China's Catholic Moment by Francesco Sisci

A freeze ensued for several years, but relations seem to be recovering. The greatest challenge to both the Vatican and the Chinese leadership is not diplomacy but the split between the patriotic and the underground churches. After years of isolation from Rome, parts of the underground church—notionally the Chinese Catholic Church, which is currently most obedient to Rome—are locked into improvisations of liturgy and doctrine that are hard to suppress and potentially embarrassing. The Vatican cannot cut the underground Catholics adrift after their long years of loyalty, often under frightful circumstances, but it cannot easily integrate them either. In some provinces, underground Catholics maintained their independence both from the Chinese government and from the Vatican, and they now answer to no one.

I'd like to see some support for these assertions.

The Cardinal Kung Foundation
Freechurchforchina
Up From the Underground

PERSECUTED! Catholic Church in Communist China PART 1


PERSECUTED! Catholic Church in Communist China Part 2
PERSECUTED! Catholic Church in Communist China PART 3

The First Things website has been revamped -- Joseph Bottum, A First Look at the New FIRST THINGS.