Communist states are famous for their atheism while Christianity is renowned for being evangelical. What happens when the two collides?
In China, the
result became a development of a Chinese Catholic church that obeys not the
pope or the Holy See, but instead, the Chinese government. How was this
organization formed? Why were the priests willing to acknowledge the
Chinese government's sovereignty over religion? Let’s find out
together.
Introduction
The
People’s Republic of China (PRC), founded upon atheist Marxist principles, is
inherently in conflict with religion. However,
the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) had preferred control, instead of eradication,
of Catholicism in China. This led to the
CCP’s creation of a Chinese state-sponsored institutional body to lead the
Catholic masses. Furthermore, the
creation of the CCP controlled Catholic Church, the Chinese Catholic Patriotic
Association (CCPA), remains a source of friction between it and the universal
Roman Catholic organization. In order
for one to truly understand the exact reasons behind this conflict, it is
critical to understand the process with which the organization has formed. Hence, I aim to delineate the early history of
the CCPA’s formation and elucidate the process with which the CCP had created a
Catholic body outside of the Vatican’s jurisdiction.
Background
Christianity,
a European religion, had been sending missionaries into China for many years
but these were unsubstantial prior to the 19th century. However, particular renowned examples had
existed, such as the work of Jesuit missionary Matteo Ricci (1552 – 1610) during
Emperor Wanli (reigned 1573 – 1619) of Ming Dynasty’s reign. Jesuit Christian missionaries from this era,
Ricci included, tended to accommodate Catholic Canon into the context of the
Chinese society in an attempt to domesticate the religion for increased ease of
conversion. In other words, this was an
attempt to adapt Christianity to China which, in terms of both culture and
religion, was built upon secular Confucian teaching that advocated ancestor
worship that had, in an ironic twist, evolved into folk religion. This caused a controversy amongst the
different factions within the Church climaxing in the debate deemed ‘Rites
Issue’ or ‘Rites Controversy’.
 |
| Matteo Ricci interacting with Chinese literati - Source: AsiaNews |
To
summarize, the controversy was concerned with the designation of Confucian
ancestral worship or cult-veneration of Confucius himself. The situation could be observed and analyzed
in two ways – the first looking upon such issues as a secular demonstration of reverence
and the second deeming these customs a form of pagan ritual. Ultimately, the Pope Clement XI ruled that these
acts were pagan in nature and forbade their execution by Chinese Christians. Unfortunately, the Pontiff’s ruling effectively
doomed the Jesuit’s attempts to convert the Chinese populace. If viewed from a pure conversion perspective,
the Jesuit mission was rendered an utter failure despite successes in the
translation and relative proliferation of Western scholarly work to the Chinese
literati.
 |
| United States Marines fighting the Boxer rebels - Source: historywiz |
Later
on, the next period of a high profile large-scale attempted conversion occurred
during mid to late 19th century.
Regrettably, attempts at conversion during this period were negatively perceived
by the Chinese populace as they believed that Christianity was converting by
coercion. This belief came from the Western
imperialist invasions of China during this time along with the unfair treaties
that were forced upon China. Both the
populace and the Chinese establishment viewed Christianity with great suspicion
as the missionaries’ acts of charity towards the impoverished masses in the
rural were mis-interoperated as European colonial powers endeavoring in anticipation
of further military incursions into China.
Anti-Christian sentiments erupted in the Boxer Rebellion with massacres
of foreigners, missionaries and indigenous Christians prompting a harsh military
response from the European powers. The
Eight-Nation Alliance’s intervention further convinced the society in general
of the supposed malevolent intent behind the missionaries.
Overall,
past conflicts arising from Christian-Chinese encounters have hindered the
process of conversion within China. With
the establishment of the People’s Republic of China, the misguided perspective
of Christianity being a method of infiltration by the colonial powers were
combined with the intrinsic atheism of Marxism.
Together, the two eroded the confidence of the newly formed China’s
administration leaving a time bomb for Christians that remained unsolved.
