More on the situation of the Catholic Church in China

A few days ago, I linked to and excerpted from a George Weigel article at NRO about Catholic Church capitulation to China's Communist party in the matter of choosing bishops. What I was particularly drawing attention to was the background Weigel provided, the story of letting totalitarian regimes have a say in church affairs.

Today, I'm sharing a Federalist piece by Maureen Mullarkey that puts its full focus on the China situation. It's a read-the-whole-thing piece, but I'll post a few key paragraphs.

This is the long and short of what is going to happen:

Validly ordained bishops are being asked to step down to make way for government-approved ones, including several who have been excommunicated. (Excommunication is the penalty for accepting ordination without papal approval.) Faithful priests already selected as valid successors to retiring bishops have been ordered to forego ordination to avoid offending the Chinese regime.

And because these bishops will be "official," the Party / government's policy will be that there is no reason for any alternative approach to gathering ads the bride of Christ:

Mass in the underground will no longer be tolerated. In other words, the emboldened regime need no longer keep up appearances for public relations. With the Vatican’s blessing, it can openly enforce prohibition of the valid Mass for which close to three generations of Chinese faithful have suffered.

Think about this: Since the Communist regime has long been just fine with the extermination of fetal Chinese - indeed, it's been official policy in some situations - a key element of Catholic teaching is going to be squelched:

Implicit in Francis’ conciliation is permission to ignore a range of moral matters that define a Christian conscience. The Catholic Church’s philosophical arguments defending the inviolable dignity of human life and the primacy of the individual cannot be asserted in pulpits. Silence is assured on labor camps, on the execution of prisoners to feed the lucrative organ trade, and on “family planning” policies. A comfortably Sinicized church can keep a good conscience while disregarding forced abortions, forced sterilizations, or forced migration (e.g., the massive Three Gorges Dam project unhoused 1.4 million peasants and submerged some 900 towns and villages).

Will this strengthen the faith of China's Christians, or so demoralize them that they reign themselves to secularism? We must pray for the former.