One of the House’s leading politicians in challenging China called on Pope Francis to take a stronger stand against the Chinese Communist Party over its treatment of religious minorities.
Rep. Mike Gallagher (R-WI), the chairman of the House Select Committee on the Strategic Competition between the United States and the Chinese Communist Party, wrote a Washington Post op-ed telling Pope Francis to consider adopting a more aggressive approach to China. He noted that the Pope will meet with the Synod of Bishops next week to discuss upcoming policies for the future of the Catholic Church. The Wisconsin Republican pointed toward Pope Saint John Paul II’s aggressive approach to the Soviet Union and urged Francis to echo it.
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“Without setting foot inside the People’s Republic of China, Pope Francis called on Catholics in the country to be ‘good Christians and good citizens,’ a phrase that left far too much unsaid,” Gallagher wrote. He noted how the Pope did not mention the Uyghurs, a majority Muslim population, and their oppression, as well as China’s treatment of the Tibetan people. He also failed to call for the release of Jimmy Lai, a Catholic publisher in Hong Kong.
He also noted how the Vatican made a deal in 2018 that allowed the CCP to nominate Catholic bishops and the absurdity of allowing “Avowedly atheist party members” to choose who China’s religious leaders are.
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“Francis has the power to confront Beijing,” Gallagher wrote. “Truth, combined with the fearlessness to speak it, is fatal to every ideology of oppression. In 1979, John Paul knew that the power of communism in Poland lay not in Soviet tanks but in the acceptance of the lies that drove them. Destroy the lies, and China’s tanks, too, will rust in fields.”
He concluded, “It’s not too late. Francis can still follow John Paul’s example. He cannot force the CCP to keep its word or to embrace Christianity. But he can challenge its values in front of the world.”
