'Now’s the time for Pope Leo to rethink Sino-Vatican relations', Benedict Rogers
Beijing is intensifying persecution of Christians to a level not seen perhaps since the Cultural Revolution
Christians across China are facing intensifying persecution under Xi Jinping’s regime. Recent months have seen a severe crackdown, leading to a multitude of arrests and an even wider campaign of harassment and intimidation.
It is no exaggeration to say that this is the darkest time since the Mao era for Christians — Catholics and Protestants — and it shows no sign of easing any time soon.
Earlier this week, The Telegraph published an in-depth report by its correspondent Allegra Mendelson, titled “Christians are disappearing for worshipping a God other than Xi.”
That headline sums up what is at the heart of the persecution — a deification of Xi along Maoist lines. A Pyongyang-ization of China, turning the cult of personality into idol worship. A ruthless determination to root out, punish and destroy anyone who worships anything other than Xi and his interpretation of the Chinese Communist Party’s doctrines.
What The Telegraph has reported is not new. It has been building up over the past decade.
Ten years ago, Xi launched his “Sinicization of religion” campaign, which, despite its name, has nothing to do with what Catholics would consider legitimate “inculturation.” It is rather an effort to co-opt, coerce, control and corrupt religion so that it becomes simply another wing of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP)’s “United Front Work Department.”
Over the past decade, this has led to state-controlled churches being forced to display images of Xi and CCP propaganda banners alongside, or instead of, religious imagery, and install CCTV cameras inside their churches to be under constant surveillance.
It has led to the destruction of crosses and churches.
And now, it is resulting in the hounding of Christians worshipping in unregistered churches — often people’s living rooms — across China.
As The Telegraph report shows through the arrest of a man known simply as “TJ,” he knew what his crime was: “being Christian and worshipping a God that was not Xi Jinping. In China, following a church that is not state-controlled is punishable."
Earlier this month, there was a small positive development — the release of Pastor Ezra Jin, founder of Zion Church, one of China’s largest unregistered Protestant church networks, after almost nine months in detention.
My colleagues and I had campaigned for Pastor Jin’s release and worked with his courageous daughter, Grace Jin Drexel, to advocate for him, so, of course, I celebrate his freedom and his reunion with his family. President Trump personally asked for his release during his private meeting with Xi Jinping.
But while his release means the world to him and Grace and their family, it is but a fig-leaf covering far wider, darker, and more intense repression of others, including the continued detention of eight other Zion Church pastors and leaders.
As I wrote just over a week ago, we must not allow Pastor Jin’s release to be an excuse to rest. We must take his release as evidence that advocacy — and prayer — can work, and we must redouble our efforts to free many others jailed for their faith in China.
Now is the time for the Holy Father, the Vatican, and the Catholic Church as a whole to undertake a complete rethink of Sino-Vatican relations.
At a time when the Chinese regime is intensifying persecution of Christians to a level not seen perhaps since the Cultural Revolution, the silence from Rome is disturbing.
At a minimum, Pope Leo XIV should pray for Christians in China, regularly and publicly, during the Sunday Angelus.
He should build on the excellent example he set ofreceivingjailed Hong Kong Catholic pro-democracy entrepreneur Jimmy Lai’s wife and daughter at a General Audience, by praying publicly and specifically forLai, a 78-year-old British citizen in poor health now serving a 20-year prison sentence simply for his advocacy for democracy and human rights.
And more than this, Pope Leo should signal to Beijing that when the Sino-Vatican agreement on the appointment of bishops in China is up for renewal in 2028, unless there is significant improvement — including the release of jailed Catholic bishops and priests, as well as Protestant pastors — the agreement could be suspended.
Then there is the role of the US-China Catholic Association (USCCA) to consider. Recently, the USCCA has faced controversy, accused of doing the CCP’s bidding. A statement has been issued with various signatories, including people I know, trust, and respect, condemning a proposed USCCA conference in Houston, and calling on the local Bishop and all faithful Catholics to boycott this jamboree.
I have spent almost all my adult life in and around China. For over 30 years — since I first went to China when I was 18 years old to teach English — I have loved China and its people. So, I am pro-China (as a country and a people) and pro-dialogue.
It is only the CCP and its repressive policies that I oppose. And in normal times, I would instinctively support the engagement that USCCA conducts, in the name of friendship and dialogue.
But these are not normal times. And we are not dealing with a normal regime or a normal State-controlled church in China. We are dealing with a brutal, repressive regime that has torn up its international treaty promises over Hong Kong, is forcibly removing organs from prisoners of conscience, and stands accused of genocide against the Uyghurs.
The Vatican — and USCCA — should reflect on their actions. They should certainly read The Telegraph article. And they should put religious freedom at the center of any further and future dialogue.
Of course, some levels of communication and engagement with China should be maintained. But careful thought should be put into how, where, by whom, and in what ways those channels should be explored and maintained.
Few people — and certainly not me — would be against dialogue, but the question is: on whose terms and with what purpose? If it is an honest dialogue about human rights and religious freedom, and if demands for the release of prisoners of conscience are made and met as part of that dialogue, and if the perpetrators of human rights violations are held to account for their actions, then it might well play a helpful role.
But if it is simply another meaningless kowtow at Beijing's altar, then it deserves all the opprobrium it gets. For after all, the only place any Catholic should genuflect is at the altar of God, at any time, but particularly when our brothers and sisters are so severely persecuted.
This article was published in UCA News on 16 July 2026.
Photo: Arnold Straub on Unsplash