One year after the election of Leo XIV, the Vatican continues to fail to clarify what the future holds for the controversial agreement signed with China on the appointment of bishops. While Cardinal Pietro Parolin continues to control the Secretariat of State and maintain the diplomatic line inherited from Francis’s pontificate, doubts are growing within the Church about a policy toward Beijing that has not halted the persecution of Chinese Catholics.
A recent analysis published by La Nuova Bussola Quotidiana once again focuses on one of the issues still pending for Leo XIV’s pontificate: the future of the agreement between the Vatican and Beijing signed in 2018 and subsequently renewed in 2020, 2022, and 2024.
For now, Leo XIV maintains a prudent silence on one of the most sensitive cases inherited from Francis. The pact, whose full content remains secret, establishes a system whereby the Pope appoints bishops from candidates previously approved by the Chinese Communist Party. Since its signing, the agreement has generated strong criticism within broad ecclesiastical sectors, especially among those who believe that Rome has yielded excessively to a regime that continues to tightly control religious life.
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