Princess Gloria says Catholic Church ‘has no option’ but to deal with China amid ‘persecution’ concerns

Speaking with Jacob Rees-Mogg on GBN America, he asked her: "The Communist Party has its official Catholic church, which is a schismatic group, and the true Catholics have had to be very brave and in some sense feel let down by the Catholic Church being so willing to deal with this schismatic group."

Princess Gloria said: "I agree with you totally, but we have a little bit of the same situation in Europe.

"We also have a systematic church in in Europe, which are the ones that go to the Tridentine Right and the ones who you've seen the pilgrimage in Chartres, and then we have the Pope and the official church that are very liberal, let's say."

Pope Francis launched a crackdown against access to Traditional Latin Mass, sometimes called the Trident Rite, because the Old Rite was being misused “in an ideological way”.

Some conservatives in the Church have used the Latin Mass as a battle cry in their general opposition to the reforms of the 1962-1965 Second Vatican Council, which included the introduction of Mass in vernacular languages.

Religious conservatives in the United States in particular have used the Latin Mass debate to align with politically conservative media outlets to criticise the Pope over a host of other issues such as climate change, immigration and social justice.

She explained: "I honestly think that with the Chinese, there is only one option and that is to keep the communication lines open with the communists because the communists have to understand that the Pope is no threat to them.

"There's always the threat of the political people that they think that people who are who have a pope far away in Rome, they will obey him more than the government."

Jacob Rees-Mogg said: "I was going to ask you about the former Hong Kong cardinal, now a retired bishop, but still obviously a cardinal who's been very unhappy with this approach because the Chinese have persecuted the real Catholic Church and have held priests in prison and so on, and those who are loyal to China Catholic Church has gone along with this and has allowed the Chinese to appoint some of their officials.

"It's a world away from people who go to the Tridentine right, who are still under the auspices of their bishop, and so on."

Princess Gloria responded: "You are right, and I do fully understand Cardinal Zens position. But yet again, Cardinal Zen is the only one to really protest this, and we do not know how politically savvy he is.

"He's a very good priest, for sure. He's a salesman. And he's also very friendly to the Tridentine Right. He says it himself. If you ask me, I think it is better to keep the communication lines open no matter what.

"Because if you close the communication lines, then there is no way you can do anything for the church. And the Chinese people are very, very good Catholics and they are longing to be Catholics.

"So by all means, keep the communication lines open and try to come to an end standing with the government, even if it means that the government has to approve every, uh, bishop you choose, this church, this pontificate, will only choose people that are pleasing to the Communist Party anyway.

"It's not a conservative pontificate. It's the pontificate that goes along with the political mainstream. So I wouldn't fear if I were the Communist Party or if I would advise the Communist Party.

"They have nothing to fear of Pope Francis, because Pope Francis is also in his soul, rather a socialist than a conservative. So all the better for the Chinese government."