Former Cardinal Theodore McCarrick – who played a critical role in shaping the Vatican’s controversial relationship with the Chinese Communist Party – has repeatedly headlined events sponsored by CEFC China Energy, a Chinese government-led influence group that has counted Hunter Biden as its Managing Director, The National Pulse can reveal.

The former Cardinal, who was defrocked due to sexual abuse, spoke at several events hosted by the group, with excerpts of his remarks earning publication in CEFC China Energy’s journal, “China Eye.” McCarrick has asserted commonalities exist between Communist and Catholic doctrine along with drawing positive parallels between Xi Jinping and the Pope.

McCarrick also served as an envoy for negotiations between the Chinese Communist Party and the Vatican over establishing formal ties, with many criticizing the final deal as a “slap in the face” to China’s Catholics. The establishment of formal relations between the two entities follow McCarrick’s robust involvement with CEFC China Energy.

CEFC’s Deputy Chairman and Secretary-General is Dr. Patrick Ho, dubbed “the f**king spy chief of China” in exclusive audio released by The National Pulse from Hunter Biden’s “Hard Drive from Hell.”

Ho appears multiple times in the e-mails as the pair inked million-dollar contracts, earning Hunter Biden the position of “Managing Director” at CEFC by 2018. The Chinese Communist Party operative was later indicted by the U.S. Department of Justice for “schemes to bribe top officials for business advantages,” and used the committee “to conceal his criminal schemes, according to the Department of Justice.

McCarrick spoke at several CEFC events including the New York Forum on World Civilizations in 2012 and Sino-US Colloquium on Core Values and World Order in 2013.

A 2014 edition of CEFC’s “China Eye” Journal contains an excerpt from McCarrick’s speech from 2013. “It is a special pleasure to be back with the China Energy Fund,” he began his speech before praising the “brilliant” Patrick Ho. “I do not have the brilliance or the learning to match Patrick, but I’m just going to take out a couple of things that I think would be important and perhaps stimulating as we begin our discussion today,” he added.

McCarrick proceeds to draw parallels between Xi and the Pope:

“I have seen President Xi with a number, with meeting ordinary people; I have seen him on the streets in pictures of streets of Shanghai or _ or places like that. You see the Holy Father too in the areas: him in Brazil, where he leaves his entourages and plunges into the midst of a group of people who are very, thank God, who love him and who want to be with him but you know you always can get one who doesn’t love him and who wants to get rid of him, and that’s of course is the problem of notoriety and of power today. So they are both people who are willing to talk to the ordinary people, to those who are not in government, and they are also willing to look at society in a new way. The Holy Father continues to talk about reforming the different parts of the Church; President Xi talks very often, as far as I read, in reforming part of the government, reforming the way that power is exercised and the way that it is shared with the different agencies. And each of them has a new vision so that not only is our world faced with a large Christianity of more than a billion and a large China of more than a billion, but these great masses of human beings, brothers and sisters all, they share this new vision and, and I have to put it into words, this is where the difficulty comes.”

While pushing for closer collaboration McCarrick, also posits that “connections” exists between “doctrines of Catholics and the Communist doctrine”:

“Now all these different comparisons and these different connections between, let us say, the Catholic Church, which I can speak from because I belong to it and have belonged to it sometimes when you get as old as I am you think for centuries, but let me just look at it, just for a moment, even doctrines of Catholics and the Communist doctrine.”

McCarrick also spoke at a conference at the United Nations headquarters in New York, which outlined its objective as finding “harmony based on shared values – beyond national identities and beliefs: a dialogue between Confucianism and Christianity.”

The event’s now-deleted promotional page describes laying the groundwork for a “new harmonious relationship based on mutual respect and appreciation” between the Chinese Communist Party and the U.S.:

“Confucianism and Christianity, two civilizations with great influences around the world, have both different and common features between them. Dialogue and exchange between the two civilizations in the era of globalization will be pivotal to promote communications and understanding leading to a new harmonious relationship based on mutual respect and appreciation. It can provide the very foundation necessary to build a new and sustainable relationship as the world is becoming a global village.”

Excerpts from McCarrick’s speech were published in the group’s October 2013 journal, which included praise for Chairman Ho’s emphasis on open dialogue in an op-ed the convicted criminal wrote for state-run media outlet China Daily:

“Dr. Ho in his op-ed piece in “China Daily” spoke of dialogue. Quoting the Chinese scholar Tu Weiming, Ho says that dialogue “is an extremely common experience in interpersonal encounters, in which self-awareness is heightened and our ability to understand others is deepened.”

Also in attendance at the 2012 event was the co-founder of the Journal of Ecumenical Studies Leonard Swidler and former member of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops John Borelli.