Shanghai Bishop Joseph Shen Bin used the occasion to promote the” Sinicization” of the Catholic Church in China and received a speaking platform from the Vatican this week.
Bishop Shen emphasized the need for” Sinicization,” which requires that religious institutions demonstrate an embrace of State Socialism and the leadership of the atheistic Chinese Communist Party (CCP), while speaking at the Pontifical Urban University on the Janiculum Hill overlooking St. Peter’s Basilica.
Shen argued that the Chinese government’s policy on religious freedom only has an interest in allowing the Catholic church and faithful to support the country’s interests and release themselves from the handle of foreign powers.
Shen was unilaterally chosen as the new bishop of Shanghai in early 2023, in direct contravention of the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP ) 2018 agreement, which required the former Vatican and Beijing’s consent before any episcopal appointments.
The Vatican stated that the new pope of Shanghai, China, had received no official notification of the event and had only been informed by” the media.”
File/A class of travellers from Communist China ripples a crimson flag during the Pope Francis weekly general audience in St Peter Square at the Vatican, Wednesday, May 22, 2019. ( Massimo Valicchia/NurPhoto via Getty Images )
The Holy See was informed of Beijing’s determination to move Bishop Joseph Shen Bin to Shanghai in April 2023, according to Matteo Bruni, chairman of the Holy See Press Office, but just learned about his “installation from the media.”
Shen was appointed by the state-run Council of Chinese Bishops, a body of which Shen was also the mind. Shin pledged to preserve the CCP’s tenets of the Chinese Church’s right to self-government and the” Sinicizing” of Catholicism in China.
The” Three- One Patriotic Movement,” a government-approved Protestant church, explicitly forbids its members from raising their children in the Christian faith, calling the practice “brainwashing.”
A” Patriotic Education Law” was passed in Beijing in October 2023, mandating that religious institutions adapt their academic pursuits to advance the party’s standard ideology.
” The condition is to guide and support spiritual groups, spiritual institutes, and spiritual action sites in carrying out patriotic training activities, enhancing spiritual professionals’ and believers ‘ identification with the excellent motherland, the Taiwanese people, Chinese culture, the Chinese Communist Party, and socialism with Chinese characteristics”, the law states.
According to Shen, who is also vice chairman of the state-controlled Chinese Catholic Patriotic Association (CCPA ), the role of the Church is” to provide the explanations of the theological classics, doctrines, and canons that align with the requirements of socialist core values.”
