Replacing the Cross with a Portrait of Xi

While the Vatican is apparently counting the secret payoffs it receives from the Chinese Communist Party, the CCP is mandating the removal of thousands of crosses, icons, and sacramentals from Catholic churches and replacing them with portraits of former Chairman Mao Zedong and those of President Xi Jinping, which must be affixed above the pulpit and elsewhere. 

For example, in Anhui Province government officials and cooperating local personnel tore down the cross from Our Lady of the Rosary Catholic Church as part of a regional directive targeting crosses on houses of worship.

In Jiangxi Province, officials removed crosses and other religious items from an unofficial Catholic meeting venue, installing portraits of Xi and Mao while threatening to revoke the pensions of elderly attendees. In the province’s city of Ji’an, a painting of the Virgin Mary and Child from The True and Original Source of the Universe Church was removed and an image of Xi was hung in its place. 

State-run Catholic churches, such as St. Joseph’s Cathedral in Fuzhou, have been mandated to display CCP slogans. 

In some provinces, authorities have forced churches to alter the Ten Commandments: the First Commandment has been removed or rewritten to prevent followers from placing loyalty to God above loyalty to the CCP. According to Bob Fu, founder of a charity for victims of CCP persecution, “It’s the emperor playing God. [Xi] wants to be exclusive, he doesn’t want to have anything treated or worshipped more superior than him.” 

The United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) reports there are now mandates for clergy to preach CCP ideology, and a requirement for congregants in state-approved “patriotic” churches to sing nationalistic songs. Churches that are not state-sanctioned “religious associations” are often labeled “cults.” They face shutdowns, arrests, and the disappearance of leaders. 

The CCP officially recognizes five religions, including Catholicism, but this only extends to churches that are fully state-controlled—those in the state-sanctioned Chinese Catholic Patriotic Association. 

Underground churches in China, or “house churches,” still exist—courageous Christian congregations that operate outside state sanctions—but they are subject to periodic crackdowns and repression. Leadership and members are sometimes hunted down by the state and imprisoned and are victims of various other totalitarian tactics. For example, through a government-created phone app, believers must provide personal information such as name, identity card details, residence, occupation, etc. Those that resist have their “social credit scores” lowered, possibly resulting in debanking. 

The CCP’s “Sinicization” policy aims to subordinate religious practices to state ideology and CCP control. Initiated by Xi in 2016, the policy requires all religions to conform to Chinese communist culture and the party’s political agenda. By removing the cross and portraits of Our Lady, appointing bishops that are loyal to the CCP, controlling symbols and teachings, approving sermons, supervising donations, and censoring religious texts, Beijing is fundamentally transforming the “official” Catholic church in China in ways that promote allegiance to the Party.

How can the Roman Catholic Church look the other way when its church in China is persecuted, even having crosses removed and portraits of Xi hung above the altars? Is there a greater insult to our faith?

The cross is a symbol of triumph. It is everlasting life over death. The cross is the linchpin of Christianity. It represents Jesus Christ’s sacrifice, the payment for human sin, and reconciliation with God. Without it, the core Christian narrative of salvation breaks down.

Our Savior, hanging from the cross, is in every Catholic church in the world. 

Yet the Vatican is publicly silent while the CCP takes down the cross and raises portraits of Xi and Mao. Christ and his church are allowed to be mocked for…money?

During the church-approved Fatima apparition of 1917 and subsequent related apparitions, Our Lady decried blasphemies and sacrileges committed against the Sacred Heart of Jesus and her Immaculate Heart. 

Our Lady assuredly envisioned that not 100 years later, the disgraced, corrupt, sexual predator and moral deviant former Cardinal Theodore McCarrick would be an unofficial backchannel and envoy for the Vatican to China. Traveling to the mainland numerous times, he unofficially positioned himself as a bridge between the Holy See and the Chinese Patriotic Catholic Association. McCarrick continued his China diplomacy into the early years of Pope Francis’s papacy.

In 2018, Francis agreed to a Vatican-Beijing deal that handed over to the CCP the power to nominate the bishops of the Chinese “Catholic” church. The details of the agreement are cloaked in secrecy, but in known broad outlines Beijing handpicks bishop candidates and sends names to Rome for a rubber stamp. Reportedly, the pope does have veto power over the appointments, but CCP-approved bishops have never been rejected. 

McCarrick’s correspondence shows he helped shape the 2018 Vatican-China agreement. 

The sordid legacy of McCarrick, a tool of Satan, stains the church. Yet Pope Leo XIV has continued the China policies initiated by McCarrick and Francis. Cardinal Pietro Parolin is tainted here, too. As secretary of state since 2013, nominated by Pope Francis and confirmed by Pope Leo XIV in May 2025, he was the principal author of the deal.

The Vatican naively maintains that outreach to the CCP can be navigated similarly to traditional “inculturation” (adapting the Gospel to local cultures). Or, perhaps it is simply realpolitik. It appears the Vatican sold the cross to the CCP. 

A 2024 USCIRF report states that the Chinese “government has unilaterally installed CCP-aligned bishops without the Vatican’s consultation and approval,” and further, that the CCP “continues to forcibly disappear underground Catholic leaders who refuse to join” a CCP-sanctioned religious organization. 

The Vatican is making deals with an immoral, godless, totalitarian regime, the world leader in the top 12 categories of transnational crime, the most consequential violator of human rights, and the largest mass murderer in human history. 

What did the Vatican receive in exchange for granting the CCP unprecedented power over bishopric appointments? They had to receive something. 

Although the details of the agreement between the Vatican and the CCP are not disclosed, we do know that bribery is part of the CCP’s gameplan. It has been amply demonstrated that the CCP’s modus operandi abroad is using corruption and “corrosive capital” as instruments of foreign policy. This is further augmented by “elite capture” and sophisticated influence operations. The CCP preys on human vices—particularly greed. 

The Vatican has refused repeated requests to release details of its agreement/s with the CCP. The Vatican’s position seems to be that regular, common, traditional Catholics should remain quiet on China and trust the Holy Father. But trust is earned. Actions speak louder than words. Particularly after multiple church scandals and controversies, we need transparency. 

I can’t imagine manly popes of the Cold War selling out to the Soviet Union. In 1949 Pope Pius XII authorized the expulsion from the church of any Catholic who joined or even collaborated with “godless” Communists. Pope John Paul II, who experienced communism first-hand, played a leading role in defeating the Soviet Union. 

Perhaps the Catholics, Christians and others in China that are subject to CCP persecution take solace in Matthew 5:11-12; “Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven.” But true Catholics in China and elsewhere also deserve a protective shepherd. 

Leo XIV is the first American pope. As such, he’s familiar with American colloquialisms. I urge him to find a diplomatic way to tell Xi to go “pound sand.” 

Or, in other words, “The bride of Christ is no longer for sale.”