Chinese government will maintain control of Catholic leadership, says top official

A high-ranking official in charge of regulating religion in China has stated that Beijing intends to maintain its control of the country's Catholic leadership.

During an event commemorating the 60th anniversary of the state-controlled Chinese Catholic Patriotic Association (CCPA), Yu Zhengsheng, a member of the elite seven-man Politburo Standing Committee, told Catholic leaders that Beijing would ensure that only those loyal to the state will be appointed in Church leadership positions.

Yu, who also serves as the chair of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, urged members of the open church community "to ensure that the leadership of the Chinese Catholic Church is held firmly in the hands of those who love the nation and the religion," Catholic News Service reported, citing UCA News.

The event held on July 19 at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing was attended by about 100 bishops, priests, nuns and lay leaders. Yu's remarks were made amid continuing negotiations between Beijing and the Vatican regarding the normalization of the appointment of bishops.

The party official also told church leaders to "implement with self-awareness the basic direction of religious works," and "always to insist on the direction of Sinicization of religion."

During a ceremony prior to the main event, Wang Zuoan, director of the State Administration for Religious Affairs, affirmed the results of the CCPA over the past 60 years, saying the organization has walked the path of adaptation to a socialist society and the principles of independence and self-management.

The CCPA, which was established on Aug. 2, 1957 by the National Congress of Catholic Representatives, has been viewed with disdain by many lay people because of its control of the church and alleged misuse of church property.

The establishment of the CCPA has split China's 10 million Catholics, and it has been rejected by the country's underground church community. But the Chinese government has maintained that the patriotic association serves as a "bridge between the church and the government.

Many members of the clergy in the open church community have resisted the CCPA, but some believe that collaboration with the organization offers space for church development.

Some Vatican-approved bishops decided not to wear their bishops' garb at the July 19 ceremony, as a way of showing that they do not consider the meeting as a church event.

Father Shanren, a pen name of a Chinese priest-commentator, noted that the ceremony was held in a low-profile manner, and suggested that the word "commemoration" was used instead of "celebration," possibly because of the delicate state of China–Vatican relations.