The Vatican changed its stance toward the Church’s presence in China. What fruits have come from this change?
The following piece has lots of photos at the original page, which you can visit.
From Bitter Winter:
Xi Jinping Portraits Replace Catholic Symbols in Churches
Places of worship refusing to be controlled by the state are being shut down, while government-run churches are used to worship the Chinese Communist Party.
by Tang ZheA Catholic Church in Ji’an, a prefecture-level city in the southeastern province of Jiangxi, was built this year at the cost of more than one million RMB (over $ 140,000), which had been raised by believers. It was named “The True and Original Source of the Universe” (萬有真原), a reference to the name inscribed in 1711 on a plaque the Kangxi Emperor (Xuanje, 1654–1722) donated to a Catholic church in Beijing. Not long after it opened its doors, the church became the target of the local government’s persecution.
In late September, local officials ordered the congregation to paint over the sign with the name of the church, replace it with “Follow the Party, Obey the Party, and Be Grateful to the Party,” and display the national flag at the entrance.
What has hurt the congregations the most was the removal of a painting of the Virgin Mary with the Christ Child, later discarded into a dark corner of the church. Instead, a portrait of president Xi Jinping was hung in the center of one of the walls, surrounded by propaganda slogans on both sides.
A few days later, officials confiscated the keys to the church and locked all its doors and windows. The congregation lost their place of worship.
The same month, a Catholic meeting venue that is not part of the Chinese Patriotic Catholic Association in Jiangxi’s Poyang county was ordered to cease religious activities. Local officials threatened to revoke retirement pensions of elderly congregation members if another meeting were to be held. The church’s cross, a painting of the Virgin Mary, and religious couplets were removed, and portraits of Xi Jinping and Mao Zedong were displayed instead.
[…]
May God help our brothers and sisters.
Catholicism Pure & Simple 
This is such heart-breaking news… but is it really any surprise? Didn’t Cdl. Zen in desperation warn Pope Francis that this persecution would take place if he were to make deals with the lying, godless, communist government? And yet in true Francis-fashion, with all that repetitive insisting that we should all “dialogue” to reach decisions, he ignores the cardinal’s pleas and then goes and does exactly what he was going to do all along. He goes and makes a pact with the Communists.
Or, IOW, he throws the millions of faithful traditional Chinese Catholics to the lions!!
(Were they a rather thorny obstacle to Francis’ One World Relgion objective perhaps?)
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I* do not think that we can entirely blame the initiative of the Holy Father for the trials that are being suffered by the faithful in China. I* agree that his concord with the authorities there was at best naive and will enmiserate the faithful in China, but the persecution of religion seems to be very much a feature of President Xi’s reign: the plight of the Uighurs who are suffering through what can only be called a genocide makes that clear.
We can only cast ourselves down and seek Our Lady’s intercession that the sufferings of the peoples of China may come to an end.
* John didn’t write this post, as any fule kno
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What Mr Kehoe (formerly known as Rabit, formerly known as Gareth, a former one-time has- been Tablet contributor) says about Communist China’s tyranny [ …which reminds me – I must remember to use tranny tyranny in a comment sometime. I’m always on the lookout for new alliterations] is true. Christians there were and are doomed to subjugation despite Pope/Francis and his Secretary of State Parolin. But my view is that Pope/Francis has laid contempt on the Chinese Catholic Church by submitting to China’s demands for a veto on episcopal appointments.
Pope/Francis should have listened more carefully to the strident warnings of Cardinal Zen against the sell-out that he (Pope/Francis) and his toady Parolin (who may well be our next pontiff) have perpetrated. If Pope/Francis were a brave man, he would have done as St JP II did in support of the Chinese Catholic Church. My God, even the Hong Kong-ese have more mettle than he does.
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John Henry, shall we say that John’s voice has taken on a decidedly avian tone recently.
Sadly Cardinal Zen was ignored by men who thought they knew better and in doing so proved that they knew nothing.
