Pope Francis caves in to the Catholic Church’s old enemies, by Jennifer Oriel.

“Is the Pope Catholic?” used to be a rhetorical question. The Vatican’s new deal with the Chinese Communist Party makes the irony seem quaint. As the free world grapples with the communist-Islamist threat, Pope Francis is finalising a deal that could legitimise the most genocidal ideology in modern history. It elevates the CCP as a religious authority over millions of Chinese. It violates core Christian principles that sustain the free world. It renders millions of Chinese vulnerable to state persecution.

In March, the Vatican will recognise the Communist Party as a spiritual authority with the power to appoint bishops. The idea is controversial, as The Australian has been reporting over the past few weeks. The accord will reverse decades of Vatican resistance to communism. It will give the Chinese state power over church leadership.

Communists are thrilled by the prospect. For years, they tried to eradicate Christianity in China. Like their Bolshevik comrades, they persecuted Christians, killed priests, destroyed churches and made political prisoners of resisters. When they failed to kill God, the red state tried to make Christ communist. They constructed a parallel system of religion with church leaders appointed by the CCP and bibles rewritten to align with communist ideology. In diplomatic terms, it is Christianity with Chinese characteristics. In truth, it is communism.

For many years, the CCP has been frustrated by Catholics who refuse to worship the gods of the red state: Marx, Lenin and Mao. Underground churches have developed in Christians’ homes where Catholics defend the vital separation of church and state by resisting the communist bible and its politically correct, false Christ. Many believe these Christians, loyal to Christ’s secular teaching, are being led like lambs to the slaughter by the Vatican’s deal with the communist state.

In the Global Times, party loyalists gloated about the Pope’s “substantial concessions” to the communist regime. …

Pope Francis, long rumoured to be a darling of the socialist cause, is closely associated with men schooled in liberation theology. In general terms, liberation theology combines revolutionary socialism with selected Christian teachings on poverty. South American priests led the ideological charge by joining Marxist revolutionary movements and appropriating Christ for the cause. It was denounced by the Vatican in the 1980s. Liberation theologians reportedly have contributed to controversial papal policies in favour of porous borders and global governance of the environment.

hat-tip Stephen Neil