OPINION:
The level of accommodation now provided by the Church of Rome for communist China would have been thinkable in the recent past (“China’s abandoned Catholics,” Web, Aug. 11).
Yet since 2018, beginning with the pontificate of Pope Francis I, the Catholic Church in China abandoned its position of consecrating bishops while affording the Communist Party, ruler of the Patriotic Church of China, that role.
The 2018 treaty between the Vatican and the Chinese government — in which the late, defrocked Rev. Theodore McCarrick was deeply involved — was opposed by Cardinal Joseph Zen of Hong Kong.
Cardinal Zen insisted that the Chinese government would not comply with the terms of the agreement, and, indeed, he was correct. The Chinese Patriotic Church, entirely the religious branch of the Chinese Communist Party, appointed the new bishop of Shanghai without any consultation of or approval by the Vatican.
It remains to be seen, but it is highly unlikely that the current Pontifex Maximus, Pope Leo XIV, will change that situation. The “Underground Church” of China will continue to suffer the consequences.
VINCENT CHIARELLO
Reston, Virginia
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