The National Catholic Register reports that Human Rights Watch has documented escalating Chinese Communist Party persecution of underground Catholics, with researcher Yalkun Uluyol stating that the 2018 Holy See-China agreement has “provided an overarching structure for the authorities to pressure underground Catholics.” The report claims nine witnesses said the agreement left them “no other choice but to join the official church” and that those remaining underground “felt betrayed by the Vatican.” Hudson Institute fellow Nina Shea called the Vatican’s China policy “disastrous,” noting that “faithful Catholic bishops are subjected by the government to being disappeared, detained indefinitely without due process.” The article concludes by noting that Pope Benedict XVI’s designated May 24 World Day of Prayer for the Church in China has been “virtually forgotten” by the Vatican. This report exposes the inevitable fruit of the conciliar sect’s policy of dialogue with persecutors rather than defending the faith — a policy rooted in the modernist abandonment of the Church’s divine mission and the public reign of Christ the King.
The 2018 Agreement: A Modernist Capitulation to Persecutors
The Human Rights Watch report confirms what Catholic doctrine has always taught: compromise with persecutors of the faith inevitably leads to the destruction of the faithful. The 2018 agreement between the Holy See and the Chinese Communist Party represents not merely a diplomatic failure, but a fundamental betrayal of the Church’s divine constitution and mission.
Pius XI taught in Quas Primas that “the Church, established by Christ as a perfect society, demands for itself by a right belonging to it, which it cannot renounce, full freedom and independence from secular authority.” The 2018 agreement directly contradicts this teaching by effectively recognizing the Chinese Communist Party’s authority over the appointment of bishops — a power that belongs exclusively to the Holy See by divine right.
The witnesses’ testimony that the agreement “provided an overarching structure for the authorities to pressure underground Catholics” reveals the true nature of this arrangement. Rather than securing religious freedom, the agreement has provided the CCP with a framework to systematically eliminate all Catholic resistance to state control. This is the inevitable consequence of the conciliar sect’s abandonment of the Church’s divine mission in favor of diplomatic accommodation with persecutors.
The Abandonment of Underground Catholics: A Modernist Betrayal
The report’s finding that underground Catholics “felt betrayed by the Vatican” is a damning indictment of the conciliar sect’s policy. These faithful Catholics have suffered persecution, imprisonment, and even death rather than submit to the state-controlled Chinese Patriotic Catholic Association. Their sacrifice has been rendered meaningless by an agreement that effectively legitimizes the very system they resisted.
This betrayal flows directly from the modernist principles enshrined in Vatican II’s Dignitatis Humanae, which proclaimed the right to religious freedom — a concept condemned by Pius IX in the Syllabus of Errors (proposition 77: “In the present day it is no longer expedient that the Catholic religion should be held as the only religion of the State, to the exclusion of all other forms of worship”). The conciliar sect’s commitment to “dialogue” with persecutors, rather than their condemnation, has left faithful Catholics defenseless.
Nina Shea’s observation that “faithful Catholic bishops are subjected by the government to being disappeared, detained indefinitely without due process” highlights the human cost of this betrayal. The agreement has not protected these bishops; it has facilitated their persecution by providing the CCP with a veneer of legitimacy.
The Forgotten Day of Prayer: Symptomatic of Modernist Apostasy
Shea’s comment that Pope Benedict XVI’s designated May 24 World Day of Prayer for the Church in China has been “virtually forgotten in the last years” is particularly revealing. This neglect is not merely an oversight; it is symptomatic of the conciliar sect’s fundamental orientation away from the defense of the faith and toward accommodation with its enemies.
The abandonment of this day of prayer reflects the broader modernist project of minimizing conflict with secular powers. As Pius XI warned in Quas Primas, “the secularism of our times, so-called laicism, its errors and wicked endeavors” began with “the denial of Christ the Lord’s reign over all nations.” The conciliar sect’s refusal to robustly pray for persecuted Catholics in China is a direct consequence of its denial of Christ’s royal authority over all nations, including communist China.
The Theological Roots of the Betrayal
The 2018 agreement and its devastating consequences for Chinese Catholics are not merely political failures; they are the inevitable fruit of the theological revolution that has transformed the Catholic Church into the conciliar sect. The modernist principles of religious freedom, ecumenism, and dialogue with the world — all condemned by St. Pius X in Pascendi Dominici Gregis and Lamentabili Sane Exitu — have created a Church incapable of defending its own faithful against persecution.
The conciliar sect’s policy toward China is a logical extension of its fundamental apostasy. A Church that has denied its own divine constitution, that has abandoned the social reign of Christ the King, that has embraced religious indifferentism, cannot possibly defend the faith against communist persecution. The betrayal of Chinese Catholics is not an aberration; it is the natural fruit of the modernist revolution.
Conclusion: The Call to Faithful Resistance
The persecution of Chinese Catholics, facilitated by the 2018 agreement, is a stark reminder of the consequences of the conciliar sect’s apostasy. The faithful who have resisted the state-controlled church, who have suffered imprisonment and death for their fidelity to Rome, have been sacrificed on the altar of modernist diplomacy.
The true Church — the Church of all ages, founded by Christ as a perfect society with full freedom and independence from secular authority — cannot and will not abandon its faithful to persecutors. The conciliar sect’s betrayal of Chinese Catholics is yet another proof that it is not the true Church of Christ, but a modernist counterfeit that has abandoned the faith for the sake of diplomatic accommodation with the enemies of God.
As Pius XI declared in Quas Primas, “the annual celebration of this solemnity will also remind states that not only private individuals, but also rulers and governments have the duty to publicly honor Christ and obey Him.” The Chinese Communist Party’s persecution of Catholics is a direct violation of this duty, and the conciliar sect’s failure to condemn it vigorously is a betrayal of Christ the King Himself.
Source:
China Pressures Underground Catholics to Join State Church, Rights Group Says (ncregister.com)
Date: 17.04.2026