an underground priest disappears. Others are released after being ‘brainwashed’

Father Xie Tianming would have agreed to join the official Church, which implies submission to the Communist Party. Like the liberated religious, he would have ended up in the clutches of the “guanzhi”“. The detention only ends when a change of mentality is demonstrated. Those who do not obey the Catholic organizations linked to the Party remain under observation and can no longer exercise their ministry.

Rome () – Father Xie Tianming, from the diocese of Baoding (Hebei), has been missing since six in the evening of April 10, according to information from Chinese Catholic sources. The parish priest belongs to the so-called underground community (clandestine, unofficial). His disappearance occurs while news circulates about the release of another 10 underground priests and the official local Church celebrates the consecration and dedication of new churches.

Father Xie reportedly “disappeared” because he decided to join the official Church, which is subservient to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). In such situations, the authorities take the cleric, lock him up in a secret place and subject him to “brainwashing” sessions for his political “re-education”. The priest runs the risk of being detained for a long time, until he gives “certain evidence” of a change of mentality.

The form of detention suffered by clergy is called ‘guanzhi‘: This is not a real prison, but a restriction of movement and activities. The religious must submit to political sessions and coercion to join the official Church: an act that implies adherence and servility to the PCC.

As of 2018, after signing the Sino-Vatican agreement on the appointment of bishops -later renewed in October 2020 and 2022- the United Front of the CCP launched a campaign to force all priests to profess their allegiance to the Party and join the official Church. Those who refuse are usually expelled from the parish or community and end up in detention.

According to sources contacted, at least half of Baoding’s priests joined the official Church after a period of guanzhi. The same treatment suffered the 10 clerics who disappeared at the hands of the police in the first quarter of 2022. The authorities released them at different times throughout the past year, but not before forcing them to attend indoctrination sessions. Since then, some have joined official bodies; those who did not adhere remain under observation, and can no longer exercise their ministry.

A clandestine priest released at the beginning of 2023, after spending almost a year in detention, explained that he did not want to change his position. Today he is confined to his home under the control of the authorities and was forced to renounce his pastoral service.

The Baoding underground community is one of the oldest and most numerous in the Chinese Church. Your Bishop, Monsignor James Suzhimin, it has been in the hands of the police for more than 25 years, having spent more than 40 years in forced labor under Mao Zedong’s regime. The local Catholics parted ways after Mgr Su’s vicar, Mgr Francis An Shuxindecided to go to the official Church (at the suggestion of the Vatican, according to some observers).