Vatican–China Contentious Accord: How the Holy See Is Appeasing a Communist Regime

Lord David Alton of Liverpool, a prominent member of the House of Lords in the UK, recently condemned the 2018 provisional agreement between the Holy See and the People’s Republic of China (PRC) as a “deal with the devil,” highlighting its complicity in “gross violations” of religious freedom and its resultant betrayal of the underground Church in the nation.

“In the case of the Chinese Communist regime, it is making a deal with the devil—a regime that has committed genocide against Uyghur Muslims and persecutes Tibetan Buddhists, Falun Gong practitioners, and Chinese Christians,” Alton said. 

The provisional deal between the Holy See and the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), whose details remain undisclosed, concerns a possible integration with the state-sanctioned Chinese Catholic Patriotic Association (CCPA). The CCPA was established in 1957 under the orders of Mao Zedong and is managed by the CCP’s United Front Work Department, aiming to align Catholicism with communist ideology. By early 1958, Beijing had illegally appointed its initial group of bishops without the Holy See’s consultation. In June of that year, Pope Pius XII released his encyclical Ad Apostolorum Principis, in which he denounced China’s “parallel” Church and refused to acknowledge any episcopal consecrations conducted by the CCPA without prior Vatican approval. From the information available, it can also be inferred that this agreement reinforces the CCP’s supreme authority to appoint bishops and to dissolve or establish dioceses in China—the Pope merely endorses the Party’s decisions.

Catholics who stayed loyal to Rome were driven underground, operating in secrecy. A significant figure from this era was the late Roman Catholic Bishop of Shanghai and Apostolic Administrator of Suzhou and Nanking, Cardinal Ignatius Kung Pin-Mei. Even now, these Catholics persist as an “underground” Church, which the Vatican no longer endorses because of the provisional agreement. Many priests, nuns, and laypeople continue to suffer imprisonment, torture, and, in certain instances, even execution for their unwillingness to conform to the CCP’s institutional Church. 

Despite any intentions the Vatican may have had in its efforts to unify Catholics from the CCPA, it was evident at the time of the agreement’s signing, that China, under General Secretary Xi Jinping, was operating in a highly repressive manner, particularly regarding religious freedom. Chinese authorities consistently suppress the rights to freedom of expression, association, assembly, and religion, while also targeting government critics. The increased ideological control exerted by the CCP has been paired with severe forced assimilation of Tibetans and Uyghurs, alongside the enforcement of a stringent national security framework in Hong Kong. There has been a lack of accountability for crimes against humanity in Xinjiang, where several hundred thousand Uyghurs continue to be unjustly detained according to a 2026 Human Rights Watch report. Essentially, Xi Jinping aims to sinicize all of his subjects, which amounts to nothing less than the complete subjugation—or rather, the indoctrination—of the members belonging to the aforementioned religious groups to align with the CCP’s political agenda and Marxist vision for religion.

This is not the first time the Vatican seeks an accord with a Communist country. This occurred during the Cold War, specifically the papacies of John XXIII (1958–1963) and Paul VI (1963–1978). In what had been characterised as Ostpolitik, Rome engaged in diplomacy with Communist regimes while overlooking the internal religious persecution faced by Catholics and other Christians. As part of its appeasement measures, the Holy See consented to cease all public denunciations of atheist communist ideology and allowed each government to control its ecclesiastical matters. 

Alongside the breach of agreements on the part of the Communists, Ostpolitik led to the infiltration of the Vatican by Communist intelligence agencies, such as the Soviet KGB, the East German Stasi, the Czechoslovak StB, the Polish SB, and the Hungarian ÁVH. Dissenting voices, like that of Cardinal József Mindszenty, the Archbishop-Prince of Esztergom and Primate-Regent of Hungary, were suppressed—Mindszenty was arrested and tortured on accusations of “subversive activity.”  

Communism is intrinsically evil. Beyond advocating for an atheistic ideology, Communist governments have been responsible for some of the deadliest occurrences in modern history, with estimates suggesting that approximately 100 million people lost their lives under Communist authority during the 20th century. Additionally, the legacy of this ideology is characterised by economic stagnation, systematic repression of basic freedoms, environmental catastrophes, and the hypocrisy of a ruling elite that contradicts its own principles of a classless society. Moreover, a “peace agreement” with the Church of Rome is unlikely to change the CCP’s oppressive political framework.

The initiatives undertaken by the Chinese government to “sinicize” religions extend beyond merely enforcing stricter regulations; they encompass a reconfiguration of different faiths. This is particularly evident in Catholicism, which has both a structured and systematic theology that promotes Western values, that of inalienable natural rights, and perhaps more troubling for the Chinese authorities, unlike the other religions, we have a supreme leader who is also a head of state: the Pope. Many of the Chinese faithful, because of their unwillingness to participate in the CCPA, continue to be detained. 

Furthermore, in its effort to sinicize the Christian populace, the CCP has taken the extreme measure of producing Bible editions for state-run educational institutions that alter Gospel accounts, including the story of Jesus forgiving the woman caught in adultery as described in the Gospel of St. John. In the sinicized account of the episode, Jesus instead stones her, saying: “I too am a sinner. But if the law could only be executed by men without blemish, the law would be dead.” 

As Lord Alton had expressed not too long ago, one would assume the liberation of jailed Catholic bishops and priests should have been a stipulation for the Vatican’s approval in extending this questionable arrangement. Additionally, the Holy See ought to have insisted on the cessation of the unjust imprisonment of the Hong Kong pro-democracy activist Jimmy Lai, a loyal and deeply devoted Catholic, as a prerequisite—in February he was sentenced to twenty years in prison; the Hong Kong court also issued heavy sentences to six former employees of his now-shuttered newspaper, setting a new standard for the city’s limits on press freedom.

By continuing the agreement with the CCP, the Vatican is essentially supporting its distortion of religious practices and is perilously nearing complicity in the escalating human rights violations within the country. Nevertheless, the Roman authorities have an opportunity to withdraw from the accord. In the very least, the Vatican should disclose its agreement with China, guarantee the protection of religious freedom, and urge Beijing to withdraw charges and liberate Jimmy Lai and others. If the Catholic community in China vis-à-vis the “underground Church” has been able to continue advocating for justice and human rights in the face of decades of oppression, Rome can undoubtedly summon the moral fortitude to stand up for them.