a group of underground clergy and laity who went on a pilgrimage abroad in 2024. The faithful are facing charges of conducting religious activities while on tourist visas.
“The reality is stark: Bishop Shao faces a harrowing ultimatum: align with the Patriotic Church, and detained clergy will be freed; resist, and they risk facing formal charges,” Bitter Winter reported.
According to Asia News, communist authorities threatened the arrested priests and nuns, saying: “If your Bishop Shao converts, they will all be released.” (“Conversion” is CCP-speak for “accepting the principles of the CPCA.”)
The Vatican’s Secretariat of State issued unsigned guidance in 2019 stating that “the Holy See understands and respects the choice of those who, in conscience, decide that they are unable to register under the current conditions.”
Beijing Uses New Regulations to Harass Clergy
When asked how the pilgrimage could be interpreted as “illegal migration” since the participants returned to China, authorities said they had left on tourist visas but participated in religious activities abroad, which “did not correspond” to the stated purpose of the trip.
“If they participated in events that did not conform to tourism, it is up to the country of destination to decide whether this violates the rules, not China,” a source told Asia News. “This is a clear case of fabricated accusations.”
On April 1, the CCP’s National Religious Affairs Administration (NRAA) released 85 new regulations governing the religious activities of foreigners visiting or living in China, The Stream reported. These laws are reinterpreted to target the clergy.
Religious, cultural, and academic exchanges between foreigners in China and Chinese religious groups, religious schools, and religious venues must be conducted only through state-approved religious groups directly under the control of the central government.
The 62-year-old Shao has been arrested multiple times over the years and often “sent on a trip” during Easter or Christmas to prevent him from publicly celebrating the Eucharist. This time, however, the pressure is more intense.
U.K. Parliamentarians Ask Pope to Help Jailed Catholic
On June 21, British parliamentarian Alex Sobel handed a letter to Pope Leo after a special audience for members of the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU), in the Vatican’s Hall of Benediction, calling upon him to stand up for Catholic media baron Jimmy Lai.
The letter, raising concerns over the dire situation of 77-year-old Lai, was signed by several U.K. parliamentarians.
Lai, a devout Catholic, has been incarcerated in solitary confinement for over 1,600 days now and faces life imprisonment for resisting the regime. He has been frequently denied Holy Communion and has not been permitted to attend Eucharistic services in prison.
The parliamentarians’ letter clarified why Lai was being persecuted:
Despite being vilified in the Hong Kong media and relentlessly pursued by hostile authorities with vexatious charges, he is guilty as proven on one simple charge: speaking up for democracy and human rights for all and speaking against Chinese Communist Party (CCP) oppression and their suppression of human rights — the values which St John Paul II fought for in Poland during the communist tyranny there.
The letter appeals to Leo to “raise the case of Jimmy Lai with the Chinese authorities and to seek spiritual assistance for him. He should be allowed to see a priest, to receive Holy Communion, and to attend Mass without any further obstruction.”
The parliamentarians also asked Leo to meet with Lai’s son, Sebastien, to give him a blessing and encouragement to continue his campaign for his father’s freedom. So far, Leo has not responded to any of these requests.
Leo Continues Pope Francis’s Appeasement of China
In May, the newly elected pontiff mentioned China on the occasion of the World Day of Prayer for the Church in China, a marker initiated by Pope Benedict XVI.
“In the churches and shrines of China and throughout the world, prayers were raised to God as a sign of concern and affection for Chinese Catholics and their communion with the universal church,” Leo said at a public audience.
The pope hoped the prayers “obtain for them and for us the grace to be strong and joyful witnesses of the Gospel, even in the midst of trials, to always promote peace and harmony.”
In June, Beijing recognized Bishop Lin Yuntuan, a 73-year-old underground prelate since 2017, who was appointed auxiliary bishop of the Archdiocese of Fuzhou by Leo.
Catholics who hoped this recognition marked a new phase in Rome-Beijing relations will have their optimism crushed by the latest spike in persecution.
A Hudson Institute report published in October 2024 listed 10 Catholic bishops who remain in prison or have “disappeared” for refusing to submit to the CPCA following the signing of the Vatican-CCP in 2018.
That agreement was renewed for a third time last October despite the increasing persecution of Catholics. The Vatican agreed to extend the accord, which permits the CCP to appoint bishops of its choice to Chinese Catholic dioceses, for another four years.
“The Vatican Party remains dedicated to furthering the respectful and constructive dialogue with the Chinese Party, given the further development of bilateral relations for the benefit of the Catholic Church in China and the Chinese people as a whole,” the Holy See Press Office said.
Human Rights Watch is concerned about this. “By renewing a secretive deal with Beijing, the Vatican is effectively endorsing the Chinese government’s perversion of religions and is dangerously close to being complicit in the country’s deepening rights abuses,” it warned.
Originally published in The Stream.
Dr. Jules Gomes (BA, BD, MTh, PhD) has a doctorate in biblical studies from the University of Cambridge. Currently a Vatican-accredited journalist based in Rome, he is the author of five books and several academic articles. Gomes lectured at Catholic and Protestant seminaries and universities and was canon theologian and artistic director at Liverpool Cathedral.
When Francis issued Fiducia Supplicans, he got blowback from the Africans, the Asians, and traditional large families, many who attend the TLM, and who are very pro-life and pro-family (in the sense of a husband and wife and children). Homosexual popes and cardinals prefer "liberal Catholics" who are more open to and supportive of their LGBTQ agenda in keeping with their own homosexual orientation. Before his death, Francis, with the help of Prevost in the Dicastery for Bishops, was appointing homosexual cardinals in Africa and Asia. Try to ID one of the 13 newly created cardinals over the 120 limit who voted in the last conclave who was straight.
I seriously believe it's time for Catholics to reconsider the vision Pope Leo XIII had in the late 19th century in which he saw Jesus give Satan *permission* to *destroy* the Catholic Church within a century. That vision motivated Leo to compose the Prayer to St. Michael the Archangel. Many Catholics believe that 1) Jesus' permission is similar to God's permission for Satan to strike Job and 2) Michael will win. But consider the following:
1. Why would Jesus give His arch enemy permission to destroy the church He ostensibly founded? Perhaps because that church sacrificed its patrimony on the altar of wealth, power, political influence, secular prestige, sexual perversion, intellectual fashion and institutional arrogance?
2 Notice that God didn't give Satan carte blanche with Job; He told Satan not to take Job's life. Jesus, by contrast, is giving Satan carte blanche.
3. If Michael is a loyal subordinate of the Triune God, and if any Person of that Triune God gives Satan permission to do anything, *does anybody seriously believe Michael will countermand that permission?* Where was Michael for Job? Where was Michael for the Israelites captured and sent into exile in Assyria and Babylonia?
4. Why didn't Leo call for mass repentance as the ruler of Nineveh did when Jonah proclaimed destruction within 40 days?
Indeed, the "gates of Hell" do not prevail; read the book of Revelation. Nevertheless, Jesus' promise to that effect does *not* negate His right and responsibility to deal with recalcitrant churches as He sees fit (see Revelation 2-3) -- *especially* if they call themselves the "one true Church" teaching "the fullness of the Gospel."