Chinese Patriotic Catholic Association

The Chinese Patriotic Catholic Association (simplified Chinese: 中国天主教爱国会; traditional Chinese: 中國天主教愛國會; pinyin: Zhōngguó Tiānzhǔjiào Àiguó Huì), abbreviated CPA, CPCA, or CCPA, is an association of people, established in 1957 by the People's Republic of China's Religious Affairs Bureau to exercise state supervision over mainland China's Catholics. In his encyclical Ad Apostolorum principis of 29 July 1958, Pope Pius XII deplored the attitude and activities of the Association and declared the bishops who participated in consecrating new bishops selected by the Association to be excommunicated. Pope Benedict XVI referred to the agents of the Association as ""persons who are not ordained, and sometimes not even baptised"", who ""control and take decisions concerning important ecclesial questions, including the appointment of Bishops"".It is the only organisational body of Catholics in China officially recognised by the government of the People's Republic of China, but is not recognised by the Vatican. Experts consider it wrong to identify this institution of political control with the part of the Church in China that accepts or tolerates its control, some of whose bishops the Holy See recognizes as in full communion with it.Catholics in Macau and Hong Kong do not report to the CPCA and openly retain ties to the Catholic Church in Rome.