Deteriorating relations between Beijing and the
Vatican look set to worsen after China's state-controlled Catholic
church yesterday announced plans to ordain seven more bishops without
papal approval.
The Chinese authorities angered the Papacy a week
ago by naming a third new bishop in eight months without consulting
Rome.
The Vatican reacted by excommunicating the new bishop, Joseph
Huang Bingzhang. Branding his ordination illegitimate, the Vatican said
Pope Benedict "deplores" the way communist authorities are treating
Catholics eager to stay faithful to Rome rather than the state-backed
church.
In a move set to further antagonise the
Vatican, the Chinese bishops' council is considering seven new
candidates, according to the state-run China Daily newspaper.
Liu Bainian, honorary president of the Chinese
Catholic Patriotic Association (CCPA), which runs China's Catholic
churches, was quoted as saying: "Upon inspection and approval, when the
conditions are ripe, the ordinations will take place."
Asked
if the ordinations had been discussed with the Vatican, the CCPA's
vice-chairman, Rev Joseph Guo Jincai told reporters: "There's no
official channel for communications, but we cannot delay the election of
our bishops because it is important to spread the gospel. We hope that
the Vatican will respect the outcome of our elections."
Beijing severed ties with the Vatican in 1951 after the communists took power.
Today
China's approximately 12 million Catholics may worship only with the
state-sanctioned church, which recognises the Pope as a spiritual leader
but rejects his authority to appoint priests and bishops.
But a
thriving Catholic underground following remains loyal to the Vatican.
In
the past, Beijing has allowed the ordination of bishops approved by the
Vatican and Pope Benedict XVI has tried to boost the Vatican's ties
with Beijing.
But progress in reaching a compromise on the Vatican's
role in China appears to have stalled in recent months, with the Vatican
growing increasingly concerned at the security forces' intimidation of
Catholics.
Last week, a Vatican source told the
Reuters news agency that eight bishops were accompanied to the most
recent ordination by police and four were detained and then released in
the run-up to the ordination.
"Sino-Vatican
relations may have plunged to their lowest level since the 1950s," Zhuo
Xinping, director of the Institute of World Religions at the Chinese
Academy of Social Sciences, told the China Daily.
The Chinese Foreign Ministry made no statements on the developments. No-one at the Vatican was available to comment.
Rev
Jeroom Heyndrickx, director of Verbiest Institute at the Catholic
University of Leuven in Belgium, said the latest developments showed
that religious freedom in China is still a big problem.
"The
way they pick up the bishops and force them to do these ordinations,
makes China, in my view, lose face in the face of the whole world," he
said.