The Chinese Foreign Ministry issued a brief statement on Friday congratulating Pope Leo XIV on his ascent to the helm of the Catholic Church, the oldest and first denomination of the world’s largest religion, and suggested Beijing was interested in “dialogue” with the Vatican.
Foreign Ministry spokesman Lin Jian’s indication that China would not be openly hostile to the new pontiff was notable given the muted response the Communist Party offered to the death of his predecessor, Pope Francis, who spearheaded efforts to engage the repressive atheist state by recognizing its false authority to choose bishops. Pope Francis’s outreach to the Chinese government reportedly left many Christians in the country, forced to pervert their faith into communist ideology, feeling “betrayed” and exposed to danger.
Throughout his papacy, Pope Francis endeavored not to judge or condemn the genocidal Chinese state, even as its repression against Christians grew increasingly violent and pervasive. Beijing did not offer any significantly elevated praise for the pope following his passing, ignoring his death for over 24 hours and refusing to send a representative to his funeral.
Asked about the election of Pope Leo XIV on Friday, Lin told reporters that China hoped his election would lead to a more peaceful world.
“We congratulate Cardinal Robert Prevost on his election as the new pope,” Lin said. “We hope that under the leadership of the new pope, the Vatican will continue to have dialogue with China in a constructive spirit, have in-depth communication on international issues of mutual interest, jointly advance the continuous improvement of the China-Vatican relations and make contributions to world peace, stability, development and prosperity.”
Cardinal Robert F. Prevost Martinez was chosen to succeed Pope Francis, previously Archbishop of Buenos Aires Jorge Bergoglio, on Wednesday and took on the name Leo, a traditional papal name last taken by Pope Leo XIII, who led the church from 1878 to 1903. Pope Leo XIII famously wrote one of the first religious texts to condemn socialism, the Encyclical Rerum Novarum.
Pope Leo XIV made history by becoming the first pope born in America in the 2,000-year history of the institution, tracing back to the first pope, the Apostle Peter. Pope Leo XIV is also the first Peruvian citizen (he holds dual citizenship) to become pope and the second ethnically Hispanic pope, after Pope Francis. The pope’s missionary background, as opposed to academic or bureaucratic within the church, also makes him an outlier among recent popes.
Given Pope Leo’s missionary background in the Western Hemisphere, he has given almost no recent public statements mentioning China or indicating how his papacy would handle the poor relationship between the Vatican and the Chinese Communist Party. In September, after being promoted to cardinal, he mentioned China in passing as a very different missionary atmosphere than Peru, but did not elaborate on his ideas about how to address the threat of the Communist Party.
He said in an interview at the time:
So when we list our priorities and weigh up the challenges before us we have to be aware that the urgencies of Italy, Spain, the United States, Peru or China, for example, are almost certainly not the same except in one thing: the underlying challenge that Christ left to us to preach the Gospel and that this is the same everywhere.
The priorities of pastoral work will always be different from one place to another, but recognizing the great richness of diversity within the People of God is tremendously useful because it makes us more sensitive when it comes time to better reach out and respond to what they expect from us.
Vatican City, as a country, recognizes Taiwan as a sovereign state, making it impossible for it to maintain diplomatic relations with China. Within the country, the Communist Party strictly regulates all religions and allows only five religions legally: Islam, Taoism, Buddhism, Protestantism (via the communist “Three-Self Patriotic Church”), and Party-led Catholicism, divorced from the Vatican. Pope Francis attempted to end the rift between the true Catholic Church and the Chinese communism deviation, run by regime-appointed “clergy,” with talks that led to an agreement in 2018 in which the Vatican would recognize some Communist Party “bishops” as legitimate.
The deal did not serve to improve the human rights situation of Christians in the country and, as of October, China continues to keep at least ten true Catholic bishops in prison or otherwise persecuted for their faith. Hudson Institute reported in October 2024, “At least ten Chinese Catholic bishops, all Vatican-approved, are currently in indefinite detention, have disappeared or been forced out of their episcopal posts, or are under open-ended investigation by security police.”
“The Vatican’s deal, struck in the name of unifying the Church in China, means the annihilation of the real Church in China,” Cardinal Joseph Zen of Hong Kong, one of Pope Francis’s most vocal critics, lamented following the passage of the agreement.
Pope Francis’s overtures to the Chinese government did not appear to warm Beijing to the Church.
“China expresses condolences over the passing of Pope Francis. In recent years, China and the Vatican have maintained constructive engagement and conducted useful exchanges,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Guo Jiakun declared on April 22. It was one of the last government statements recognizing his passing. “China stands ready to work with the Vatican for continued improvement of China-Vatican ties.”
“The CCP’s refusal to send officials to his funeral — despite Francis bending over backward to build bridges — tells you everything about how Xi views religious authority,” Jeff King, the president of the global human rights organization International Christian Concern (ICC), told Breitbart News this week.
“When Beijing refuses to honor Francis in death, they’re sending a brutal message to every Chinese Catholic: your ultimate loyalty belongs to the Party, not some foreign pope,” King explained. “The Vatican terrifies Xi precisely because it offers what the Party cannot — moral authority that transcends borders and outlasts regimes.”
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