The Catholic Church in China Today: The Limitations of Autonomy and Enculturation

Abstract

Since the 1950s, the ruling authorities in the People's Republic of China have insisted that Christian churches there cut their ties with foreign religious institutions and become “autonomous,” or self-governing. For the Catholic Church in China, this has required the rupture of at least the administrative or political ties with the Holy See. The church1 is administered by a Chinese Catholic Patriotic Association; bishops are “elected” through this association—in practice, appointed by the Chinese government and ultimately the Communist Party of China (CPC). The Vatican, for its part, continues to insist that the appointment of bishops is the prerogative of the pope. As a consequence, the Catholic community is divided into two groupings, an “official” church approved by the authorities and an “underground” church,2 although the distinction between the two has become increasingly blurred and, on a mundane basis in normal times, may no longer make itself obvious to the ordinary believer.3 But the disagreement on church governance has stood in the way of a normal relationship between the church in China and the universal church headed by the pope.4 In 2007, Benedict XVI issued a letter to all Chinese Catholics that urged reconciliation of the underground and official church and an accommodation between the universal church and the Chinese state. Despite some early signs of a thaw, in the subsequent years the pressures of the regime against the church became even more intense than they had been before.