In a 1958 encyclical, Pope Pius XII assured Chinese Roman Catholics they could rely on intervention from a powerful source: "Mary, the Virgin Mother of God, Queen of China."

Describing Mary as the nation's sovereign may have reassured a Chinese flock thrown into turmoil by the Communist revolution. But for the country's leaders, it was a reminder of Catholic claims to authority that could only be anathema to fiercely nationalist and atheist revolutionaries.