Report: China To Name Bishop Without Pope Approval
BEIJING – China's government-controlled Catholic church is preparing to ordain a new bishop, and the leading candidate is a priest who lacks the Vatican's backing, potentially adding fuel to a long-running feud between Beijing and the Holy See.
China doesn't have any diplomatic ties with the Vatican, and the communist government has long disputed the Holy See's insistence that it has the sole right to appoint Catholic bishops. The Chinese church ordained another bishop without the pope's approval in November, which the Vatican later called a "grave wound" to the faith.
Ucanews.com, a news service that covers the Catholic church in Asia, reported Wednesday that the Rev. Joseph Shen Guo'an is expected to be ordained next Thursday in Wuhan diocese in central China.
Liu Bainian, honorary president of the Chinese Catholic Patriotic Association, the state-controlled group that runs China's Catholic churches, would not confirm that Shen would become bishop. But he said that the Wuhan diocese has been without a bishop for many years and that Shen has been in charge in the interim.
"He's been elected one of the candidates for the bishop of the diocese and has been preparing for becoming the bishop," Liu told The Associated Press.
"Now that the conditions for having a bishop in the Wuhan diocese are overdue, there should be an ordination," he said. "We hope that the Vatican will agree. And we believe that the people's voice is actually God's voice. The Vatican should show their love and agree on the ordination. Then there would be no tension between them and China."
Anthony Lam, a researcher at the Roman Catholic church-affiliated Holy Spirit Study Center in Hong Kong, said papal approval has not been given for Shen to be ordained.
"Nobody knows if he will get approved in the future," he said. "This kind of consecration causes difficulty to everybody and gives no benefit to anybody."
China forced its Roman Catholics to cut ties with the Vatican in 1951, and worship is allowed only in state-backed churches, although millions of Chinese belong to unofficial congregations loyal to Rome.
In recent years, under Pope Benedict XVI, relations have improved. Disputes over appointments in China's official church have been avoided by quietly conferring on candidates, leading to several ordinations of bishops with the Holy See's blessing.
However, Guo Jincai was ordained as bishop of northern Chengde city in November without the pope's approval, the last appointment that the Vatican disputed.
Ucanews.com said that Chinese officials are pressuring bishops to take part in next week's ordination, citing anonymous local sources. Liu denied there was pressure.
Lam said the "government forced other bishops to attend the ceremony" at which Guo was ordained. "I don't know if this is happening this time. It's possible," he said.
BoJangles
What's the Pope gonna do? Invade China!
FrankW
What happen to the Church of England, Is it approved by Pope? Who cares. They do for their own purpose.
j m
If the pope is the Holy See, he should see it coming.
Michael
I think that the Catholic religion has a flaw in its system that will destroy its self in time.
we have a problem with a Catholic Priest from HELL, there is a good Priest and a very mean bad Priest and the Archbishop of Cebu Philippine must decide what Priests Honor and respect, this is going to be interesting.
CeeCee
The evil pope knows NOTHING about Christ. The pope's & priests' behavior
reflect Satan, not Christ. Christ would NEVER condone pedophilia !!!!
Dragon Eat Bear And Eagle
the chinese dont need anymore child molesters. if the chinese catholics dont like it, they should all immigrate to italy to be closer to his holiness
Robert
China views this as a political assignment.
Justice Bao
This only means that the vatican will not help and support when it comes to hanky panky business with little boys. "although millions of Chinese belong to unofficial congregations loyal to Rome." - loyalty to Rome???? People should only be loyal to their own country.
The Divine Immortal
With the history of the catholic church , not to mention recent and ongoing weirdness , who can blame China for being involved ?
James Bond
death to the evil catholic church
Walter M
the idea of the state run china Catholic church is so sad and lame as to be funny. organized religions confuse me anyhow. the Catholics in china are quite brave to choose to show their devotion to Christ in such an atmosphere.
Loplanescram
Da Pope is gonna be Pissed !!
Li
Why do I get the feeling that Chinese bishops have more undisclosed access to financial gain than their international counterparts?
John Samuel Anderson
WHO CARE'S?? I mean, we don't acknowledge the authority of those people who call themselves bishop or popes and whatsoever. They only assign themselves whatever they want and blind people will acknowledge it. Any person can say "i have a dream last night and i had a nice chat with god" and he will be a pope or any other kind of being higher and holier than common people. OH COME ON!.
BirdWatcher
Religions = Lies
All Hail God Or Die
Thumbs up for Chuck Norris as the new bishop!
CeeCee
It's hard to believe that people still follow the evil popes. All that garbage and they absolutely will not believe it. Satan has a tight grip on them.
NotA2Nddime
Is the Chinese version of a Catholic Bishop contaminated with toxic substances? If yes maybe he can be recalled?
Paul King
One of Italy's most prominent Catholic cardinals and a former minister have been put under investigation as a corruption scandal that has tainted the government spread to touch the Vatican.
ASU
The Pope is a dictator too. Have you got any chance to elect a Pope?
KingKong
Western religion is more like an excuse to invade another country, same old. Roman Empire, eliminating the Jews during WWII, French used this religion as an excuse to invade Vietnam, Protestant landed on America, and today try to suppress Muslim. Christian science monitor, a mouthpiece of the west, not about religion or science.
You
Neither the pope nor the vatican own the religion.
Buckethead
The pope and the chinese are just alike. They both deserve each other. Rotten disgusting dictators in control of stupid people.
Zwicker Eric
......i just elected a monkey as god..................WHATEVER
Burrito
China should choose a Shaolin monk as Catholic head.
Stephen
one fake god on earth is just about as good as another, pope , joseph smith and so on it doesn't really matter.
KKKTeaPartyRepublican
I guess if the Germanic Lutheran and the English Anglicans make thier own version of Christianity so can the Chinese!!!
Eagle
all religious should be banned, nothing good comes from any religion, it's all nonsense.
Religious = Weapons of Mass Destruction !!!!!
Citizenoftheworld
Where was your God when priests were molesting these innocent children? Yet you idiots still go to church and believe in a god that condones such as this.
MC
well if the bishops turn out to be pedophiles then the pope can claim that it wasn't the vatican's doing
CeeCee
Please quit blaming God for the things Satan is doing.
j m
China will ordain bishop of its choosing so vatican is smart to agree in advance so it can also claim its approval.
Zippcodey
The Papacy and Vatican are a government using religion to gain world power using the armies of other countries to do their bidding. I'd kick them all out of every country, then drop a bomb on the Vatican.
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