Vatican, China OK extension of accord

U.S. critical of pact, cites abuses of rights

VATICAN CITY — The Vatican and China extended an accord on bishop nominations Thursday over opposition from the White House and conservative Catholics given Beijing’s crackdown on religious believers.

The Holy See and Beijing government announced a two-year extension to the 2018 agreement, which expired Thursday.

The Vatican justified the extension by saying the agreement was ecclesiastic and pastoral in nature, not political, but noted that continued dialogue would allow for discussion on other problems, including rights abuses.

In an unsigned article accompanying the announcement, the Vatican newspaper L’osservatore Romano said the Vatican “does not fail to attract the attention of the Chinese government to encourage a more fruitful exercise of religious freedom.”

The agreement, which has never been published, envisages dialogue in selecting bishops though Pope Francis has said he has the final word. The Vatican signed it in 2018 in hopes it would help unite China’s Catholics, who for seven decades have been split between those belonging to an official, state-sanctioned church and an underground church loyal to Rome.

The Vatican has defended the 2018 accord against criticism that Francis sold out the underground faithful, saying the deal was necessary to prevent an even worse schism in the Chinese church after Beijing named bishops without the pope’s consent.

The 2018 accord regularized the status of seven of the “illegitimate” bishops and brought them into full communion with the pope, a goal of the Vatican in pushing for a deal.

The question of bishop nominations has vexed Vatican-china relations, with the Holy See insisting on the pope’s divine right to name the successors of the apostles and Beijing considering such nominations foreign infringement on its sovereignty.

Beijing foreign ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian told reporters at a daily briefing Thursday that China and the Vatican decided to extend the agreement “after friendly consultations.”

“The two sides will maintain close communication and consultations and continue to promote the process of improving relations,” he said.

The Vatican has been defending the agreement in recent weeks after Secretary of State Mike Pompeo criticized it and urged the Holy See not to extend it.

During a visit to the Vatican last month and in an essay penned before the trip, Pompeo made clear U.S. objections to the accord and urged the Vatican to join the U.S. in instead denouncing China’s crackdown on religious and ethnic minorities, Catholics among them.