Anti-Catholic
Campaigns in Early Communist China
With
Chinese authorities’ anti-religion, and particularly anti-Christian,
sentiments, the fate of the Catholic Church in China was grim after the
formation of the PRC. From 1947 to 1957,
the authorities utilized a strategy of unite
and divide to attack the Chinese
Catholic church. (For those who are
confused as to how the communists begun influencing the religious policies of
China before its successful unification in 1949, you must understand even
before they conquered the entirety of mainland China, they controlled large
tracts of territory within the state) Essentially, this strategy meant amalgamating
with the more powerful faction to overcome the weaker one while collaborating
with friendly allies against antagonistic enemies. They also targeted different groups at
different times in order to lessen the opposition to their persecution further
improving the efficacy of their sinister scheme.
 |
| Antonio Riberi - Source: Florida International University |
Foreign missionaries or clergy, indigenous
clergy and Catholic congregations were all branded as enemies respectively and
persecuted with major campaigns beginning in 1951. Foreign missionaries and other foreign ecclesiastical
staff were considered the greatest threat due to the CCP’s xenophobic nature as
a result of global antagonism because of Chinese participation in the Korean
War. As such, they became the first
group to be targeted in their anti-Catholic campaign. The expulsion of missionaries was simple and
followed an established pattern. After
accusing a particular foreign individual of espionage or other crimes, they
were first imprisoned, then interrogated and deported shortly afterwards. The most noteworthy incident was the
deportation of the Papal Internuncio Archbishop Antonio Riberi, which had
appointed Nuncio to China in 1946, in 1952.
His deportation along with the expulsion his entourage of diplomatic
staff was critical behind the severing all diplomatic ties between the Holy See
and China which, as of the writing of this assignment, have yet to be resumed.
Subsequently,
with the majority of foreign clergy deported or imprisoned, the government
began coercing the Chinese clergy to conformation with the state-sponsored
Patriotic Associations. The notion that
loyalty to the Vatican was integral to their faith was instilled in their
education rendering their decision regarding whether to concede to the CCP’s
pressure a potentially fatal quagmire. The
repercussions from both sides were severe.
While the CCP threatened the local clergy with physical penalties such
as imprisonment, the Vatican had stated that excommunication would be used as a
punishment for those who conformed. Unfortunately,
despite its unwavering stance, the Vatican was unable to aid the pressured
Chinese clergy. Despite this, certain
members of the clergy courageously remained stout in their position. Even so, the continuous pressure and hostile
action from the government impacted the majority of the religious staff and their
following. By the late 1957, the institutional church that had remained faithful
to the Vatican was left in shatters.
The
Chinese Catholic Patriotic Association
The
pressure on the Catholic society was lessened slightly during the relatively
liberal Hundred Flowers Movement in 1956, but had resumed with zealous by
1957. By this time, the Catholic
congregations, with its church institutionally defunct and increasing number of
Catholics joining the state-sponsored position due to the Hundred Flowers
Movement, had few options remaining. In
order to maintain their faith, the Catholic masses had little choice but to adapt
a different path for itself that would allow not only the survival of
Catholicism but also growth in a hostile anti-religion Communist China. The method through which this could be
accomplished was ingeniously provided by the CCP during this period of
hardship, ironically caused by the party itself, by an organization named the
National Catholic Patriotic Association (NCPA) comprised of both ordained
church staff and laymen.
The
NCPA’s establishment marked the beginning of complete pseudo-autonomy for the
Chinese Catholic in the sense that membership required one to forsake all
relations with the Vatican. This also
marked the beginning of governmental control over the Catholic Church in
China. After two NPCA meetings, its
leadership organized a convention on July 7th, 1957 named First
National Meeting of Delegates of Chinese Catholic Faithful that issued a
charter which begun the Catholic Faithful Patriotic Association. The organization was renamed the Chinese Catholic
Patriotic Association (CCPA) in 1962 during the Second National Meeting.
