BEIJING (LifeSiteNews) — In its latest act of persecution against the underground Roman Catholic Church in China, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has charged a validly ordained underground Catholic priest of “fraud” for not registering with the schismatic state-run church, the Chinese Catholic Patriotic Association (CCPA).
Catholic priest Father Joseph Yang Xiaoming of the Wenzhou Diocese in China was convicted by the Chinese government of “fraud” for “impersonating religious personnel” due to his refusal to join the official state-sanctioned church, which is controlled by and directly answerable to the atheistic CCP.
Xiaoming was ordained a priest on December 18, 2020, by Bishop Peter Shao Zhumin, a bishop of the underground Church who is in full communion with Rome and who has refused to compromise his faith by joining the CCPA.
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Zhumin was first consecrated coadjutor bishop of the Diocese of Yongjia in 2011, becoming bishop of the diocese in 2016. He fulfilled both roles under a papal mandate, and has neither sought nor received approval from the CCPA.
For his continued refusal to join the state church, Zhumin has been under surveillance and arrested numerous times. According to a report from ChinaAid, nothing has been heard about the bishop since his last arrest on February 18, when he was seized by authorities along with his secretary while on his way to offer the funeral Mass for a priest of his diocese, Father Leo Chen Nailiang, himself a longtime opponent of the state-run church.
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Following the courageous example of his bishop, Xiaoming likewise has refused to join the schismatic church. In retaliation, shortly after Xiaoming’s ordination, on May 11, 2021, the Religious Affairs Office of the Longwan District in Wenzhou began to press charges against Xiaoming for refusing to register with the CCPA.
Xiaoming was convicted of “carrying out religious activities under the guise of a religious personnel or obtaining money by fraud and other illegal activities.” His penalties included an order to cease from all priestly activity, seizure of the equivalent of $3,380, and a fine of approximately $210.
Undaunted by the CCP threats, the priest appealed the ruling and penalties, challenging them as legally unjust and a violation of the Roman Catholic Code of Canon Law. He argued that the charge of impersonation of a priest was legally incorrect and presented to the court a certificate of ordination by Bishop Peter Shao Zhumin, the authenticity of which was acknowledged by the Religious Affairs Bureau of the Longwan District and the local government.
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The conviction of Xiaoming is yet another act of persecution on the part of the CCP, which has increased its crackdown on underground Chinese Catholics since the signing of the secret deal with the Vatican regarding the nomination and appointment of bishops.
The deal, according to which names are proposed to Rome by the CCP, has led to a heightened increase in religious persecution, which the U.S. Congressional-Executive Commission on China described as a direct consequence of the deal. In its 2020 report, the Commission wrote that the persecution witnessed is “of an intensity not seen since the Cultural Revolution.”
According to China expert Steve Mosher, “the Sino-Vatican Agreement is being used by the CCP to accomplish the slow decapitation of the Catholic Church in China.”
In a July comment on the Church in China, Mosher pointed out that “Xi [Jinping] made clear in a December 2021 speech that he intends to bring every religion in China – Catholic, Christian, Muslim, Taoist, and Buddhist – under the direct control of the CCP and make them serve its purposes. Any religion that does not teach its members to love the Party and socialism is a ‘backward’ religion engaged in ‘illegal religious activities,’ Xi said, and will be stamped out.”
“It goes without saying that Xi Jinping intends to crush the Underground Church and is using the Sino-Vatican Agreement for this purpose,” Mosher said. “But it is also clear that by preventing the faith from being passed on to the next generation he intends the same fate for Catholicism in general.”
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