Various commentaries appeared online after the signing of the Sino-Vatican provisional agreement on bishop appointments on Sept. 22, but, frankly speaking, it is very hard to find a comprehensive one in the mainland media except those we call “sunflower” (pro-government) articles.

Most are written by church members or academics, and it is obvious that they feel reluctant to express all their ideas.

If they had expressed all their thoughts, their articles and even their online platforms could have been blocked. To say whatever you want can result in you not being allowed to say anything at all. The result is that commentators self-censor, making it impossible for readers to understand their entire viewpoints.

The Sino-Vatican agreement, for the Vatican, is for pastoral purposes, but for China it is purely and simply a political agreement. As such, we need to analyze it under a political micro-scope to have a deeper under-standing.

Secret contacts between China and the Vatican have been conducted for several decades. As everyone knows, the Vatican is far more anxious and urgent than China in this matter. China has always regarded the power to appoint bishops as a non-negotiable part of its national sovereignty.

The Vatican has issued sixteen decrees advancing the causes of candidates for canonization and beatification.

With the approval of Pope Francis, the Congregation for the Causes of Saints proclaimed the martyrdom of Brother James Alfred Miller, and American religious who was killed in Guatemala in 1982. The Congregation also confirmed the “cult from time immemorial” of Michele Giedrojc, a layman who lived in the 15th century in what is now Lithuania and Poland. The decree, equivalent to beatification, gives him the title of “Blessed.”

In other decrees, the Congregation recognized ten martyrs of the Spanish Civil War; certified miracles attributed to two Italian woman, who now become eligible for beatification and confirmed the “heroic virtue” of ten other candidates for beatification.

Supporters of Islamist group Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan hold a protest in Islamabad on Nov. 2 against the acquittal of Asia Bibi. Pakistan’s government has been criticized for agreeing to the group’s demands.

Pakistan’s independent hu-man rights body has condemned the government’s inability to preserve “the writ of the state” during protests that erupted after the acquittal of Catholic woman Asia Bibi in a blasphemy case.

The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) condemned the government’s submissive response to protests by Islamist group Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan (TLP), terming the rapid agreement to the group’s demands as “a mockery of the rule of law.”

“What was hailed as a land-mark judgment and a human rights victory unraveled into a situation in which there was no distinction between the peaceful right to dissent and the thuggery of mobs who claimed a moral right to wreak public havoc, to attack citizens and law enforce-ment personnel, to wantonly destroy property and to incite hatred against religious minorities,” said HRCP in a statement on Nov. 4.