HONG KONG (Reuters) – A looming deal between the Vatican and China is causing divisions between the church hierarchy and Catholics in Hong Kong, which has long been a vital beachhead for the faith on the southern edge of officially atheist China.

A peace pole is displayed outside a church in Hong Kong, China March 29, 2018. Picture taken March 29, 2018. REUTERS/Bobby Yip

Some senior Catholic clergy and Vatican officials have been urging groups of restive Hong Kong brethren in recent weeks to back a deal many fear will betray the so-called “underground” mainland Catholics that they have been supporting for years.

But some in Hong Kong fear any deal on the appointment of bishops in China could be a trap leading to greater persecution of underground believers as they come into the open, and ultimately to tighter Communist Party control of their religion.

Others, including some whose families fled the communist takeover of China in 1949, are angry the Vatican is prepared to do a deal even when some elderly bishops are in detention and concerns are growing over the party’s reach into Hong Kong.

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