CNA Staff, Sep 18, 2020 / 17:01 pm
Reflecting Friday on the state of the 2018 Vatican-China deal, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo noted that the human rights situation in China has deteriorated in recent years, and that the "moral witness" of the Vatican in support of religious believers is sorely needed.
"The Holy See has a unique capacity and duty to focus the world's attention on human rights violations, especially those perpetrated by totalitarian regimes like Beijing's. In the late twentieth century, the Church's power of moral witness helped inspire those who liberated central and eastern Europe from communism," Pompeo wrote in a Sept. 18 essay at First Things.
"That same power of moral witness should be deployed today with respect to the Chinese Communist Party," he continued.
"What the Church teaches the world about religious freedom and solidarity should now be forcefully and persistently conveyed by the Vatican in the face of the Chinese Communist Party's relentless efforts to bend all religious communities to the will of the Party and its totalitarian program."