The 2018 agreement sought to find a middle ground, although Rome has acknowledged it was a bad deal and the only one it could get. The Holy See’s outreach to China under Francis has drawn criticism, especially from American conservatives who have accused the Vatican of selling out the faithful who have been forced underground.
What is the compromise? Seems relevant to the article about a thing to explain what the thing is.
Iirc, before 2018 the Chinese goverment would refuse to recognize some priests or bishops as officials even if the Pope had selected them. The relation between the PRC and the Vatican was ok, better than the Soviets and the Vatican, but this was a huge problem for them.
In 2018 Francis made a deal with them, I think Xi wanted to approach the Catholic Church due to the slow but big growth of the Church in Asia, and because they probably wants to get closer with LatAm and Africa. Francis (The Pope) would choose the priests, but the Chinese goverment/CPC would have to approve them, some TradCath and Anti-China Catholics are angry bc they hate Francis (mostly bc he purged some tradcatholics and kicked some out of the church, and he is in friendly terms with some socdem and communist goverments in LatAm), and bc Francis have been mostly choosing normal Catholic priests and bishops, instead of anti-China ones.
My comment above is literally a summary from a presentation by the Cardinal Kung Foundation. For decades it was illegal to be Catholic in China and the priests and bishops operated clandestine at great risk of being caught. In place of the Catholic Church the Chinese Communist Party created the Patriotic Association to operate like the Catholic Church using priests and bishops who would break communion with Rome in favor of the local communist government. The “deal” between the Vatican and the CCP attempted to reconcile the two groups to each other in a way that was favorable to both but it did not work out that way.
That’s a crossover episode i did not expect
