The Holy See and China have extended the provisional agreement regarding the appointment of bishops for another four years, the Vatican announced on Oct. 22.
“I think it is a step forward,” Cardinal Stephen Chow Sau-yan, S.J., the bishop of Hong Kong since 2021, told me in an exclusive interview in Rome, shortly after the news was made public in Rome and Beijing. “Some may not like it. I can understand why. But it’s not permanent,” he added.
The agreement was first signed in Beijing on Sept. 18, 2018, and was renewed in October 2020, October 2022 and now for the third time. As a result of the agreement, all the bishops in mainland China are now in communion with the pope and the Holy See, and dialogue continues between the two sides, even if at a slower pace than the Vatican would like. The full contents of the deal, however, have never been published.
Cardinal Chow, 65, who is in Rome for the final session of the Synod on Synodality, said the decision to extend it “means that there is more agreement [now].” He added, “I assume from what was said in interviews before [the extension], that if it is going to be a longer-term [agreement], there will be some kind of additional conditions put in there. So I presume that has happened, even though I haven’t seen the text.” He did not say which interviews he was referring to.
The Vatican press communique does not reveal what amendments have been made to the original text, though America understands from other informed sources in Rome that some changes asked for by the Vatican have been made.
The Vatican communique states: “In light of the consensus reached for an effective application of the Provisional Agreement regarding the Appointment of Bishops, after appropriate consultation and assessment, the Holy See and the People’s Republic of China have agreed to extend further its validity for four years from the present date.”
It added: “The Vatican Party remains dedicated to furthering the respectful and constructive dialogue with the Chinese Party, in view of the further development of bilateral relations for the benefit of the Catholic Church in China and the Chinese people as a whole.”
What is envisaged as to “the further development of bilateral relations” remains to be seen.
Having heard from informed sources that the Chinese wanted a permanent agreement, I remarked to the cardinal, “They’ve got something—four years instead of two—but not everything they wanted.” Cardinal Chow responded: “Yes, you can say it that way. But I think both sides are happy that this is moving forward.” I asked him if it was possible that the Vatican also wanted additions to the agreement that it likely has not gotten from China, such as an office in Beijing, he replied, “I’m assuming that, but I don’t know.”
But Cardinal Chow also agreed that since the signing of the provisional agreement, there has been “improvement, a positive development” in relations between the Vatican and Beijing.
Since September 2018, the process of nominating bishops has been slow; according to Vatican Media, “about 10 bishops” have been nominated in mainland China over the past six years. But, Cardinal Chow said, one-third of the mainland dioceses remain without a bishop. “That’s probably one of the reasons why Pope Francis wanted this agreement to speed up…to help [the church there].”
“You can see it’s kind of happening, though not as fast as we would like. But it is happening. I think this is also a sign of trust, building up trust. If there is more trust, there will be more confidence, and things will go smoother, faster. This [is true] on both sides,” Cardinal Chow said. He sees “a mutual building of trust” as the sure way ahead.
Signs of growing trust
In this context, he hailed as a positive step the presence of two bishops from mainland China at the synod in Rome—the Most Revs. Joseph Yang Yongqiang and Vincent Zhan Silu—and their remaining for the whole meeting. (Last year, the two bishops from mainland China had to leave the synod early because they were given only short-term exit visas by the Chinese government.) “That is encouraging,” the cardinal said. “They are here for the full synod. They have been communicating with others and have been expressing their opinions. I was told they have been participating actively in their small groups. And they have spoken in plenary assemblies.”
Cardinal Chow noted that Vatican Media published “more or less the speeches” that the two mainland bishops made at the synod. “I understand that it did this with the approval of the two bishops,” he said, “though I think the bishops thought it would be released later, time-wise. But the Chinese government knows they have spoken and had no adverse comment on that.”
The cardinal cited the government’s official recognition earlier this year of Bishop Melchior Shi Hongzhen as bishop of Tianjin as another example of growing trust. The 95-year-old bishop had been placed under house arrest for his refusal to join the government-sanctioned Catholic Patriotic Association, which acts as a liaison between registered Catholics and the Chinese government. “Because he’s recognized, he [can] try to find his successor, who hopefully can unite the church,” Cardinal Chow said.
But, the cardinal said, it can be hard to read the situation on the mainland. While some local authorities “make goodwill gestures…on the other side, some are tightening up control. What does that mean? It could mean that someone is not at peace about something, and I don’t know what it is.”
A papal visit to China?
