As UCA News reported on 1 July 2019, the Vatican has seen it necessary to
publish clarifying guidelines for the provisional
agreement between the Holy See and the Communist Party concerning the recognition of Catholic bishops, as reported by WWR earlier in October 2018.
Thomas Muller, persecution analyst at World Watch Research (WWR), explains: "It was hoped that the agreement would end the situation where - for both the Vatican and Chinese government - recognized and unrecognized bishops are serving the Catholic community in China; however, in practice, the Communist Party seems to have interpreted the agreement to be a means of forcing all Catholics to merge into the state-recognized Catholic Patriotic Association (CPA). This left many Catholics, who intend to stay loyal to the Vatican, in a difficult position. Now the Vatican has clarified that Chinese Catholics should follow their consciences and in situations where they are forced to accept CPA principles, clergy should try to add a written statement of loyalty to the Vatican (or at least declare this before a witness). To what extent this is realistic and practicable will need to be seen in practice. It is however doubtful whether such declarations of loyalty will stop the Chinese authorities from their continuing efforts to unite the whole Catholic community under the Party-approved roof."
