Wisconsin Representative Mike Gallagher, the Republican chairman of the House Select Committee on the Strategic Competition between the United States and the Chinese Communist Party, challenged Pope Francis to “be not afraid” of “totalitarian” Chinese President Xi Jinping or the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).
In an op-ed for The Washington Post, Gallagher recalls Pope Saint John Paul II’s strong stand against the former Soviet Union and urges Pope Francis to take a similar position with China.
“John Paul’s exhortation to the faithful to live in truth and stand against aggression helped end the regime. He often said these three words: Be not afraid,” Gallagher writes. “As the Synod of Bishops meets at the Vatican this week to debate and advise the pontiff, those gathered should heed John Paul’s fearless example in their dealings with the Chinese Communist Party.”
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Currently, the Wisconsin lawmaker notes, “This is not the course the Catholic Church appears to be charting.”
Gallagher points to Francis’s recent address to “a half-empty room in Mongolia” and argues the pope, who called on the country’s Catholics to be “good Christians and good citizens,” left “far too much unsaid.”
“Francis did not mention that the Chinese government is engaged in religious oppression: a genocide against Uyghurs, a majority of whom are Muslim, in Xinjiang, and cultural atrocities in Tibet,” he writes. “He did not call for the release of Jimmy Lai, the Catholic Hong Kong publisher persecuted for his support of democracy. He did not ask for the exoneration of Hong Kong’s 91-year-old Cardinal Joseph Zen, arrested for challenging the CCP.”
Like the Soviet leaders that John Paul dealt with, “Chinese President Xi Jinping, too, is a totalitarian,” Gallagher explains. “His teachings must be accepted by all and are often imposed by force. Yet Francis has not called him to account.”
“Instead,” he writes, “the Vatican made a pact with the CCP.”
“A 2018 deal gave the Communist Party the right to nominate Catholic bishops — in practice, tantamount to appointing them,” Gallagher states. “Avowedly atheist party members in Beijing notify the Vatican of their choices; Francis provides a rubber stamp — a shocking way to decide upon the consecrated successors to Jesus’ apostles.”
As a result of the agreement, the CCP is now pressuring “other religions to allow Beijing to appoint their leaders,” according to the Congressman, and it has been a “disaster for other faiths in China.”
“Notably, it has bolstered its attempt to coerce Tibetan Buddhists into accepting its choice of successor to the Dalai Lama,” Gallagher writes, adding, “The CCP has not even kept its side of the bargain. It has often given the Vatican mere days to ‘vet’ candidates.”
Francis, he states, “has in effect abetted Xi’s decade-long project to sinicize religion in China.”
“There have been reports, for example, of churches being forced to replace the Ten Commandments with quotes from Xi and of plans to rewrite the Bible to accord with socialist values,” he explains.
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“Meanwhile, perhaps the largest internment of an ethno-religious minority since World War II is taking place in Xinjiang, and the CCP lies about it every day,” Gallagher reports. “If this does not deserve the church’s condemnation, what does?”
The Wisconsin rep. says “it’s not too late” for Francis to follow “John Paul’s example.”
“He cannot force the CCP to keep its word or to embrace Christianity,” Gallagher acknowledges. “But he can challenge its values in front of the world. As a Catholic, I pray for Francis: Holy Father, be not afraid.”
Writers and editors can be contacted at [email protected] with feedback, tips, or corrections.
Melissa Fine is the former executive editor of Casino Player, Strictly Slots, and Poker
Digest magazines. She is a UCLA graduate, news junkie, and dedicated Stargate SG-
1 fan. Melissa currently lives with her dog and two cats in a tiny town in the Sierra
Nevada foothills.
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