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The Raven: I think you tried before to gently nudge me away from thinking this (^) John A. Kehoe was a cuniculine, or lapine if you prefer, but avian? Cannot for the life of me think of anyone who comments here fitting that description. Except you.
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…I forgot our Malaysian toucan, but GC has been gone from here for such a long, long time.
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This is the first time I have looked in here for several months. Just in passing, I was looking for news of Cardinal Pell, whose supporter I am, and I had no intention of commenting here. To find John Henry falsely accusing me of being a sockpuppet in the above comments is very disappointing. As JH applies strict legalistic codes of rational argument, I am quite amazed, and it seems his standards have gone to pot since I last encountered him. Hisw inability to apply any stylistic analysis is also surprising, as this poster neither displays any similarity to me nor am I interested in the topic.
I live a quiet life with four donkeys and have ceased to comment on any platforms now. I find it disappointing to be maligned in such a cheap way. The last time JH replied to a comment I made here (long ago) it was with some respect and intellectual appreciation. What a decline. “Rabit” was a name used nearly a decade ago in games we once played and has been long forgotten, except by JH it seems. I am sorry to see fake news is now purveyed by someone who should know better. Retract your nonsense JH: it does you no credit.
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P.S. Oh and by the way, I also have a WordPress blog, so I know that any commenter leaves a trace on a WordPress comment record: an email address and an IP address. Any moderator here could immediately confirm that the identity that JH falsely ascribes to me cannot be me as it will not match my location, which you can easily check against this comment record. I don’t have any public reputation to uphold, so it is entirely unimportant, but the truth should be respected. Many thanks.
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P.P.S.
JH: Intrigued by your error, I have done a Google search and discovered that you were all trying to discover the identity of this John A. Kehoe character some years ago in 2015: https://catholicismpure.wordpress.com/2015/09/26/cardinal-danneels-admits-to-being-part-of-mafia-club-opposed-to-benedict-xvi/
What’s curious is that in 2015 I was regularly contributing to this blog (which I remind you I helped to establish) and nobody made any suggestion that this person was connected to me. I didn’t even notice the conversation about this Kehoe character at the time. Unsurprising really, as none of the concerns of that individual coincided with any of my interests.
JH please stop obsessing about me. I just don’t deserve your attention. I was once part of a group of players, Eccles, Jabba, Burro, Jadis, Benedict, and many more on the Daily Telegraph team of Catholic sockpuppets who worked on countering anti-Catholic trolls; and we set up Catholicismpure. I distinctly remember you were not interested in joining us to set up Catholicismpure.
I left it behind a long while ago. There were other things in life to get on with, but I occasionally look in to see some news. I am not a player. JH please get yourself a strong G&T and take a deep breath. Repeat after me: “There is a life after the Daily Telegraph Damian Thompson Holy Smoke blog in 2010 and I will find it…”
I found it. This life has four donkeys and no sockpuppets. What we did – way back in 2010 – was a great load of fun with satire and humour. All that finished a long while ago. The dark world of fake news and trolls has now moved into a different era, which I despise and have nothing to do with. I am not flattered by your attention, but I find it a little bizarre JH, that you still obsess about the “Rabit”. Maybe that was my fault: I created a lasting sockpuppet that everyone has forgotten about except you. Sweet dreams. 🙂
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Forgive me (you grumpy old sod) for thinking someone else’s sockpuppet was one of your multiple ones. Live by the sword, die by the sword, what, what? And look here, my comment above at 20:23 confirmed the correctness of your (as I then thought) comment at 17:00. You should be flattered with my attentions. Strictly platonic, of course.
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“You should be flattered with my attentions.” I am not, and I don’t appreciate you trolling me. If it’s any consolation, I once respected you for your rational calm internet behaviour as compared with our sockpuppet theatre, back in those days a decade ago. It is surprising to see you behaving like this. Goodbye JH. Sunday lunch now has my full attention and this blog will not be a place to visit again.
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