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Vatican Anger Over China Bishops -


Girls do sketches outside the Wangfujing
Catholic Church in Beijing

Vatican Anger Over China Bishops -

There have been tensions between China's Church
and the Vatican -

The Vatican has expressed "deep displeasure"
over China's appointment of two -
Roman Catholic bishops.

The appointment of the bishops without
the Vatican's approval represented a
"grave violation of religious freedom",
a statement said.

China's Catholic Church announced on Wednesday
it had installed another bishop -
the second in three days.

The Chinese Church does not recognise
the Vatican's power to appoint bishops,
causing tensions between the two sides.

There are an estimated 10 million Catholics
in China, divided between the officially
tolerated Patriotic Church, and an
underground church loyal to Rome.

On Wednesday, Liu Xinhong was consecrated
at a church in Anhui province in
eastern China, while on Sunday the state
church ordained Ma Yinglin as a bishop in
the south-western province of Yunnan.

'Violation'

The Vatican statement said the ordinations
were "a grave wound to the unity of the Church"
and warned of "severe canonical sanctions".


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Viewpoints: Tense relations

"We are faced with a great violation of
religious freedom," it said.

The statement was unusually strong in tone,
says the BBC's David Willey in Rome, and
makes it clear that the Vatican, while open
to what it calls "honest and constructive dialogue",
will not tolerate unilateral acts by
the Chinese Church.

The Vatican also said it had received information
that bishops had come under
"strong pressure and threats"
to take part in the ordinations.

Asked to comment on the statement,
China's foreign ministry told Reuters news agency:

"The Vatican's condemnation makes no sense.

We hold a sincere attitude towards improving
Sino-Vatican relations and have made active efforts.

We hope the Vatican side can support a good
environment for improvement of the relationship."

Third ordination

China is planning to ordain an auxiliary bishop
later this month, a senior official of
the state-sanctioned church told
the AFP news agency.

Pei Junmin would be ordained later this month
as auxiliary bishop of the diocese in
the north-east province of Liaoning,
said Liu Bainian, vice-chairman of
the Chinese Catholic Patriotic Association.

Secret talks have been taking place in recent
months between envoys from both sides towards
the possible re-establishing of relations,
our correspondent says.

China has said it would like better relations
with the Vatican, but wants the Holy See
to cut its diplomatic links with Taiwan first.

Diplomatic ties were severed in 1951
after the 1949 Communist takeover
in China and subsequent crackdown
on religion.



http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/4972004.stm

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