A Catholic priest overseeing missionaries in Hong Kong reportedly warned the missionaries to prepare for a much more difficult future, as the Chinese government tightens control over the exercise of religion

According to reports, a Catholic priest in charge of overseeing missionaries working in Hong Kong advised the missionaries to brace themselves for even tougher times ahead as the Chinese government tightens its control over religious freedom in Hong Kong.

The Holy See Study Mission in Hong Kong, which has a low-key presence on the island and serves as the Vatican’s lone outpost in China from which to monitor the Chinese mainland, is now led by Archbishop Javier Herrera Corona. The Study Mission, which also has control over more than 50 missionary organisations in Hong Kong, was mentioned for the first time in a footnote in the Pontifical Yearbook in 2016.

Herrera Corona reportedly encouraged his coworkers to safeguard the assets, records, and cash of their missions in four meetings held over several months beginning in October 2021, according to a Reuters article citing four persons with knowledge of the private talks. According to Reuters, Herrera Corona allegedly cautioned against limitations on religious groups like to those found on the Chinese mainland as a result of future unification with China.

From January 2020 until February 2022, Herrera Corona served as the director of the Holy See Study Mission in Hong Kong. In February 2022, Pope Francis appointed him the apostolic nuncio to the Republic of the Congo and Gabon. The Holy See Study Mission’s new leader has not yet been revealed.

Herrera Corona allegedly voiced concern about the Catholic Church being targeted during his discussions, in part because Chinese authorities had named a number of well-known Catholics as key participants in the 2019 pro-democracy protests and opponents of the national security law.

Cardinal Joseph Zen, Jimmy Lai, and Martin Lee are three Catholic pro-democracy leaders whose detentions by Chinese authorities have attracted global attention.

Since the Chinese government drove the Vatican’s diplomats out of mainland China in the 1950s, the Vatican has not maintained a nunciature, or embassy, there. The Vatican has not yet announced that Herrera Corona has begun covertly transporting cases of records overseas for storage.

While the Chinese Communist Party regularly imposes restrictions, monitors, and oppresses religious believers of all shades on the Chinese mainland, Hong Kong is a special administrative province of China whose residents have historically enjoyed freedom of religion. Since 2019, the CCP has stepped up its efforts to stifle free speech in Hong Kong, particularly in 2020 when it bypassed the territory’s legislature to impose new National Security legislation that allow China more authority to prosecute people who express criticism of the government.

Millions of Hong Kong residents, including many Catholics, have recently taken part in massive pro-democracy demonstrations, which peaked in the summer of 2019.

There is a persecuted, Rome-loyal underground Catholic Church on the Chinese mainland. Contrarily, government-approved Catholic churches confront various difficulties, such as pressure from the government to censor portions of Catholic doctrine while incorporating Chinese nationalism and party loyalty in sermons. They also enjoy substantially more freedom of worship.

A Hong Kong priest told EWTN in April that the CCP is using ideological tactics such as re-education and propaganda to chip away at the freedom of religion in Hong Kong. A Reuters report from late December documented an October 2021 meeting at which Chinese bishops and religious leaders briefed senior Hong Kong Catholic clergymen on President Xi Jinping’s vision of religion with “Chinese characteristics.”

Speaking on an April 21 episode of EWTN’s “The World Over,” Father Vincent Woo, a priest of the Diocese of Hong Kong and a canon lawyer, said that because the CCP wants to control every aspect of society, that naturally includes the practice of religion.

Many Christian leaders, according to Woo, are hesitant to criticise the CCP’s conduct for fear of being arrested or worse by the government.

The National Security Law of Hong Kong has come under fire for its extremely liberal definitions of terrorism, subversion, and foreign cooperation. According to Reuters, certain Catholic missionary organisations have apparently taken steps to transfer significant assets, such hospitals and schools, to local ownership in Hong Kong in an effort to evade China’s increased monitoring of foreigners.