In April 2023, then-Bishop Chow visited Beijing, the first time Hong Kong’s bishop had visited the Chinese capital in almost 30 years. There he met not only the local bishop, the Most Rev. Joseph Li Shan, and other church officials, but also Chinese government officials. Given this experience, I asked if he had found that there is more openness because of Pope Francis, who has been careful not to directly criticize China. “Yes, probably,” the cardinal said. “Pope Francis didn’t criticize [but] actually praised Chinese culture, the Chinese people.”
Pope Francis has repeatedly expressed his desire to go to China. When asked if he sees this happening, Cardinal Chow replied: “I think this is not impossible. It is not impossible!” The cardinal said he was not surprised, however, that Chinese authorities have yet to show any openness to a papal visit. “They will not do it publicly, right? They will not do so because I’m sure this will involve quite a few internal consultations before anything is decided. Why would they make this public when the internal consultations have not gone through the due process?”
In his statement at the synod, Archbishop Yang of Hangzhou invited all the synod members to come and visit China. Cardinal Chow said he was not surprised at this invitation. “China has been allowing visa-free privileges to a number of countries,” he said. “China wants to invite, to encourage people to come to see China because the rhetoric, the international rhetoric, [and] the media especially, is really negative about China. China knows the only way to counteract that is to invite people, [to say,] ‘Please come and see for yourself.’”
“I do the same,” Cardinal Chow added. “I encourage people to come to Hong Kong and see for themselves because there is some negative rhetoric, some governments say that coming to Hong Kong is dangerous. It’s risky. You may be arrested, that type of thing. So many people, including church leaders, are afraid to come to Hong Kong. I was just dumbfounded. The only thing I say [is something] like, ‘If you plan to topple the government, then don’t come; otherwise, come visit us.’”
Asked if he plans to visit mainland China again, the Hong Kong bishop said: “I hope. It depends because now that I’m a cardinal, [the authorities] are a little bit more cautious. Not that they don’t want me to go, but they feel that they need to do more groundwork [first].”
Sinicization
Many people of faith have expressed concern about “sinicization” in China. The push to “sinicize religion”—make it more culturally Chinese—was introduced by President Xi Jinping in 2015 and written into party orthodoxy in 2017. Experts see it as an attempt by the officially atheist Communist Party to bring religions under its absolute control.
Cardinal Chow described sinicization as “a developing concept.” He noted that “sinicization is not just for the church. It’s for many things, not just for religions, but also for other parts of society like business and technology and so on. The government talks about sinicization, and generally it means that you should protect your country, help the country to develop and prosper. Love your country, that’s the basic thing.”
“It’s not ideology,” the cardinal said. “They really want religion to be part of the positive force in building up the country. So the basic tenet is not in contradiction to our faith.”
Cardinal Chow disagreed with the criticism that Chinese authorities aim to influence theology through sinicization. “The main thing is that you still have an agreement with the Vatican,” he said. “So [the question is], how is it that you can continue to remain in your loyalty to the Vatican, and yet you love your country?”
The cardinal believes that Chinese authorities are less concerned about the Catholic Church than other religious groups. “They don’t worry because we’re more friendly; we’re more manageable for them. Some other religions, which I should not name, are not so. I think sometimes people feel—and I can perfectly understand this—they feel that persecution is aimed mainly against us, the Catholic Church. It’s actually not.” While he does not condone the persecution of any religion, the cardinal said, we should not “make it feel like…we are the only victim. We’re not!”
Cardinal Chow also suggested that the persecution is at times the result of the implementation of policies at the local level and that “the national policy itself may not be bad.”
Turning to the situation in Hong Kong, the cardinal said the economic situation has improved since the Covid-19 pandemic, “but economically it’s not that strong yet. We’re still fumbling here and there for different reasons, partly because of the pandemic but also partly because of the international sanctions [on China].” He noted that some Western countries have restricted investment in Hong Kong and have “discouraged [investors] and even suggested they leave Hong Kong.”
Over 300,000 residents have left Hong Kong for various reasons, he said. Among them are some Catholics. “We don’t actually know [how many] since they don’t report to us,” he said. “But you can feel the absence because those who left are in the 30- to 40-year-old bracket, and they brought the kids with them. So you can see that among the lay leadership, there is a vacuum. The 50- and 60-year-olds need to hand down their leadership, but there is a gap now.”
After our conversation, the Jesuit cardinal returned to participate in the final phase of the synod’s work. He will return to Hong Kong next week.
Material from Catholic News Service was used in this report.
