Confronting China’s War on Religion Part IV: The Catholic Church | RealClearPolitics
China hasn t had representation in the Holy See since 1951, when Mao broke off diplomatic relations and expelled foreign-born priests. President Xi has made no movement toward diplomatic recognition, and he publicly snubbed the pope when both men were in Kazakhstan last September and the Vatican let it be known that it was open to a meeting. It s not easy to understand the Chinese mentality, Francis told reporters. Refusing to comment on Cardinal Zen, the pope acknowledged, Yes it s true there are things that seem to us undemocratic, but added that although progress might be slow, it always takes steps forward.
To human rights activists, the problem when it comes to religious freedom in China is that the steps seem to be going in reverse. Five years after his 2016 admonition about Sinicization, President Xi tightened the screws. Religious organizations in China must be actively guided to adapt to socialist society, he said. Marxist religious studies must be strengthened, whatever that means, while at the same time members of religious organizations should not interfere with the social life of Chinese young people. In Xi s telling, Sinicization wasn t about priests wearing traditional Chinese robes. It was that religious communities should be controlled and led by the party.
Early last year, an official of the CCP issued an ominous warning: Religions that resist being Sinicized are to be treated as foreign hostile forces & plotting politically to defeat and subvert China, and as such, should be resolutely suppressed and eradicated.
As all this is happening, CCP officials are reportedly engaged in rewriting the Bible (and the Koran) to make them more simpatico with Chinese-style communism.
The CCP probably had to rewrite all that stuff about Thou shall not kill and Honor Thy Father and Mother and add, unless the Party says to, and if the Party says it’s ok, respectively.