A China church official says authorities of the church in China will not discuss with the Vatican the appointment of a bishop for Beijing Diocese because there is no formal China-Vatican diplomatic link.After the funeral of Bishop Michael Fu Tieshan on April 27, Anthony Liu Bainian, vice chairman of the Chinese Catholic Patriotic Association (CCPA), told UCA News that Beijing Diocese has capable priests to succeed the late prelate and there will be no discussion of the matter with the Vatican.
China and the Vatican have not reached diplomatic ties, Liu said, because the Vatican still maintains "so-called diplomatic relations with Taiwan."
Without diplomatic ties, he continued, the church in China has no official link with the Vatican, so it can hardly say if the church in China should report or not report episcopal candidates to the Vatican.
Liu also said the church will move up the meeting day for the National Catholic Representative Congress to elect new presidents for the CCPA and the government-recognized Bishops' Conference of the Catholic Church in China (BCCCC).
In the meantime, Liu added, he and Bishop Joseph Ma Yinglin of Kunming, secretary general of the BCCCC will oversee the daily operations of those two church bodies, respectively.
Bishop Fu, 76, died of lung cancer on April 20. At that time, he was bishop of Beijing Diocese as well as chairman of the CCPA and acting president of the BCCCC, after Bishop Joseph Liu Yuanren of Nanjing died on April 20, 2005.
Since Bishop Fu was a vice chairperson of the National People's Congress, China's legislature, with the rank of a state leader, his funeral was honored as that of a state leader at Babaoshan Revolutionary Cemetery, the main burial ground for revolutionary heroes and high government officials.
Funeral services were held in three sessions. The first, beginning at 8:30, was a memorial service only for members of the NPC including its chairman, Wu Bangguo. President Hu Jintao, Premier Wen Jiabao and other high-ranking state and social organization leaders attended the second session.
The third session, a Catholic prayer service led by Bishop Pius Jin Peixian of Liaoning, began at 10:30. Fourteen other bishops from various dioceses, about 150 priests and some 2,000 nuns, seminarians and laypeople attended the liturgy. Since the hall could not accommodate them all, most of the laypeople stayed outside the hall and remained calm during the liturgy.
When the service ended with Catholics queuing up to pay their last tributes to the deceased prelate, some began to sob. They told UCA News they did so because they felt sad to see Bishop Fu, who once had a stocky body and chubby face, look so small and skinny. Some said they missed their kind and warmhearted bishop.
Security was tight in and outside the cemetery. Only Catholics holding an obituary card issued by the CCPA, BCCCC and Beijing Diocese could enter the hall for the service.
Since Bishop Fu had reached the highest political status among all religious leaders in the communist regime, his coffin was covered with a national flag before the body was sent for cremation.
The ashes of the late bishop's body are to be transferred to Immaculate Conception of Our Lady Cathedral (Nantang, or South Church), where a memorial Mass will be offered at 9:30 a.m. on April 28. Thereafter, UCA News has learned, the ashes will be kept at the Babaoshan cemetery until renovation of the Catholic graveyard is completed.
Bishop Fu was born in 1931 in Qingyuan county, Hebei province. After studies in Beijing seminaries 1941-56, he was ordained in 1956. In 1979, he became the first "self-elected and self-ordained" bishop, without papal approval, after China began economic reforms and an open-door policy the year before.
Attending the funeral were Bishops Johan Fang Xingyao of Linyi, Paul Jiang Taoran of Shijiazhuang, John Liu Jinghe of Tangshan, Joseph Li Mingshu of Qingdao, Joseph Liu Xinhong of Anhui, Francis Lu Xinping of Nanjing, Joseph Ma Yinglin of Kunming, Anthony Tu Shihua of Puqi, John Wang Renlai of Xuzhou, Joseph Xu Honggen of Suzhou, John Baptist Ye Ronghua of Ankang, Vincent Zhan Silu of Mindong and Joseph Zhao Fengchang of Linqing. Auxiliary Bishop Peter Fang Jianping of Tangshan also attended.
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