BEIJING: A secretive 2018 agreement between Beijing and the Vatican was renewed yesterday, despite strident US condemnation and warnings from underground Chinese priests loyal to Rome that they have only become more marginalized since it was signed. The deal allows both Beijing and the Holy See a say in appointing bishops in an attempt to close a schism in China's 12-million-strong Catholic community.

Washington had put intense pressure on the Vatican to scrap the agreement, saying it has failed to shield Chinese Catholics from persecution. "After friendly consultations," both sides agreed to the extension "for two years", foreign ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian told reporters yesterday. "The two sides will maintain close communication and consultation, and continue to push forward the process of improving relations."

Newly communist China severed ties with the Holy See in 1951, forcing Catholics to choose between membership of the state-run Chinese Catholic Patriotic Association or non-sanctioned churches loyal to the Pope. The Communist Party is officially atheist and exercises strict control over all recognized religious institutions, including vetting sermons. Those that operate without the Communist Party's blessing claim to have been targeted by authorities in recent years, pointing to the demolition of underground churches, persecution of members and pressure on their clergy to switch sides.

While some have hailed the Beijing-Vatican deal as a pragmatic compromise, others fear that China's underground churches will become even more marginalized. "The situation has not improved at all," one underground priest in Jiangxi province told AFP recently. The priest, who withheld his name over security concerns, said he had been banned by the government from carrying out church duties. The renewal of the agreement, he said, would leave Catholics feeling "helpless and hopeless".

Progress or setback?
There was a potential sign of that pressure earlier this month when auxiliary bishop Vincenzo Guo Xijin of the Mindong Diocese in Fujian province abruptly resigned. A person familiar with the matter told AFP Guo had resigned in protest after coming under pressure to join the state-run church, as the 2018 deal required bishops to do. Other underground figures, including Bishop Augustine Cui Tai, remain detained or under house arrest.

The deal's supporters argue that it was never meant to address all outstanding issues, but was an important first step and largely beneficial to Chinese Catholics. "We are content with the agreement," Cardinal Pietro Parolin, the Vatican's Secretary of State, told reporters Wednesday. "But of course, problems remain that the agreement was not intended to resolve," he said. The Vatican will be braced for an angry response from Washington less than two weeks before a US election in which America's large Christian population is being wooed by President Donald Trump. Earlier this month Secretary of State Mike Pompeo called on the Vatican to be "serious" in addressing religious persecution in China - unusually forceful language directed at the pope.

Defeat for the underground
Priests and dioceses in the Chinese state church did not respond to AFP interview requests. However, one of them, Paul Han Qingping of northern Hebei province, wrote a blog post in late September supporting a renewal of the agreement. "As the barriers… have been removed, bishops in China are now able to come together more often in collaboration and consultation in solving Church issues," he wrote, but admitted that some unofficial clergy remain resistant. In a key concession to the agreement, Pope Francis recognized eight bishops appointed by China without papal approval. At least two more former underground bishops were appointed with approval from both sides, and a handful of underground bishops joined the official church this year.

Civil unions for gays
In another development, Pope Francis defended the right of gay couples to enter into legally recognized civil unions in a documentary that premiered at the Rome Film Festival on Wednesday. "These are children of God, they have the right to a family," Francis says in the film, "Francesco" by Evgeny Afineevsky, speaking in Spanish.

"What we have to create is a law of civil union, they have the right to be legally protected. I have defended that," said Francis. But the former Jorge Bergoglio has always voiced opposition to gay marriage, saying that marriage should only be between a man and woman. "Since the beginning of the pontificate the Pope has spoken of respect for homosexuals and has been against their discrimination," Vatican expert Vania de Luca told Rainews. "The novelty today is that he defends as pope a law for civil unions."

'No judgments'
After becoming pope in 2013, Francis adopted an unprecedented welcoming tone towards homosexuals, launching his famous phrase, "Who am I to judge?" and welcoming gay couples to the Vatican on several occasions. The two-hour documentary traces the seven years of his pontificate and his travels. Among the most moving moments of the film is the Pope's phone call to a gay couple, parents of three young children, in response to a letter they sent to him saying how ashamed they were to bring their children to their local parish. Francis invites them to continue to go to church regardless of the judgment of others. Chilean Juan Carlos Cruz, an activist against sex abuse in the church, accompanied the director to the film screening on Wednesday.

"When I met Pope Francis he told me… Juan, it is God who made you gay and he loves you anyway. God loves you and the Pope loves you too," says Cruz in the film. The Russian-born Afineevsky, who attended the Pope's general audience in the Vatican on Wednesday, was nominated for an Oscar and an Emmy in 2016 for "Winter of Fire" about the 2013-2014 protests in Ukraine. In 2018 he received three Emmy nominations for "Cries from Syria" about that country's civil war.- Agencies