Civilta Cattolica, the pope’s favorite newspaper, recently featured an editorial: “Confidence in the Journey of the Church in China.” But who is confident? Surely not Chinese Catholics. As a U.S. Congressional report in January noted, Communist Party restrictions on the Church have increased since the signing of the Vatican-Chinese pact, as “local Chinese authorities subjected Catholic believers in China to increasing persecution by demolishing churches, removing crosses, and continuing to detain underground clergy.”