Wes Beyer: The following is part 2 of an interview with Christopher Mee conducted by Dr. William Saunders, Director of Catholic University’s Center for Human Rights. To listen to the first part of this interview, please check the link in the description.
Christopher Mee: And then another story that I think would just be very powerful to talk about would be Bishop Guo Xijin of the Mingdong Diocese in China. His story, I think, represents this conflict of the hierarchy in China. He had to face off against Chinese authorities who kept trying to replace him, demoting him and figuring that whole situation out. And among all of this, for Bishop Guo, it wasn’t about protecting his own position. It was about protecting the independence of his priests. After two years of continuous government pressure on him and his priests to register with the CPCA, the Catholic Patriotic Association, with no real autonomy, he resigned from his public role, and retired to a life of prayer.
Police eventually evicted him from his residence, and in his letter formally withdrawing his application for recognition, he says that the government has already decided to persecute priests who refuse to sign their request. “If I am unable to protect them, it is not worth my time to be recognized as an auxiliary bishop. I am willing to face persecution together with the other priests.”
And in his resignation letter, he says, “I am no longer able to keep up with this era. Nonetheless, I do not want to become an obstacle to progress.” And in this letter — it was a very powerful letter to read — he says… he belittles his own service to his diocese. He calls himself an incompetent pastor with no talent, no virtue, no wisdom, no skills, and no knowledge. And that’s obviously not true, but he is a humble man trying to do the Lord’s work, and he’s being frustrated from doing that in his diocese. So I hope that these stories can illustrate that… that the Church in China is actively being persecuted today, and the persecution is not something of the past; it’s something that happens right now in our Church.
Dr. Saunders: So anybody listening would expect that an agreement with the Vatican would make things better. But none of these bishops you have in the report have been better treated, or they haven’t experienced anything, any improvement in their situation, have they?
C: One of them, Bishop Melchior Xi, he was, as this report went to the press, he was recognized as a bishop, but he’s 95. He can no longer administer to his diocese. So, on its face, it would seem like a good thing to recognize an older bishop, but it’s too late. He’s too old and sick to be able to administer to his diocese. So, no, a lot of the fruits of this agreement have not been good for the Church. And something we found, and something that we wanted to highlight in this report, is that the persecution continues past the 2018 agreement and past 2020, when it was reauthorized, that these bishops are still being indefinitely detained and frustrated from exercising their ministry.
S: So, this report from the Hudson Institute, which I’m sure you can get from the Hudson Institute’s website, concludes with recommendations for the next administration on how to help the Church in China. We won’t go through those recommendations here because most of our listeners will be US citizens. You should get the report and, you know, now that we have a new president-elect, you should let your representatives know that you want the US to speak up for religious freedom in China. Chen Guangcheng believes that the best way to work with China is to be quite strong with them. And, based on his previous time as president, I would think that Donald Trump would be pretty strong with China, so perhaps something could change.
So Christopher, though, why don’t you tell us: do you have any final thoughts you want to give the listener about this report? Why it’s important?
C: Sure. First of all, please read the report if you can, but definitely pray for the Church in China. As Prof. Saunders said, call your representative, call your local clergy, and see if they can help implement these recommendations. Our Church is being persecuted in China. It’s being persecuted across the globe.
And our Church needs our help. So anything we can do to help, but the first step, especially, can be just talking about these cases and talking about the men and women who are currently being persecuted in China.
S: Yeah, and it should be inspirational for any Catholics or Christians in particular, but for any people who have faith to see how these people are willing to endure suffering for the good of the Church. I would encourage anybody who’s listening to this to share this podcast with as many people as you know; share it with 10 people, because, like Christopher says, things don’t change… We live in a country where we have a democracy, and the only way you change things is to let your government know that you want a different policy. Your government exists to serve you, and so share this with more people so the story gets out about these suffering bishops.
And so… this is not something that America can solve, but it’s something America can contribute to. Anything else, Christopher?
C: I think that’d be it. Thank you so much for having me on your podcast.
S: Okay, well Christopher, thanks for being with us. I invite everybody to visit our webpage, which is humanrights.catholic.edu. Get your friends to sign up for… we have a weekly podcast. You can visit our page and see other things that we’re doing on human rights issues, you can learn more about Guangcheng if you’re not familiar with him. He is [a] very famous dissident who was on the cover of NewsWeek Magazine in 2005 and Time Magazine in 2010, and was nominated for the Nobel Prize. We’re honored to work with him on the effort to bring democracy, freedom, and the rule of law to China.
So, until next time, we’ll see you on the Barefoot Lawyer Reports. Thank you.
Will Deatherage: The Catholic University’s Center for Human Rights has published a documentary on the United Nations’ universal declaration on human rights. The documentary features world-class human rights experts, from former State Department officials to ambassadors and human rights activists. It can be found on our website at humanrights.catholic.edu.