Church of the Saviour in Beijing, China / Adobe Stock
CV NEWS FEED // The Holy See has approved the consecration of a Chinese priest from the state-run church in China, Msgr. Matthew Zhen Xuebin, 54, as Coadjutor Bishop of Beijing, AsiaNews reported.
He will succeed Archbishop Joseph Li Shan, president of the schismatic state-run church called the Chinese Catholic Patriotic Association (CCPA), whom Rome appointed bishop of the Catholic Diocese of Beijing without requiring that he renounce his headship of the state-run church.
The appointment of Msgr. Zhen Xuebin as the successor of Archbishop Li Shan comes as the Vatican renewed this month its controversial deal with the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), allowing the atheistic regime to nominate bishops of the Catholic Church in China.
The episcopal consecration of Msgr. Zhen Xuebin is set for Friday, October 25, at the cathedral of the state-run church Saint Saviour (Xishiku Church), led by Archbishop Li Shan.
Msgr. Zhen Xuebin is presently the secretary general and chancellor of the Diocese of Beijing, dealing with its pastoral governance. In the 1990s, he was among the first Chinese seminarians of the schismatic church to study abroad in the U.S.
From 1993 until 1998, he attended St. John’s University in New York City, a private Catholic university affiliated with the Vincentian Fathers. There, he earned degrees in theology and the liturgy before returning to Beijing to be ordained a priest of the CCPA.
A priest (who has asked to remain anonymous to speak freely) familiar with the situation of the Catholic Church in China, often called the underground church because it has been outlawed by the Communist government since the 1950s, has told CatholicVote that the CCP has long sought to obtain the acceptance of the Patriotic Association by the Roman Catholic Church outside of China to maintain tight control of priests and bishops in China and stamp out the underground church.
To advance that effort, according to the source, they began sending priests and seminarians to study abroad in Catholic seminaries in the 1990s, who sought to appear as though they were in full communion with Rome. The name of the Patriotic Association was also changed to include the title “Catholic” to give the appearance of ecclesiastical legitimacy, although the association maintains allegiance to and is controlled by the atheistic CCP.
The persecution of the underground Catholic Church in China has only increased since Rome signed the agreement with the Communist government in Beijing. A Chinese Catholic layman, Luke Cao, who grew up in the underground church in Shanghai but has since emigrated outside of China, told CatholicVote that when visiting Shanghai this year he could no longer find any priests of the underground church because of the difficulty of getting ordained, given the imprisonment of the bishops who refuse to cooperate with the CCP.
China expert Nina Shea, director of Hudson Institute’s Center for Religious Freedom, recently published a detailed new report on the CCP’s persecution titled “Ten Persecuted Catholic Bishops in China.”
In an article for the National Review summarizing the report, Shea revealed that at least 10 Chinese Catholic bishops in communion with Rome, who are part of the underground Roman Catholic Church not recognized by Beijing’s Communist government, are currently facing persecution, including indefinite detention, disappearance, or being forced out of their sees, as the CCP continues its attempt to tighten control of the Catholic Church in China.
>> RELIGIOUS FREEDOM EXPERT: DON’T FORGET THE CATHOLIC BISHOPS PERSECUTED BY CHINA – CATHOLICVOTE ORG <<
As CatholicVote has reported, ChinaSource, an independent watchdog on Sino-Vatican relations, argues that the CCP continues to maintain tight control over the appointment of bishops, despite Vatican attempts to frame its agreement as a breakthrough for dialogue.
China Source explains that in November 2023, the CCPA and the Chinese Bishops Conference launched a detailed five-year plan (2023-2027) for implementing the party-state policy of “Sinicization of Christianity.”
“Insofar as ‘Sinicization’ entails subordinating the Catholic Church to the communist concept of what religion in China should be, the CCPA and the CBCC have sold out and undermined the Agreement,” China Source added.
One of the agreement’s most outspoken opponents, Cardinal Joseph Zen, the 92-year-old former Bishop of Hong Kong, has long condemned the Vatican’s engagement with the Communist government as a betrayal of China’s underground Catholics who have suffered and died for the faith for decades.
