The Vatican’s unofficial representative in Hong Kong – Monsignor Javier Herrera-Corona – has warned Hong Kong Catholics the freedoms of the past are over. As the Vatican considers whether to renew its deal with the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), the 54-year-old prelate warned missionaries to prepare for a tough future as the CCP tightens control on the city-state, urging colleagues to protect property, files and funds. As reported by Reuters, the monsignor also told missions to be prepared for possible curbs on programmes, such as foreign missionaries serving as parish priests.

Later this year, a deal signed in 2018 between the CCP and the Vatican will expire. The deal was renewed once already in 2020. Although the text is secret, we know the CCP and the Vatican have agreed to cooperate in the selection of bishops of a united Catholic Church in China. Beijing now elects and appoints bishops through the Bishops Conference of Catholic Church in China (BCCCC). The objective is a gradual merger of the Underground Catholic Church into the Chinese Patriotic Catholic Association (CPCA).

As Reuters reported, Herrera-Corona’s warnings comes amid a national security crackdown by the CCP in Hong Kong following anti-government protests in 2019. Chinese leader Xi Jinping recently embarked on his first post-COVID trip outside mainland China to witness hard-line John Lee (pictured with President Xi) become Hong Kong’s new Chief Executive. Lee got the job through an uncontested election and his cabinet is stuffed with pro-CCP appointees.

Little wonder Herrera-Corona warned closer integration with China in coming years could lead to mainland-style restrictions on religion. Today in mainland China, the CPCA and the BCCCC have been incorporated into the United Front Work Department (UFD), with Chinese Catholicism fully under the jurisdiction of the CCP. Hong Kong is home to approximately fifty foreign Catholic missionary societies and religious orders, hosting over 600 priests, monks and nuns who serve as clerics, in hospitals and in schools.

Numbers are hard to ascertain but there is also credible evidence of persecution of Christians across mainland China, with churches demolished and clergy imprisoned. Ominously for Hong Kong, the most high-profile casualty of this crackdown was Hong Kong Cardinal Joseph Zen, arrested on suspicion of “colluding with foreign forces”. His trial is set for September.  Before his arrest Cardinal Zen said, “the Holy See is closing both eyes on all the injustices that the Communist Party inflicts on the Chinese people.” 

The CCP is already wary of Christianity which – like Islam – the party sees as a foreign import. Christian clergy are under particular scrutiny in Hong Kong with suspicion of being integrated with the pro-democracy movement. According to Reuters, one publication from 2021, edited by Chen Jingguo of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences and Zhang Bin of Jinan University, singled out Hong Kong Catholics for criticism over the 2019 protests. 

The paper warned that Hong Kong’s political environment had “continuously deteriorated” since the 1997 handover when British administration ended, partly due to religious groups and figures of influence such as Cardinal Zen, with Catholics more involved in the city’s politics than other Christians, while its “affiliate teachers and students are more radical”.

Last December, officials from Beijing’s Liaison Office organised an event at which Chinese bishops briefed Hong Kong clerics on President Xi’s vision of religion with “Chinese characteristics”. Hong Kong Catholics have good reason to worry. It is estimated that between 20 and 50 million Chinese Christians have experienced persecution in recent years, with a 2020 report by the US Congressional-Executive Commission on China finding that Catholics suffered “increasing persecution” after the 2018 deal. Religious education is also illegal for minors, meaning catechism classes have been closed. All churches registered with the authorities are also monitored by CCTV.

Herrera-Corona and other envoys at the Vatican mission have now started moving cases of archives overseas for safekeeping, according to sources. The files date back to the 1980s and mostly deal with mainland China, including private communications with underground clerics, missionary activity and details of persecution. For years Hong Kong has enjoyed religious freedom with missionaries operating without restriction and working closely with the Church. This freedom filtered through to the mainland, enabling the light of freedom to flicker slightly under the atheist CCP. 

Now, according to sources, Herrera-Corona has warned the rights of religious institutions outlined in Hong Kong’s Basic Law cannot be relied upon. In many ways, the Catholic cleric’s words are not surprising. But they add pressure to the Vatican when it comes to the 2018 deal. Meanwhile, given that Vatican City State remains the only European state to recognise Taiwan as the legitimate government of China, the Holy See has an even greater responsibility to take a stand. At the minimum, the Pope could add conditions for the CCP deal being renewed, such as the release of clerics from prison. The ball is now in the Vatican’s court.

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