The Rise of the “Underground” Catholic Church in Early Reform-Era China

Abstract

This essay aims to present a detailed account of the restoration of the Catholic Church in Shanghai during 1979–1981 and then to explain how the arrests and suppression of Catholic leaders in late 1981 solidified the division between the official and underground Catholic churches. Two of the major factors that lead to the reemergence of the Shanghai Catholic underground community were the release and rehabilitation of veteran priests and other Catholic leaders and the dissemination of a 1978 Vatican decree that gave great latitude to the church, which was functioning in “difficult circumstances.” The essay ends with a discussion of current prospects of the Catholic Church in China.