China: Catholic Clergy Subjected to Patriotic Education

The new law on patriotic education, adopted on October 24, 2023, aims to promote patriotism among all citizens. It came into effect on January 1, 2024. And, as early as January 4, the National Joint Conference of Patriotic Associations of Authorized Religions gave guidelines on how religions should implement this law.

These “guidelines are aimed at making state-controlled religions increasingly mouthpieces for Party propaganda,” according to the report given by Bitter Winter. But recently, the United Front Work Department “complained that these guidelines were not being implemented quickly enough.”

The United Front

Bitter Winter describes it as an “intelligence agency set up by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) authorities to collect information on democratic parties, intellectuals, dissidents, scholars, religious and ethnic groups, and influential people not directly associated with the Party, both in China and abroad.

“Its main goal is to eliminate anti-communist forces or to incite anyone outside the Party to support the CCP and its government. It oversees nine internal bureaus, the second of which is in charge of religious affairs, the seventh of which is in charge of Tibet issues, and the ninth of Xinjiang. It administers the five officially approved religious organizations.”

The “Patriotic” Church

This Church, which depends on the Patriotic Association of Chinese Catholics, has always been considered schismatic, but, by the miracle of the agreement between the Vatican and China initiated in 2018, it is now “in communion” with Rome. It has no aversion to organizing training courses in patriotic education for the clergy and lay leaders.

As for the members of the “underground” Church, they are specifically targeted by this law, which is based on the idea that the hierarchical structure of the Patriotic Church subject to the CCP and the United Front is not capable itself “of controlling religious communities and that direct supervision by the CCP and the United Front is necessary.”

Bitter Winter gives an example of this supervision being carried out “in several provinces”: “the training course on patriotic education for Jiangxi Catholic representatives, organized by the Jiangxi Provincial Bureau of Ethnic and Religious Affairs in August 2024, at the Jiangxi Fuzhou Socialist College in Fuzhou.” 

The training included lectures by officials from the United Front Work Department. “Bishop John Baptist (Li) Suguang of the Diocese of Jiangxi, Auxiliary Bishop John (Peng) Weizhao, all the clergy, and more than sixty members of the standing committee of the two provincial Catholic conferences participated in the education and training sessions.”

The program included lectures, hands-on learning, and tutorials “on topics such as the Thought of Xi Jinping, the 100th anniversary of the CCP, and how Catholics can support the Party and its Central Committee.” Cautiously, “the theme of ‘strict governance’ was also introduced.”

Bitter Winter finally reports that “one of the visits took participants to the Red Army Slogan Museum. The area is rich in Red Army slogans from the time of the civil war. According to the organizers, this was a unique opportunity for Catholic priests and lay workers to ‘inherit the red gene’ as Communist Party faithful.”

This new surge of Chinese Communist propaganda imposed on Catholic ranks is, at least indirectly, facilitated by the Sino-Vatican agreement that is expected to be renewed shortly. Is this one of the fruits of the “dialogue with China” that the Pope is pleased with? Is this where the fact “that China is a promise and a hope for the Church” lies, as Francis said most recently? Chinese Catholics will judge by these words.