Jimmy Lai’s sentence means it’s time to end the Vatican-China deal
It’s time for each and every one of us Catholic laypeople to muster every bit of influence we have toward one goal: divorcing our Church from the brutal regime that has attacked our brother.
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Kwan/Getty Images
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Tue Feb 10, 2026 - 4:30 pm EST
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(The Jason Jones Show) — A Hong Kong court has sentenced Catholic hero Jimmy Lai to twenty years in prison – a deliberate attempt at a death sentence, and clearly intended by China’s officially atheistic regime to make an example of the ailing 78-year-old media mogul.
And to whom is Lai meant to serve as an example? To Catholics – to you and me. Beijing wants to intimidate us into silence and inaction. But I am calling on Catholics – and laypeople in particular – to answer Lai’s sentencing with the same courage he showed by standing up to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) in the first place: It’s time for us to stand up and put an end our Church’s secretive and compromising “deal” with the CCP.
Let’s make Lai’s punishment go down in history as China’s big mistake
The CCP’s abuses are massive in scale and largely hidden from public scrutiny. Its specialties are secretiveness and backroom dealing, and one of the greatest blows it has received in recent years was the international recognition of its genocide in Chinese-Occupied East Turkestan.
But the official genocide designation was a victory that could only have come from Catholic and other witnesses putting all their strength into bringing U.S. officials’ attention to the regime’s abuses.
Because when the CCP holds millions of Uyghurs in concentration camps, it does so under vague euphemistic promises of keeping the world safe from “terrorism.”
READ: Jimmy Lai sentenced to 20 years in prison under Communist China’s ‘national security law’
When it harvests the organs of Falun Dafa prisoners, it’s just supplying needed “medical” goods to wealthy Western customers.
When it brutally persecutes the Catholic Church in China, driving believers underground and disappearing clergy – including bishops – it does so under a “deal” with the Vatican that grants “legitimacy” to clerics under the “Chinese Catholic Patriotic Association.”
But now, with international visibility of Lai’s sentencing, which has outraged Western leaders from Britain (where Lai holds citizenship) to the United States (where a Catholic, anti-Communist Secretary of State has already condemned the Hong Kong court’s decision) – now is the perfect time for the Vatican to unilaterally break its deal with the CCP.
And it is once again up to Catholics to bring attention to China’s crimes – this time by expressing to the Vatican that we are disgusted by this rotten deal that seems to lead to nothing but worse and worse humiliations inflicted on the Body of Christ.
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The CCP-Vatican deal is rotten
The secretive CCP-Vatican deal is just the sort of thing China’s regime thrives on. Despite the fact that China’s anti-Catholic persecutions under the brutal Communist purge known as “sinicization” have continued and even worsened since the deal was first struck, its existence gives pro-China operatives everything they need to sabotage the Western Church’s witness at every turn.
Thanks to the deal, whenever China commits another outrage against the Church, worried advisors can rush to remind every influential Catholic from the Pope down about the “delicate” relations that must be maintained with the communist regime.
But the deal is rotten from the head down. As it currently stands, it was brokered by the disgraced former Cardinal Theodore McCarrick – easily one of the most morally and politically compromised clerics in the Western Church.
By the time of McCarrick’s death last year, the whole world knew him as a serial sexual predator. A few short years earlier, he was a major player in international politics – and it is to him that we owe today’s embarrassing entanglements between the Vatican and China.
China targets both shepherds and sheep
As my Catholic apostolate the Vulnerable People Project has documented, the CCP has horribly abused, harassed, and imprisoned our bishops and priests under Chinese rule, including 94-year-old Archbishop Emeritus of Hong Kong Cardinal Joseph, whom the CCP has repeatedly arrested and dragged through humiliating court appearances.
Cardinal Zen, an outspoken supporter of Jimmy Lai, was present in solidarity at his sentencing this week.
When Bishop Joseph Zhang was arrested in 2021, the CCP’s thugs took ten priests and more seminarians along with him.
READ: Communist China still fears Christianity, and Jimmy Lai’s sentence proves it
Other examples are even worse. Bishop Julius Jia Zhiguo, who served orphaned children, has been repeatedly dragged away from his ministry to prison. He has been beaten and denied medical treatment while in custody. He disappeared in 2020 and, given his age and frailty, is presumed dead. (The regime does not bother to inform the public when even prominent Catholic leaders die or are killed in their custody.)
The Vatican in recent years has been outspoken against human rights abuses from Africa to Gaza, from the West Bank to Nigeria, from Iraq to the streets of Mexico.
The Vatican’s most powerful messages against China’s abuses of its flocks are now well overdue. And the first step toward that sorely needed witness is to get the CCP-China deal out of the way.
Catholics – and the Vatican – must answer Lai’s call
With Lai’s sentencing, Beijing sent a message to Catholics all around the world, knowing he has been an inspiration to us all: Don’t let his witness against our atrocities give you any courage. Instead, let our punishment forever remind you that your faith has no power to bring to bear against the Chinese Communist Party.
Well if that’s the message the CCP is sending, I hope Catholics around the world hear it loud and clear – and take it as a challenge.
Because our faith – Our Lord and His Church – do have power. And Catholic laypeople can bring the power of the Gospel against the CCP. It’s time for each and every one of us Catholic laypeople – from ordinary citizens to corporate leaders, from journalists to activists, and from politicians to artists – to muster every bit of influence we have toward one goal: divorcing our Church from the brutal regime that has attacked our brother, Jimmy Lai.
Jimmy Lai’s Sentence Is the Red Line. A Hong Kong court has condemned Catholic hero Jimmy Lai — an ailing 78-year-old — to twenty years in prison. A deliberate death sentence. A warning meant for every Catholic: Stay silent, or you’re next. And yet the Vatican remains bound by a secret, shameful deal with the Chinese Communist Party — a regime that disappears bishops, imprisons priests, and forces the Church underground. This deal has only emboldened Beijing. It has brought humiliation, not peace. Now is the moment to act. Catholics around the world must demand the Vatican end this rotten agreement and stand openly with the persecuted faithful in China. Jimmy Lai stood firm. So must we. Sign Our Petition: www.FreeOurBishops.com
Reprinted with permission from The Jason Jones Show.
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