China has pressed its case for the local appointment of bishops, with an article in the government-controlled People Daily arguing that the Vatican’s claim to authority is “the West’s historical baggage and frankly its problem.”
People Daily claims that the Vatican’s assertion of the right to
name diocesan bishops is an aspect of the temporal power that arose
around the papacy in Europe.
“China’s history has taken place outside
the historical lands of Christianity,” the paper says, “and its
experience is totally different.”
The Pope is not only a spiritual leader, but also the head of an
independent state, the Chinese paper observes.
“Europeans may choose to
see this as quaint, but China is questioning the principle of letting a
foreign state dictate to another what happens on its own territory.”
People Daily dismisses the Vatican’s excommunication of bishops
who were installed without a mandate from the Holy See. Excommunication,
the article asserts, is “a medieval tool that has no place in 2011 in
China or anywhere.”
Chinese officials have blamed the Vatican for leaving dioceses without leadership.
The People Daily
article follows that line of argument, saying that the Vatican should
allow Chinese officials to appoint their own bishops.
“Otherwise,” the
article states, “the Church risks being seen as caring more about its
own temporal power than the spiritual needs of its Chinese flocks.”