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Line between the underground and official church blurs in China; after years of hostility, reconciliation is in the air

National Catholic Reporter, Feb 4, 2005 by Paul J. Mooney

On the day when Fr. Joseph Liao Hongqing was to be ordained the "official" bishop of the Meixian diocese in China's Guangdong province, local officials of the state-run Catholic Patriotic Association thought they had the situation under control.

Fr. Liao had been approved by both the pope and Chinese authorities, but eyewitnesses say local officials were vigilant. Fr. Liao was not allowed to use his mobile phone prior to the ceremony, and other priests and nuns were kept at a distance. Local government officials were keen to control the moment in the ceremony when the presiding bishop was to read the official appointment document from the pope. Instead, a document was read declaring that the new bishop had been appointed by the Bishops' Conference of the Catholic Church in China, a body not recognized by the Vatican.

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Officials were shocked and local Catholics amazed, however, when the newly consecrated bishop announced--in a hesitant and low voice--that he had been appointed by the pope and that he pledged loyalty to the Vatican.

Bishop Liao is not alone. It's estimated that some 90 percent of the 70-some official bishops who fall under the control of the Communist Party have secretly or openly sought and been granted legitimization by the pope. However, many hide this fact from their flocks and the authorities to avoid problems with the government.

Bishop Liao's brave statement came just two weeks after a bishop in China's underground church issued a controversial open letter to fellow Catholics. In "A Letter to My Friends," Bishop Han Zhihai made a rare call on priests in both the "official" and "unofficial" churches to come out of the closet and publicly confirm their allegiance to the Vatican. Bishop Han hinted that once Catholic allegiances were made clear, Catholics would be able to proceed down the road toward restoring the unity of the church in China.

This is not how things were supposed to work when the communist government began its assault on the religion in the early 1950s. Shortly after taking power, the party began arresting and deporting foreign clergy. The Catholic Patriotic Association was established in 1957, with a mission more focused on persecution than propagation of the faith. Its first task was to deal with Chinese who refused to split with the Vatican. Clergy and laity were imprisoned, beaten and some were even killed, driving Catholics loyal to the pope underground. During the tumultuous years of the Cultural Revolution (1966-76), even official Catholics suffered for their beliefs, as state churches were shut down and converted to warehouses and factories, with some priests forced to marry.

But some five decades of state control and often brutal oppression have failed to destroy the underground church, which is alive and kicking. Today the unofficial church numbers an estimated 8 million members, compared to 4 million for the state church.

More important, recent anecdotal evidence suggests that the political issues that have divided the underground and official Catholics for five decades are beginning to fade as Catholics on both sides step up their cooperation. One analyst says that as many as 70 percent of priests in the official church have also been secretly ordained in the underground church.

"The line between underground and official church is indeed blurring," says Richard Madsen, professor of sociology at the University of California at San Diego, and an expert on the Catholic church in China. "For the church this is a good thing. But not necessarily for the government. The government may be afraid that more people in the official church are becoming more like the underground in their beliefs and attitudes than people in the underground church becoming like the official church."

"What's happening is the opposite of what the government wants," said a well-known European scholar of the Catholic church in China who, because of the sensitivity of the topic, requested anonymity. "The government wants to hold on to the church and control it."

It's clear that a growing number of Catholics are now practicing their faith in a gray area. Although a large number of underground Catholics have traditionally avoided any contact with the state church, more and more believers are floating between the two churches, attending a state service one week, an underground Mass the next. And in some areas where local authorities are open-minded or apathetic, the two groups use the same venues for services, albeit often separately. In one instance last year, official and underground priests in one diocese concelebrated the Eucharist. In another diocese, the official and unofficial bishops are living in the same house, wearing different titles.

The state has allowed some 200 official priests to go to the United States to study and work in American parishes to gain experience. Unofficial priests, also known as hei shenfu or black priests, go quietly to America and Europe for the same purpose, without government approval. Catholics in China say their priests who study in the United States get to know each other well and when they come back, it's easier for them to cooperate.

Line between the underground and official church blurs in China; after years of hostility, reconciliation is in the air

National Catholic Reporter, Feb 4, 2005 by Paul J. Mooney

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