Bishop
Sushi Pi of Liaoning province, based in its capital city Shenyang, was
democratically elected by the members of the association as the chairman of
this new Chinese Catholic organization. An
important feature of its establishment was its intention to maintain a
separation between religion and secular politics. This would diminish the threat that religion
posed upon the state and therefore, remove the CCP’s motivation to eradicate
Chinese Catholicism. This notion was
captured by Bishop Pi’s argument that patriotism is an external expression of
obeying God’s Commandment. These
arguments, despite their palpable connection with propaganda, have allowed the
CCPA to propagate in Communist China continuing the Catholic faith in China. However, this supposed “separation” of
religion from politics caused fundamental controversial issue for the Catholics
– the state, instead of the Holy See, governs the institution of the Catholic
order in China.
 |
| Priests of the CCPA - Source: Catholic News Agency |
Consequences
of the Establishment of the CCPA
While
the creation of the CCPA enabled the survival and continued development of the
Catholicism in China, besides the obvious issue of the CCPA’s violation of
Catholic institution, two problems arose from its establishment. Firstly, it caused a split in the Catholic
community between those who concede to renouncing affiliation with the Vatican
and those who are unwilling. Secondly,
with uncompromising positions on both sides, a resumption of diplomatic
relations between the PRC and the Holy See remains impossible. The presence of these problems has haunted
the CCPA since its formation and will continue to do so for the foreseeable
future.
As aforementioned,
the arrangement of having a secular leadership, the state, within the Catholic
organization was deemed unacceptable by some of the Catholics. This
position echoed the one from the Holy See which reprimanded all bishops who
supported the CCPA. Their resolute spirit
of martyrdom was unwilling to kowtow to the state in exchange for religious
impunity. Instead, they retained their
connection with the Vatican and remained loyal towards the Pope as the patriarch
of Catholicism.
These
Catholics were forced to retreat underground and sowed the seeds for the underground
church. To clarify, the underground church
has little or no institutional features and therefore, is not an actual
organization. Instead, congregations
gathered around Vatican-ordained bishops and conducted their ceremonies in
small groups within their own homes. However,
this Underground Church did not receive recognition even by the Holy See until
1978 when it was sanctioned under ecclesiastical law.
These circumstances
have led to the existence of two distinct groups of Catholics with one being
the state sanctioned CCPA and the other a small underground pseudo-organization
bound together only by their loyalty towards the Holy See and the Pontiff. Interestingly, the issue of loyalty towards the
Vatican is perhaps the only difference between the two groups. According to Doctor Jean-Paul Wiest, a
leading authority on China-Holy See relations, the religious doctrine between
the two groups is basically identical.
Institutionally speaking, the Chinese government views the Pope not
merely as a religious leader, but also a foreign head of state. Hence, bishops of CCPA are forbidden to have
contact with either His Holiness or the Vatican, which is technically viewed as
a foreign government although there are exceptions but these remain rare
instances.
With the
CCP’s intervention within the Catholicism, the Vatican is understandably offended. This had left a lasting schism in the
relationship between Beijing and the Holy See.
Official diplomatic relations between the two have ceased since the
expulsion of Archbishop Riberi in 1952. There
are three general factors, in the perspective of either the Vatican or Beijing
respectively, that made reconciliation between two impossible during the 1950s
and 1960s. Firstly, the Chinese government
is unlikely to engage in friendly conversations with the Holy See because of
its anti-American sentiments caused by the Korean War. This had led to antagonism between China and
the Vatican, which the Chinese government views as a ‘lackey’ of Washington.
On the
other hand, the Vatican was also unwilling to negotiate with Beijing because of
its animosity towards communism. The
then-Incumbent Pope Pius XII, who have had strained relations with Soviet Union
in the past, openly acknowledges his aversion of communism. However, it is important to note that he is
an advocate of peace co-existence between communist powers and Western
democracies. Thirdly, the existence of
the CCPA, with its policies of consecration and ordination of bishops and
priests without Papal approval, further enrages senior clergy in the Holy See. Of the three factors, this issue had remained at
the heart of the conflict between the Holy See and had been and remains the
most fundamental problem.
Conclusion
Overall,
the early history of the CCPA had resulted in a resounding success, at the
expense of the Vatican and Catholics loyal to the Holy See, for CCP’s wish to
hinder all potential dissent. Through
atrocious acts of human rights violation and false accusations, Beijing was
able to destroy the pre-existing Catholic institutional organization within
China and establish another, the CCPA, with themselves as the leaders through coercion
and threats. Fortunately, this had also
allowed for the survival of Catholicism within China. Through continued strides towards freedom and
liberalization, the Chinese government will hopefully permit greater religious
freedom and permit the propagation of Catholicism under the control of the
official clerical body. With
Sino-Vatican relations thawed and beginning to warm, this may become achievable
in the foreseeable future.
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