Catholic App Removed from App Store in China

According to its designer, Alex Jones, Hallow has 14 million downloads in over 150 countries, 500 million prayers and 200,000 “five-star” reviews. This tool dedicated to spreading Catholic prayers has even become the number one app in the App Store six years after its launch in 2018, and was until now tolerated by the Chinese authorities.

But the story becomes more interesting in the first quarter of 2024, when essayist George Weigel is approached by Alex Jones, who asks his permission to broadcast certain passages from his biography on Pope John Paul II, with the help of Jim Caviezel, an actor and director who has become an icon of Catholicism in America.

In the summer of 2024, the John Paul II Witness to Hope series was broadcast, with meditations led by Msgr. James Shea, President of the University of Mary in Bismarck, North Dakota.

The only fly in the ointment for the Chinese Communist regime is the role played by the Polish Pope in the collapse of Communism in his country, with the consequences that we know about in Europe. This was enough to startle the censors loyal to the Great Helmsman's way of thinking, who quickly declared the content “illicit” and rushed to block the application on July 15.

“We will continue to try and serve our brothers and sisters in Christ in China as best we can through our website, web application, social media content, but mostly with our prayers,” Alex Jones told Catholic News Agency, prudently refraining from commenting on the reasons for withdrawing his application.

Could this be a sign of nervousness on the part of the Chinese authorities? This is what George Weigel maintains in the columns of the National Catholic Register: “The regime’s ever more intrusive social controls bespeak fear of the Chinese people, not confidence in their enthusiasm for the social model promoted by Communist Party boss Xi Jinping.

“The politically and economically vibrant democracy across the Taiwan Strait is a standing reproach to the claim that the Chinese can only be ruled autocratically. And despite repression and persecution, Chinese Christianity continues to grow, even as the regime tightens its grip on formally approved religious communities,”, the essayist stresses.

Not to mention the gloomy economic situation in China, where economic players are reluctant to invest, the real estate crisis that has lasted for three years, and the extension of the retirement age: these are all issues that could call into question the legitimacy and governance of the Chinese Communist Party.

On the side of the Vatican, the tone is one of optimism. On his return flight from Singapore on September 12, the Pope stated: “I’m pleased with the dialogues with China. The results are good. [...] It’s a great country, and I admire and respect China. It’s a country with an ancient culture, a capacity for dialogue to understand each other that goes beyond the different systems of government it has had.”