Another Chinese episcopal ordination without the approval of Pope
Benedict XVI is scheduled to take place within the next week, further
straining relations between the Holy See and China’s government.
Fr.
Joseph Huang Binzhuang is to be ordained as bishop of Shantou diocese
in the southern province of Guangdong on Thursday July 14, the Asian
Catholic news agency UCA News reported July 8.
Chinese authorities are reportedly pressuring the four other Catholic bishops in Guangdong to attend the ceremony.
The
news comes only days after the Vatican warned Catholic churchmen that
they could face excommunication for their participation in another
illicit episcopal ordination in the Diocese of Leshan last month.
“Our
bishop has expressed to the officials he is unwilling to go as the
ordination is not approved by the Vatican and the consecrating bishops
of the Leshan ordination are facing severe punishment,” one local source
told UCA News.
“The officials told our bishop not to worry as
the government will back him and he is not alone because several other
bishops will also participate,” he said.
Meanwhile, in the
northeast Diocese of Liaoning, priests have voted to block their Bishop,
Paul Pei Junmin, from attending the Shantou bishop’s ordination.
China’s
communist regime continues to try to control all aspects of Chinese
life, including the Catholic Church. The Chinese government created and
continues to run the Chinese Catholic Patriotic Association, which does
not acknowledge the authority of the Pope.
In contrast, Canon 1382
of the Catholic Church's Code of Canon Law states that both a bishop
who consecrates a person as Bishop “without a pontifical mandate,” and
the one who is consecrated, “incur a latae sententiae (automatic)
excommunication reserved to the Apostolic See.”
To make matters
worse for the Vatican, Shantou diocese already has a Vatican-appointed
leader in the person of Bishop Peter Zhuang Jianjian.
The Chinese
authorities, though, only recognize him as a priest.
The 81-year-old’s
ministry has become restricted because he was injured in a car crash.
He
is also under surveillance by the authorities.
Bishop Zhuang has
phoned and written to Fr. Huang to persuade him not to take part in next
week’s illicit ordination but Fr. Huang has so far refused to meet him.
The bishop will “never submit to pressure but continue to
preserve the Church’s principles and remain in communion with the Pope,”
UCA News’ source said.
Fr. Joseph Huang was ordained to the
priesthood in 1991 and has served as parish priest of St. Joseph’s
Cathedral. On May 11 he won a diocesan “election” for the post of
bishop.
The process involved 70 representatives, including 20 priests,
and was monitored by government officials.
Chinese authorities have
placed under surveillance some of those who refused to participate.
After
several years of an apparent thaw in relations between the Holy See and
China, recent events suggest that Beijing and Rome are still at
loggerheads.
Officials of the state-run Patriotic Catholic Association
announced June 23 that they are now looking to ordain as many as 40 new
bishops without Vatican approval.
If next week’s ordination goes
ahead it will be the third illicit ordination in nine months, including
one in Chendge diocese in November last year and one in Leshan last
month.