In the comments in the post below this one, Ian draws our attention to the Christmas letter from the Cardinal Kung Foundation, which minces no words regarding some recent statements from Church officials:

Tens of thousands of faithful, priests, bishops and nuns suffered and died in Chinese jails because they refused to denounce the Pope and refused to join the official Church for the last 56 years.  In these 56 years, the official Church has not changed in that the most important article in the constitution of the official Church — to be autonomous from the Pope — did not change. The Roman Catholic Church’s canon law clearly states that refusal to submit to the authority of the Successor of Peter is nothing short of schism from the universal Church. This is the same official Church or the same Patriotic Church 56 years ago when Pope Pius XII wrote with great foresight on the subject of autonomy in his encyclical Ad Sinarum Gentem in October 1954: “…They (the Chinese Communist government) seek….to establish finally among you a “national” Church, which no longer could be Catholic because it would be the negation of that universality or rather ‘catholicity’ by which the society truly founded by Jesus Christ is above all nations and embraces them one and all…”

When Bishop Zen, Cardinal Tomko, and many other bishops, cardinals, and other people declare that these two Churches are the same Church, they are in effect declaring, in an attempt to legitimize the official Church, that the official Church or the Patriotic Association Church is also the One, Holy, Catholic, Apostolic and Roman Church, regardless of its autonomy from the Pope.  As I said before, this is contrary to the basic dogma of the Roman Catholic Church.  Just for the sake of argument, if they were correct, why should the faithful in the underground Church continue to suffer and lay down their lives for their fidelity to the Successor of Peter and for the Church?  All they would have to do is to join the official Church since, as Bishop Zen and Cardinal Tomko said, it is the same Church as the underground Church. If they were correct, all those numerous faithful, including Cardinal Kung and many other martyrs who suffered and died in the last 56 years since the communists took over China for refusing to join the official Church or for refusing to be independent from the Pope, would have done so in vain because if they were the same Church now, they would have been the same Church then.  Therefore there would be no apostasy involved in joining the official Church during the past 56 years – a sin for which they died or suffered rather than commit.  Their sufferings and martyrdom would have no merit for the cause of their beatification or canonization.  Pope Pius XII would have been very wrong when he said what I quoted above in his encyclical.  The late Pope John Paul II would have been also very wrong in his statement of December 3, 1996 in which he apparently referred to the official Church or the Patriotic Association as “a Church which does not respond either to the will of the Lord Jesus, or to the Catholic faith.”  The current Pope Benedict XVI would also be very wrong in that he has not recognized the official Church or the Patriotic Association’s Church as the One, Holy, Catholic, Apostolic and Roman Church.  If the two Churches were indeed the same Church, it is only logical to conclude that the Church is willing to legitimize the official Patriotic Church in spite of its position of autonomy from the Holy See and that the Pope would have declared his recognition of the official Church. However, no Pope in the last 56 years has declared so.  It appears that the Popes have not been willing to legitimize the official Patriotic Church as long as it is autonomous from the Pope.  Therefore, the official Patriotic Church cannot possibly be, as Bishop Zen and many other members of the Church’s hierarchy said, the same church as the underground Roman Catholic Church.