A DOCUMENT OF LI-WE-HAN
A Translation with Comments
Although this document appeared for the first time in Peking in the year 1959, it was published for the first time in Spanish by the Chinese Communist Party's publishing house for foreign languages. The original title was The Catholic Church and Cuba.*6 This document reflects the program put into place at that time by all the Communist parties in the world against religion, whether Catholic, Orthodox, or Protestant. The translation of this document into Romanian will clarify certain aspects of the colaboration between the Church and the atheistic Communist state in our country, which up until now seems to be confused and contradictory. But let us hear what Li-We-Han has to say.
The Objective: The Destruction of the Church
"The Church, and especially the Catholic Church with its center in Rome, is a reactionary organization which gives birth to contra-revolutionary activities in countries with popular democracies. For these popular democracies to be able to progress on their way to Socialism and Communism, it is necessary first of all to terminate the influence and activities of the Church. The Church is not sterile, as we think, nor impotent. On the contrary, we must recogni 17317m1224r ze her power
This document was directed to Cuba; Catholicism
was almost nonexistent in China.
and take preventive measures to bring about her destruction. The Church will be destroyed only when our political power and the productive forces of our regime reach a high level of output. This is the objective toward which we work. However, as long as we are still scarcely equipped doctrinally and we still have not educated the masses as needed, we cannot deliver a direct frontal attack to the Church. This would only confer upon her a greater prestige and give her more power to dominate the masses who have always felt close to the Church and supported her in her contra-revolutionary activities. In the same way, we must avoid making the heads of the contra-revolutionary Church into martyrs. This fact would give more strength to the prestige of the Church. Our actions against the Church should be the instruction, education, conviction and development of the political conscience of the Christians, forcing them to participate in our classes to teach political activities and to take an active part in these activities.
Substitution of Marxism for Religion
"We must introduce into the Church the Marxist dialectical method through the intermediary of active members of the party. These intermediaries should attend church and even become members of the Church. Through them we will progressively substitute the religious element with the Marxist one. We will gradually transform the false conscience of the believers into a realistic one, so that they themselves on their own account and at their own risk will destroy the divine image in their souls, an image that they themselves have created. This is our plan of action in our battle with the Church.
Tactics
"We present to you in continuation a program and tactics which were successfully used in the People's Republic
of China in order to liberate the Chinese people from the influence of the imperialist propaganda of the Catholic Church. This method can be applied to any and all religions.
"First of all, it is necessary that the entire Church, together with all her sons and daughters, be fully involved in all the activities of the popular government, where the masses can exercise an influence over them. We cannot permit the Church to remain independent, having an extra-national character which would place her over the masses. On the contrary, she must undergo a process of democratic centralism, receiving orders from us. We must encourage our members to take patriotic measures to compromise the Church and her image in history. We need a special government department which is in charge of religious affairs. This department must organize priests and faithful into patriotic clubs and local and provincial organizations in which they will pledge their total allegiance to the government and the laws of the country.
"During the constitution of these patriotic organizations, there will surely appear opponents who will refuse to be enlisted. These must be labeled as enemies and firmly eradicated; but in the beginning not violently. We must apply to them the laws of the country against anti-patriotic criminals who receive orders from the Vatican or from the Imperialists.
One Step Ahead, Two Back
"In this period of time, the masses will naturally feel a psychological conflict - on one side their attachment to the Church and clergy, on the other their patriotism, which advises them to support the government. At this stage, we must avoid any precipitous action which could isolate our party from the masses of the people. If the relationship between the masses and the Church are still too close, then the Party should take a step back, affirming that the measures are meant to defend
the religious freedom of the masses against foreign intrusion and that people should express their personal, individual opinions in relation to the problems and the doctrines of the Church, not receiving blindly whatever the clergy teii them.
The Role of the Party Activist
"... is to isolate the reactionaries who are still among the believers and to convince the masses that disobedience to the government is criminal and that the anti-patriotic elements must be isolated. It is the obligation of any patriotic citizen to discover and divulge the criminals. To the believers we will offer even Biblica! argumentation for the necessity to punish these criminals. Once these reactionaries are isolated, with the assent of the masses, they can very well be punished with the methods well known to our Party.
Dissensions in the Bosom of the Church Must Be Exploited
"The popular government must encourage discussions in cases of dissension among the members of the Church, because during these discussions contra-revolutionaries are revealed, who before were hidden. If after punishing these enemies the conflict continues, then the leaders of the Church must be obligated to assure the believers that the Church will remain pure after the eradication of the anti-patriotic elements. The activists will ask the priests to write an expressed declaration that the Communist government respects the will of the masses..., that the relationship between the Church and the government is based on free collaboration, and that only now is the religious sentiment of the masses free, Le., liberated from decadent, anti-patriotic influences.
"In the case of the Catholic Church, priests who want to maintain relations with the Vatican should be labeled as spies, anti-patriots and traitors. The activists of the Communist Party must convince their parishioners that they
should receive the faith based on their free, individual acceptance, not because it is dictated by the Vatican; and so independent Catholic churches will be created in Communist countries. The activists must convince the believers of a happy coexistence between the Church and Communism.
Marxist Priests in Important Positions of the Church
'The denunciation of the clergy who do not obey the government must come from among the masses of believers. Our Communist Party activists will take care of this, but the last stage of battle against the Church is the introduction of Marxist priests into its bosom. Even if they are not Communists, they must act as such, convincing the masses that whoever opposes the government is an enemy of the people and of the Church.
The Final Act: The Destruction of the Church
"When the moment comes that our people will occupy the key positions of the Church, then we can carefully proceed to the eradication of the Liturgical elements that are incompatible with the popular government. For example, religious processions outside of the church will definitely be eliminated. Then some changes in the sacraments and the prayers of the Church will occur, taking out expressions and even hymns obviously opposed to our doctrine. The government must defend the masses against the insistence of some priests who still try to convince people to frequent the churches or to practice prayer at home or to organize religious associations and groups. Especially must religious assemblies and meetings disappear because it is obvious that when religious practice is limited to only individual responsibility religion is neglected and little by little totally forgotten. And so the new generations will be substituted for the old, and religion will be treated in history books of the future as an episode from the past."
Taken from the volume Infiltragao marxista na Igreja81 Ed. Hora Presente,88 Santiago, Chile.
Note:
It has been said many times that Nicolae Ceausescu follows the Chinese program in his govemment and not the Soviet one. Anyone who has lived in Romania in the last thirty years realizes that in the techniques used by the Communist Party against the Church the refined method of Li-Wei-Han has been used.
Cuvantul Romanesc, May 1977
The Infiltration of Marxism Mo the Church.
The Present Hour, a magazine
published by the Catholic Church in
Chile.
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