Vatican kowtows to Chinese Communist Party over Shanghai bishop

Pope Francis has bowed to the Chinese Communist Party, naming a new bishop for Shanghai, who was installed by China three months ago, without consulting the Vatican.

Pope Francis waves as he addresses the crowd from the window of the apostolic palace overlooking St Peter's Square at the Vatican. Picture: AFP

Pope Francis has bowed to the Chinese Communist Party, naming a new bishop for Shanghai, who was installed by China three months ago, without consulting the Vatican.

The Holy See announced on Saturday that Francis had named Bishop Joseph Shen Bin, 53, to lead the Shanghai diocese, one of the largest in China.

That was despite the unseen agreement between the Holy See and China in September 2018, and renewed in 2020 and 2022, that was supposed to create “the conditions for broader bilateral co-operation”, especially in relation to the appointment of bishops.

While details remain secret, Francis has said that it gives him the final say over bishops’ appointments. But that does not appear to apply in relation to Shanghai.

Beijing also violated the deal last year, transferring Bishop John Peng Weizhao from his Vatican-approved post to a new role as auxiliary bishop of Jiangxi, a diocese not recognised by the Vatican.

For decades, Shanghai was a centre of the “underground church’’ loyal to the Vatican. Its then bishop, Ignatius Kung, was arrested in 1955 and spent 30 years in jail. Pope John Paul II made him a cardinal “in pectore’’ in 1979, a decision announced only in 1991.

Secretary of State Cardinal ­Pietro Parolin on Saturday said Bishop Shen Bin was “an ­esteemed pastor”. Francis had named him to Shanghai for the “greater good of the diocese”.

China, however, “seems to disregard the spirit of dialogue and collaboration established between the Vatican and the Chinese side over the years and to which is ­referred in the Agreement”.

Cardinal Parolin also said he hoped a permanent Holy See liaison office could be opened in China. “We have signed an Agreement that can be defined as historic,” he said. But it needed “to be applied in its entirety and in the most correct manner possible.”

In theory, the agreement was supposed to create a bridge ­between the traditional underground church and the Patriotic Association, approved by the CCP. But President Xi Jinping has intensified government control of religion, forcing churches to ­revise their practices and teaching in accordance with Communist Party doctrine and to develop what Mr Xi has called “socialist religious theories with Chinese characteristics”, or “Sinicisation’’.

Critics such as Cardinal ­Joseph Zen, 91, of Hong Kong, insist the agreement was a betrayal.