Catholicism Ideologized: A Mirror–like History of the Church in Mainland China and Taiwan during the Cultural Revolution

The Cultural Revolution served as a critical catalyst that shaped Catholic politics on both sides of the Taiwan Strait. In mainland China, local authorities persecuted clergy and believers, portraying Catholicism as an ideological enemy of the revolutionary state. To oppose the Cultural Revolution that destroyed traditional culture, the Taiwan government encouraged Catholic leaders to align religious practices with state–sponsored cultural nationalism. Some clergy even incorporated rituals honoring figures such as the Yellow Emperor into Catholic ceremonies and prayed for the Republic of China. Drawing on newly discovered local archives from mainland China during 1966–1976, records from the Taiwan government, church documents, and Catholic memoirs, this paper argues that despite opposite political treatments, enemy in mainland China and ally in Taiwan, Catholicism in both societies was ideologically instrumentalized by competing Cold War regimes. These processes reshaped church–state relations, religious practice, and Catholic identities across the Taiwan Strait.