When Pius XII Warned Chinese Catholics

In her October 2024 report Ten Persecuted Catholic Bishops in China, human rights lawyer Nina Shea recalls the history of the Communist government's relations with the Church in China.
“China has been trying to sever the Catholic Church in China from the pope since the 1950s, when the Chinese Communist Party [CCP] expelled the papal envoy and imprisoned Shanghai’s Cardinal Ignatius Kung for 30 years after he refused to renounce papal authority. [...]
“The CPCA [Chinese Patriotic Catholic Assocation] was established within the Chinese bureaucracy in 1957. It came under the direct control of the CCP’s propaganda section, the United Front Work Department, in 2018. The Vatican has never recognized the association as legitimate. [...]
“But Beijing began increasing pressure on bishops to join the association immediately after China and the Vatican signed the 2018 agreement. The Holy See then issued guidelines in 2019 clarifying that the Vatican permits conscientious objection to the CPCA while accepting membership as the new normal. [...]
“In over 30 years of dialogue with China, the Vatican has kept silent or publicly downplayed China’s denials of religious freedom. This resembles the Holy See’s no-criticism policy of Ostpolitik toward Eastern European Communism.”
In view of the Vatican's attitude towards Beijing, it is necessary to show how that of Pope Pius XII was the opposite. He did not hesitate to raise his voice with the encyclical Cupimus imprimis of January 18, 1952, and the encyclical Ad Sinarum Gentem of October 7, 1954.
Again, in his encyclical Ad Apostolorum Principis of June 29, 1958, he took care to enlighten the Chinese faithful on Catholic doctrine and warn them of the dangers of the Chinese Patriotic Catholic Association. In it is found a faithful description of the means the Chinese authorities used then and continue to use today. This makes the following lines so striking, given the Vatican's silence today.
Pius XII wrote: “Nevertheless We regard it as Our duty to declare openly, with a heart filled to its depths with sorrow and anxiety, that affairs in China are, by deceit and cunning endeavor, changing so much for the worse that the false doctrine already condemned by Us seems to be approaching its final stages and to be causing its most serious damage. For by particularly subtle activity an association has been created among you to which has been attached the title of ‘patriotic,’ and Catholics are being forced by every means to take part in it.
"This association - as has often been proclaimed - was formed ostensibly to join the clergy and the faithful in love of their religion and their country, with these objectives in view: that they might foster patriotic sentiments; that they might advance the cause of international peace; that they might accept that species of socialism which has been introduced among you and, having accepted it, support and spread it; that, finally, they might actively cooperate with civil authorities in defending what they describe as political and religious freedom. And yet - despite these sweeping generalizations about defense of peace and the fatherland, which can certainly deceive the unsuspecting - it is perfectly clear that this association is simply an attempt to execute certain well defined and ruinous policies.
"For under an appearance of patriotism, which in reality is just a fraud, this association aims primarily at making Catholics gradually embrace the tenets of atheistic materialism, by which God Himself is denied and religious principles are rejected.
"Under the guise of defending peace the same association receives and spreads false rumors and accusations by which many of the clergy, including venerable bishops and even the Holy See itself, are claimed to admit to and promote schemes for earthly domination or to give ready and willing consent to exploitation of the people, as if they, with preconceived opinions, are acting with hostile intent against the Chinese nation.
"While they declare that it is essential that every kind of freedom exist in religious matters and that this makes mutual relations between the ecclesiastical and civil powers easier, this association in reality aims at setting aside and neglecting the rights of the Church and effecting its complete subjection to civil authorities.
"Hence all its members are forced to approve those unjust prescriptions by which missionaries are cast into exile, and by which bishops, priests, religious men, nuns, and the faithful in considerable numbers are thrust into prison; to consent to those measures by which the jurisdiction of many legitimate pastors is persistently obstructed; to defend wicked principles totally opposed to the unity, universality, and hierarchical constitution of the Church; to admit those first steps by which the clergy and faithful are undermined in the obedience due to legitimate bishops; and to separate Catholic communities from the Apostolic See. [...]
"There should also be noted those courses of instruction by which pupils are forced to imbibe and embrace this false doctrine. Priests, religious men and women, ecclesiastical students, and faithful of all ages are forced to attend these courses. An almost endless series of lectures and discussions, lasting for weeks and months, so weaken and benumb the strength of mind and will that by a kind of psychic coercion an assent is extracted which contains almost no human element, an assent which is not freely asked for as should be the case. [...]
"However, if Christians are bound in conscience to render to Caesar (that is, to human authority) what belongs to Caesar, then Caesar likewise, or those who control the state, cannot exact obedience when they would be usurping God's rights or forcing Christians either to act at variance with their religious duties or to sever themselves from the unity of the Church and its lawful hierarchy.
"Under such circumstances, every Christian should cast aside all doubt and calmly and firmly repeat the words with which Peter and the other Apostles answered the first persecutors of the Church: ‘We must obey God rather than men’ (Acts 5:29).”
(Sources : CNA/Hudson Institute/Vatican/DICI n°450 – FSSPX.Actualités)