REPORT: China Removes Crosses from Churches, Replaces Images of Jesus with Xi Jinping GREG BAKER/AFP via Getty Images

The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is systematically removing crosses and replacing images of Christ with party officials, in the latest example of Chinese Premier Xi Jinping’s effort to “exert total control” on the Catholic Church and other religious groups in that oppressive country, according to a report.

The study, published by the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF), charges China with the “sinicization of religion.” Sinicization is a term used to describe the process of conforming something to Chinese culture. In this pursuit, the report states, China is infringing upon the ability of established faiths to exercise their internationally protected right to freedom of religion.

According to the Catholic News Agency, “Chinese officials have ordered the removal of crosses from churches and have replaced images of Christ and the Virgin Mary with images of President Xi Jinping. They have also censored religious texts, forced members of the clergy to preach CCP ideology, and mandated the display of CCP slogans within churches.

“To subordinate religions to the party, the government forces religious groups to enroll in various “patriotic religious associations” and their local branches. For Catholic churches, this means enrolling in the Bishops’ Conference of the Catholic Church in China, which is officially under the control of China’s State Administration for Religious Affairs and the CCP’s United Front Work Department.”

Those who dare to practice their faith following the traditions and dictates of the church and not as ordered by the CCP fall under the state’s anti-cult act, which enables the government to ruthlessly persecute rebellious churchgoers, such as underground Catholics, and imprison them.

Indeed, underground Catholics have become one of the CCP’s chief targets due to their refusal to accept the government’s authority to dictate their faith, the Catholic News Agency (CNA) reports.

“While some Catholics choose to worship legally within the state-controlled Chinese Catholic Patriotic Association, they are certainly not free as they must comply with the CCP’s harsh mechanisms of control and interference,” USCIRF Commissioner Asif Mahmood told CNA.

“Ultimately, the Chinese government is solely interested in instilling unwavering obedience and devotion to the CCP, its political agenda, and its vision for religion, not protecting the religious freedom rights of Catholics.”

The shocking details in the report shed new light on the highly controversial and scrutinized arrangement Pope Francis entered into with the Chinese government in 2018. In that agreement, he agreed to cooperate with Chinese Communist Party officials in the selection of bishops in China. Even more troubling for Francis, the USCIRF document clarifies that the Chinese have routinely selected bishops without consulting Rome.

Not only has the CCP selected the “bishops” it likes at will without consulting the Vatican, but it has also disappeared bishops it doesn’t like, several of whom have remained missing for years.

“Catholic bishops are special targets because of their essential role within the hierarchical Church in ensuring communion with the successor of St. Peter,” said Nina Shea, the director of the Hudson Institute’s Center for Religious Freedom. “Those who resist [government intrusion] are placed in indefinite detention without due process, banished from their episcopal sees, placed under indefinite security police investigation, disappeared, and/or prevented from exercising their episcopal ministries.”

Shea also says the agreement between the Vatican and China “makes no accommodation for bishops who resist joining the association for reasons of conscience, nor does it address religious persecution.”

Chinese religious persecution also extends to other faiths, not limited to, but also including Uyghur Muslims, who are used as slave labor.

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