Beijing to appoint new Catholic bishop NEWS

Beijing to appoint new Catholic bishop

By ALEXA OLESEN, Associated Press Writer
1 hour, 34 minutes ago



BEIJING - Beijing church leaders will ordain a new bishop this week, a senior religious official said Monday, filling an influential post that had been closely watched to gauge whether the government would consult with the Vatican on church appointments.

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Joseph Li Shan was approved by China\'s 59-member Conference of Bishops on Aug. 28 and an ordination ceremony will be held Friday, said Liu Bainian, vice chairman of the Chinese Patriotic Catholic Association.

Liu said there had been no contact between China and the Vatican about Li\'s appointment because the two sides have no diplomatic relations.

But the Vatican-affiliated missionary news agency Asia News said Li may have received the Vatican\'s blessing. The agency cited some Chinese Catholic sources as saying Li received papal approval, while adding that other sources said they were not aware of it.

Calls to the Vatican spokesman in Rome were not successful late Monday.

The Vatican says only it has the right to name bishops and the question of their appointment has been the main stumbling block in resuming relations with the government in Beijing. China views papal appointments as interference in its internal affairs.

In July, Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, the Vatican secretary of state, called Li a very good, well-suited candidate for the post — evidence of the Roman Catholic church\'s efforts to compromise over the nomination of bishops.

He said then that the Vatican had not been officially informed about Li\'s appointment but hoped Beijing would seek approval from the Holy See.

There have been growing consultation between the official church and Rome on appointments, with many bishops named by China later seeking — and receiving — papal approval.

Earlier this month, Monsignor Paolo Xiao Zejiang, 40, was ordained a coadjutor bishop for southern Guizhou province with the Vatican\'s approval, even though the Patriotic Association claimed the appointment as its own, Asia News reported at the time.

Shanghai\'s auxiliary bishop, Joseph Xing Wenzhi, was reportedly appointed in 2005 by tacit agreement between Rome and the Beijing authorities.

Li replaces Beijing Bishop Fu Tieshan, who died in April. Fu was chairman of the Patriotic Association and became acting chairman of the Bishops\' Conference of the Catholic Church in China in 2005. He also served on an advisory body to China\'s legislature, the National People\'s Congress.

We believe that he will be a capable bishop, Liu said, adding that Li was knowledgeable, devout and kind to people.

China forced its Roman Catholics to cut ties with the Vatican in 1951, shortly after the officially atheist Communist Party took power. Worship is allowed only in the government-controlled churches, which recognize the pope as a spiritual leader but appoint their own priests and bishops.

Millions of Chinese, however, belong to unofficial congregations that are not registered with the authorities.

Earlier this month, a bishop who led an underground congregation of Roman Catholics and was repeatedly detained in China for his loyalty to the Vatican died in police custody, according to a monitoring group.

Bishop Han Dingxiang, 71, had been under house arrest or other forms of detention for nearly eight years. He died while being treated for an unspecified illness, the U.S.-based Cardinal Kung Foundation said. The group has long had close contacts with China\'s underground church members.

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