China's Catholic Leaders Studied Xi Jinping in Beijing This Spring. Rome Didn't Respond.
In April, nearly 50 leaders of China's official Catholic Church met for a national training session in Beijing on the "Sinicization of Catholicism."
They met at the Central Institute of Socialism, a school run by the Communist Party's United Front Work Department to train non-Party figures in Party thinking. The course covered Xi Jinping Thought, Xi Jinping's statements on religious work, Xi Jinping's thought on the rule of law, and the Party's program for "strict governance of religion." There were also sessions on policing religious activity online and on the "social functions" of religion in serving national goals.
The field trip went to the China Archaeological Museum, to build "cultural confidence."
The program never cited a single papal document or a word of Church teaching.
Bishop Joseph Li Shan of Beijing opened the session. He also chairs the Chinese Catholic Patriotic Association, the body Mao created to cut Chinese Catholics off from Rome. Li Shan described the "general program": carry out Xi's directives, tighten "rule-of-law governance" of religion, and make sure Catholicism reflects "Chinese characteristics." He told attendees to "learn deeply and understand thoroughly" Xi's statements on religion and to let "socialist core values" guide their preaching.
Delegates from Jiangsu, Hubei and Guizhou took turns pledging to "raise political standing," "inherit the patriotic tradition," and build a "theological system with Chinese characteristics." The men who are supposed to be teaching China's Catholics the faith are being trained by the Communist Party instead.
Xi launched his Sinicization campaign in April 2016, and this year it has sped up.
On February 4, China's official Bishops' Conference publicly backed the government's ban on unregistered clergy doing pastoral work and on worship at unapproved sites. Its statement said "religious groups must comply with relevant laws and regulations when conducting religious activities," and called it a matter of "national and public interest." Registering with the state requires a pledge of "independence" from foreign influence, which means renouncing the pope.
The Vatican's own 2019 guidance told Chinese priests they could follow their conscience and refuse that pledge. Now the Chinese bishops' conference is backing a ban on the priests who do.
In December, the Party took away their passports. At a December 16 meeting in Guangyuan, Sichuan, the Patriotic Association and the Bishops' Conference adopted "Provisional Regulations on the Standardized Management of Exit-and-Entry Travel Documents for the Catholic Clergy." Every bishop, priest, deacon and nun must now hand over their passport and their permits for Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan, which the Patriotic Association or the diocese keeps. To leave the country for any reason, they must apply in writing at least 30 days in advance, with an itinerary and a signed letter of commitment. Within seven days of returning, they have to give the documents back and file a written report on what they did abroad.
A priest who wants to visit Rome now needs the Communist Party's permission.
The campaign reaches into Catholic homes as well. In April, Human Rights Watch reported a September 2025 internal government document ordering that parents "must not organize … home-based religious education to instill religious ideas to their children." Schools are told to "guide students to proactively report" violations, which means children are being asked to report their own parents for teaching them to pray. Some official churches in Henan province have required people to apply for permission to attend Mass since 2023.
The underground church, Catholics who stayed loyal to Rome and refused to register, is being squeezed out. Human Rights Watch found that since the 2018 Vatican-China agreement, authorities have pressured underground communities to join the Patriotic Association "by arbitrarily detaining, forcibly disappearing, torturing, and subjecting underground Catholic bishops and priests to house arrest."
Human Rights Watch named names. Bishop James Su Zhimin, now 94, has been forcibly disappeared for decades, and Bishop Xin Wenzhi, 63, is also missing. Bishops Augustine Cui Tai and Thaddeus Ma Daqin have been detained. Bishops Vincent Guo Xijin and Peter Shao Zhumin remain under house arrest. One priest was "barred from having bank accounts, sim cards, and a passport," which left him with no way to support himself.
An underground Catholic interviewed in January called the Vatican deal "the most intelligent weapon to legally destroy underground churches." It leaves priests with two choices: join the Patriotic Association and betray their faith, or refuse and lose their livelihood and their freedom. A Catholic who left China in 2023 described what happened after their congregation was forced into the official church: "We started praying like we were thieves."
Human Rights Watch sent its findings to the Chinese government and to the Holy See on April 7. Neither responded.
Nina Shea, director of the Hudson Institute's Center for Religious Freedom, said the Bishops' Conference's position "in support of banning and criminalizing those clergy who refuse to take the pledge renouncing papal authority lays bare these entities as mere party tools for communist control and suppression of Chinese Catholicism." Those entities are run by the bishops of Beijing and Shanghai. "That the heads of these entities are the bishops of Beijing and Shanghai, China's most important dioceses, is shameful," she said.
She has called on Pope Leo XIV to "immediately summon them to Rome to review their episcopal authority." She also wants him to publish the secret agreement and determine whether China's new rules violate "the agreement's terms or even of its spirit." Human Rights Watch has made the same request. "Pope Leo XIV should urgently review the agreement and press Beijing to end the persecution and intimidation of underground churches, clergy, and worshipers," said China researcher Yalkun Uluyol.
Pope Leo inherited the agreement from Pope Francis. It has been renewed three times without its text ever being made public: in 2020, in 2022, and in October 2024, when it was extended for four years instead of two.
In 2007, Pope Benedict XVI wrote to China's Catholics that the Patriotic Association's stated purpose was "incompatible with Catholic doctrine." Nineteen years later, the association runs the training, holds the priests' passports, and sends its leaders to Beijing to study Xi Jinping. The agreement is up for renewal in October 2028.