China's state-controlled Catholic church says it will move swiftly to
appoint new bishops in dioceses where there are none, in a step that is
certain to worsen frictions with the Vatican.
Filling the more
than 40 empty bishop's seats is an urgent task because the vacancies are
causing serious problems in the handling of church affairs, the
official Xinhua News Agency quoted a spokesman for the Chinese Patriotic
Catholic Association as saying on Thursdsay.
Bishops must be
selected and ordained in an "active and prudent" way, based on national
conditions and pastoral and evangelizing work, Yang was quoted as
saying.
China doesn't have any diplomatic ties with the Vatican,
and the authoritarian government claims the right to appoint bishops in
defiance of the Holy See's insistence that only it has the authority to
do so.
The next ordination of an bishop not endorsed by Rome could come within a week.
The Catholic news service Ucanews.com,
citing church sources it did not name, said the Patriotic Association
plans on Wednesday to ordain one of its own vice chairmen as bishop in
the southwestern diocese of Leshan in Sichuan province.
Populous
Sichuan province is home to five of China's 97 dioceses, but has only
one serving bishop, 94-year-old John Chen Shizhong of Yibin, according
to Ucanews.com.
China
forced its Roman Catholics to cut ties with the Vatican in 1951.
Worship is allowed only in state-backed churches, although millions of
Chinese belong to unofficial congregations loyal to Rome.
The
selection of bishops is by far the most contentious issue dividing
Beijing and Rome. Relations nose-dived in November after the Chinese
church ordained another bishop without the pope's approval, ending an
unspoken agreement under which Rome was offered an opportunity to first
give its tacit approval.
That hard line was reinforced by Yang's
comments, which followed a national meeting last weekend of the
Patriotic Association and its sister body, the Bishops Conference of the
Catholic Church of China.
Earlier this month, the ordination of a
new bishop not approved by the Vatican was postponed for reasons that
were not announced.
Joseph Shen Guo'an, who was to have become bishop of
the central city of Wuhan, was quoted by Ucanews.com as saying he was informed of the decision but not told why.
However,
other church sources said Beijing had been unable to convince local
priests and lay people to show their approval by attending the
ordination ceremony, forcing them to call it off.
Beijing places
tremendous pressure on priests and lay people to go along with its
choice of bishops, often spurring a backlash amid calls from Rome to
resist.