In 2018 an historic document known as the ‘Provisional Agreement’ was signed between the Catholic Church and the People’s Republic of China. So far this agreement has been renewed every two years and the expectation is that it will be renewed again this year. The only detail that has been made public is that the Agreement allows the Pope final approval on Bishops appointed by the Chinese authorities, other than that it is cloaked in secrecy. But there have been occasions since its signing where the Communist Party have reneged on this Agreement, approving its own choice of Bishops. There are an estimated 13 million Catholics in China, split between the official Chinese state recognised church and the underground church. And one of the Catholic Church’s most senior members, Cardinal Joseph Zen, the former Bishop of Hong Kong, has in the past, referred to this Provisional Agreement as betrayal of those in the underground church. For the Pope, the Agreement is a pragmatic attempt to unify the church in China and make peace with the state, but the underground church see this Agreement as a sell-out by their spiritual father. So on The Inquiry, we’re asking ‘Is Pope Francis ‘betraying’ China’s Catholics?’ Contributors: Martin Palmer, Theologian and Sinologist, UK Fr. Jeroom Heyndrickx, CICM (Scheut) Missionary, Belgium Samuel Chu, President, Campaign for Hong Kong, USA John Allen, Editor of Crux, Italy Presenter: William Crawley Producer: Jill Collins Researcher: Matt Toulson Editor: Tara McDermott Technical Producer: Craig Boardman Broadcast Co-ordinator: Jacqui Johnson Image Credit: A worshipper waves the flag of China, as Pope Francis leaves the weekly general audience at St Peter’s Square in the Vatican. Photo by Filippo MONTEFORTE/AFP via Getty Images.
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Welcome to the Inquiry.
I'm William Crawley.
Each week, one question, four expert witnesses, and an answer.
Somewhere inside the Vatican, there's a document that very few people have seen, and there's a corresponding copy in Beijing.
It's a text of a secret deal signed in 2018 called the Provisional Agreement between the Catholic Church and the People's Republic of China.
This historic agreement may determine the fate of China's 13 million Catholics, including the state approved church, the Chinese Patriotic Catholic association, and an underground church whose leaders see the deal as a sellout by their spiritual father, the Pope.
Within weeks, the Vatican will have to decide whether to extend that agreement with the Chinese Communist Party.
This week we're asking, is Pope Francis betraying China's Catholics?
Part 1 the Great Wall.
It was very easy for xi Jinping in 2018, with the power that he had accrued and also inherited, to negotiate with a Pope who likewise had that power.
An agreement in which some of the historical saws from the past could be set to one side.
And they basically have agreed that the Chinese Church should be Chinese and Catholic.
Martin Palmer is a theologian, a translator and an expert in the long and fractious history of China and the Catholic Church.
The end of the 13th century, a Franciscan monk, John of Monte Covino, was sent by the Pope to talk to the Mongolian horde in the hope that they would unite with the Crusaders in the Holy Land and destroy Islam.
He became the archbishop of Beijing in about 1306, founded a cathedral, converted many people, and then when the Chinese took power again, because the Mongolians were seen as an alien group, that was the end of the Church.
They were all expelled, the churches were destroyed.