HRW urges Pope Leo XIV to review Vatican's 2018 agreement with China to protect religious freedom

The human rights group also criticised the Chinese government for continuing to install Communist Party-aligned clergy while cracking down on underground churches, clergy, and worshipers.

In a statement released on Monday, the HRW said, "The new Pope, Leo XIV, should direct an urgent review of the Vatican's 2018 agreement with the Chinese government that allows Beijing to appoint bishops for government-approved houses of worship. He should also press the government to end the persecution of underground churches, clergy, and worshipers."

It added, "The Chinese government has continued to install Chinese Communist Party-compliant clergy. AsiaNews reported that during the mourning period for Pope Francis, who died on April 21, 2025, the Chinese government had moved forward on the appointments of an auxiliary bishop in Shanghai and the bishop of Xinxiang, Henan province."

Maya Wang, associate China director at Human Rights Watch, said the new Pope should push for fresh negotiations with Beijing to protect the religious freedom of Catholics in China.

"Pope Leo XIV has an opportunity to make a fresh start with China to protect the religious freedom of China's Catholics. The new Pope should press for negotiations that could help improve the right to religious practice for everyone in China," Maya said.

"Chinese Catholics worshiping in underground churches are among the 'ordinary people' on whom Pope Leo has said the church should focus its attention. It's critical for religious freedom in China that the Catholic church stands on their side, and not on the side of their oppressors," Maya added.

The HRW statement further said that Pope Leo should press the Chinese government to immediately free several Catholic clergy, including James Su Zhimin, Augustine Cui Tai, Julius Jia Zhiguo, Joseph Zhang Weizhu, Peter Shao Zhumin, and Thaddeus Ma Daqin, who in recent years have been imprisoned, forcibly disappeared, or subjected to house arrest and other harassment.

The Chinese government has long restricted the country's estimated 12 million Catholics to worship in official churches under the leadership of the Chinese Patriotic Catholic Association, and has persecuted Catholics who have attended underground "house churches" or pledged allegiance only to the pope. The government has conducted frequent raids on underground churches and arrested unapproved clergy and congregants.

The 2018 Provisional Agreement regarding the Appointment of Bishops, the full text of which has never been made public, ended a decades-long standoff over who had the authority to appoint bishops in China. Under the agreement, Beijing proposes future bishops, and the pope has veto power over those appointments.

Since the 2018 agreement, the two parties have agreed on the appointment of 10 bishops, covering about a third of the over 90 dioceses in China that remained without a bishop. The Vatican has never exercised its veto power, however, even when the Chinese government violated the agreement by unilaterally appointing bishops in 2022 and 2023, appointments that Pope Francis later accepted, according to HRW.

The Chinese government, which restricts all religious practice in China to five officially recognized religions, regulates official church business and retains control over personnel appointments, publications, finances, and seminary applications.

The 2018 Holy See-China agreement was reached during President Xi Jinping's drive to tighten already stringent controls over religions in China in the name of "Sinicization" of religion.

In recent years, the authorities have demolished hundreds of church buildings or the crosses atop them, prevented adherents from gathering in unofficial churches, restricted access to the Bible, confiscated religious materials not authorised by the government, and banned Bible and religious apps.

The HRW further reported that the Chinese government's Sinicization of religion has meant ruthless repression of Buddhism in Tibet, where the Chinese authorities have imposed strict controls over the process of selecting Tibetan lamas, including by forcibly disappearing the six-year-old Panchen Lama since 1995, and by controlling the process for the selection of the future Dalai Lama.