Pope Leo XIV Approves CCP-Backed Bishop as China's Underground Church Suffers

Pope Leo XIV has approved a new bishop under the Vatican's secretive agreement with China, a deal critics say consistently favours the Chinese Communist Party while accelerating persecution of faithful underground Catholics who refuse state control. This represents a significant prophetic signal: a compromised institutional church aligning with authoritarian state power while silencing and persecuting true believers — a pattern Scripture warns will intensify in the last days. Revelation 17 warns of a corrupt religious system entangled with worldly power, and Jesus himself cautioned that false shepherds would arise who scatter the flock rather than protect it (John 10:12–13).