Sunday, May 14, of another bishop who was not approved by the pope.
Hong Kong television showed Bishop Vincent Zhan Silu celebrating Mass for about 500 Catholics and Chinese officials in a church in the southern city of Ningde to mark his formal appointment as head of the Mindong Diocese. Hong Kong Cable TV showed Zhan holding a gold staff and wearing the white pointed hat, or miter, used by bishops.
The Chinese government rules over an official Catholic Church while an estimated 8 million of the estimated 10 million to 14 million Chinese Catholics are believed to be part of an underground Catholic Church movement loyal to the Vatican.
VATICAN UPSET
Analysts say the installation of Zhan as the bishop of Mindong Diocese Sunday, May 14, will not be received well by the Vatican. It already condemned the installation of two bishops without papal approval and has threatened excommunication.
China wants the pope to cut diplomacy with Taiwan before it will open talks with the Vatican. The appointment came as in Vatican city Pope Benedict XVI remembered the attempt on Pope John Paul II’s life 25 years ago during his Regina Coeli message in St. Peter’s Square, Vatican Radio reported.
Sunday’s ceremony was not a new ordination but rather the appointment of an existing bishop to a diocese, The Associated Press (AP) news agency reported. In 2000, when Zhan was ordained a bishop without the pope’s consent, the Vatican said it "certainly hinders the process" of normalizing ties.
CUTTING TIES
The Vatican cut ties with China in 1951 after the 1949 Communist revolution, forcing Catholics to divide their loyalties. Zhan’s situation underscores the stakes for Beijing and the Vatican. His Mindong Diocese, in the southern province of Fujian, has over 60,000 Catholics, but only 10,000 worship in state-authorized churches, according to Catholic Church estimates in Hong Kong, news reports said.
That has led to parallel church structures, one serving the independent or underground Catholics, the other serving the Beijing-approved church. The larger community of independent Catholics already has a bishop, an elderly cleric, Huang Shoucheng, approved by the Vatican in August, the Hong Kong church official said.
Zhan became the state-approved bishop of Mindong a year ago when his elderly predecessor died. But the appointment was not publicized, Zhan said in a telephone interview, and Sunday’s ceremony was arranged before the recent ordinations to mark his formal welcome to the diocese, AP reported.
MORE DIFFICULT
The controversy and the attention on him, he said, made his job as bishop more difficult.
"I don’t think I’ll be faulted for celebrating Mass, but after this issue has blown up, some followers may start wondering. This isn’t helpful to the work of a bishop," Zhan told Hong Kong Cable TV. "China-Vatican relations now depend on the wisdom of the two sides," Zhan said in the telephone interview. "I hope to see some improvement in relations."
Sunday’s controversial ceremony came also shortly after United States President George W. Bush met a group of Protestant Chinese House Church representatives in his private residence the first such meeting between a sitting US president and ‘underground’ Christians.
Both Protestant and Catholic ‘house church’ groups have complained about growing persecution in Communist-run China. (With BosNewsLife Research and reports from China).
