A friend of mine recently spoke to a Religious who worked in the underground Church in China. This Religious says he has received reports of the total demoralisation of his confrères there at the agreement between the Holy See and Beijing. He was less dismayed before by the real prospect of martyrdom than he is now at the thought of how he is supposed to labour under bishops who were excommunicated, or are in the pay of the Communist Party.
Where there was an official and an underground Church in a region, the agreement will now automatically transfer legitimacy, power and members to the official Church. The communists know that this is a way to destroy the underground Church and replace it with something which is a lackey of this most oppressive regime. These communities feel as if they have been betrayed. The sadness my friend reports is immense. Rome simply has no understanding of the situation in China: that is the only explanation they can find to understand what has happened.
