British Peer Lord Alton Says Vatican Made 'a Deal With the Devil' in China

Lord David Alton, a Catholic member of the United Kingdom's House of Lords, criticized the confidential agreement between the Vatican and the Chinese communist government, calling it a "deal with the devil," according to Crux. Alton spoke about religious freedom in China and what he described as the Vatican's failure to respond to systematic violations suffered by Christians, Muslims and other religious groups in the country.

Alton referred to a petition promoted by Aid to the Church in Need (ACN), which urges countries to meet the obligations set out in Article 18 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. He said the Vatican has kept silent, apparently out of fear of upsetting the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), while the party continues to restrict the religious freedom of Catholics in China.

"In the case of the Chinese communist regime, the Vatican is making a deal with the devil, a regime that has committed genocide against the Uyghur Muslims and persecutes Tibetan Buddhists, Falun Gong practitioners and Chinese Christians," Alton said. He added that "fear of upsetting the Chinese Communist Party has led the Vatican to remain silent about grave violations of religious freedom."

The Sino-Vatican agreement

The Sino-Vatican agreement, signed in 2018 and renewed in 2024 for four years, is understood to recognize the state-approved church in China and to allow the CCP to name bishops, with the pope reportedly retaining a veto. In practice, control rests with the CCP, which allows the party to impose its ideology on Chinese Catholics.

Several Catholic prelates have criticized the accord, including Cardinal Joseph Zen of Hong Kong, who called it an "incredible betrayal" of Catholics in China. Zen, 94, has repeatedly said that "they are giving the flock into the mouths of the wolves. It is an incredible betrayal," and warned that "the consequences will be tragic and long lasting, not only for the church in China but for the whole church, because it damages its credibility."

Transnational repression and Catholic organizations

Peter Tan, chairman of the board of the US-China Catholic Association (USCCA), known for its support of sinicization, recently received instructions from two Chinese officials to cancel a conference in which professor Fenggang Yang, a critic of the CCP and of the agreement with the Vatican, was to take part.

Yang said he was disappointed by the USCCA's cooperation with the CCP's transnational repression. "It is a shame that a US-based Catholic organization has become part of China's long-arm repression in the United States," he said.