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Christmas Mass in Beijing. (Liu Jin/Getty Images)
Continuing the fight over to whom Chinese Catholics owe allegiance, police arrested four bishops recognized by the Vatican. They were taken away on July 9 and 10 because they refused to participate in the upcoming ordination of a priest anointed by the Chinese Communist Party’s Church for the diocese of Shantou, Guangdong on July 14.
The diocese’s current Bishop, appointed by the Vatican, had to be secretly ordained in 2006. His bishopric is not recognized by the ruling Party and he is constantly watched by Public Security. Due to his age and infirmity from a car accident, the necessity of ordaining a new Bishop arose.
An episcopal ordination without Vatican approval had taken place in Leshan, Sichuan on July 4, causing Rome to warn participants that they were “exposing themselves to grave canonical sanction.”
The Catholic Church in Rome viewed that Bishop as unacceptable because, reported La Stampa in Italy, he fathered a child out of wedlock.
The four bishops, each from a diocese in Guangdong, were unwilling to attend the ordination since it also was not recognized by the Vatican. The Catholic Asia News reported that the four’s whereabouts are not known and that one “was sobbing as he was dragged away.”
Canon Law states that Bishops without a Pontifical Mandate, and those who ordain them, “incur excommunication.”
The ruling Chinese Communist Party established a “Patriotic Church” in the 1950s which denies that the Pope has any authority in China. “Elections” for the post of bishop are tightly monitored by the Party and those who refuse to participate are placed under surveillance.
If the ordination occurs, it will constitute the third illicit one in the past nine months. Though relations between Beijing and the Vatican had seemed to be thawing, China announced on June 23 that a possible 40 new bishops may be ordained soon without Vatican approval.