BEIJING (AP)—Beijing and the Vatican are once more tangling over the prickly issue of appointing Chinese bishops.
After complaints from the Vatican that Beijing was violating a 2018 interim accord, China’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian on Monday said the country is willing to expand the “friendly consensus” achieved with the Vatican over bishop nominations.
The Vatican issued an unusually harsh statement Saturday complaining that Beijing on Nov. 24 had installed Bishop John Peng Weizhao as an auxiliary bishop within the province of Jiangxi, which the Vatican doesn’t recognize as a diocese.
China and the Vatican haven’t had diplomatic relations since 1951, following the Communists’ rise to power and the expulsion of foreign priests. The Vatican has sought in recent times to open contacts and reduce frictions, particularly over the appointment of bishops.
The Vatican has sought in recent times to open contacts and reduce frictions, particularly over the appointment of bishops.
At a every day briefing Monday, Zhao said he was unaware of the precise situation involving Bishop Peng, but said that relations between China and the Vatican had improved over recent years for the profit and “harmonious development” of Chinese Catholicism.
“China is willing to constantly expand the friendly consensus with the Vatican side and jointly maintain the spirit of our interim agreement,” he told reporters.
In its statement, the Vatican said Peng’s installation ceremony took place after “long and heavy pressure from the local authorities.”
“Actually, this event didn’t happen in accordance with the spirit of dialogue,” or what is known as for by the 2018 accord, the Vatican statement said.
Because the break in ties, Catholics in China since have been divided between those that belong to an official, state-sanctioned church and an underground church loyal to the pontiff. Estimates of the overall variety of Chinese Catholics run between 6 million and 12 million worshiping in each the recognized Patriotic Catholic Association and the underground church.
Catholics in China since have been divided between those that belong to an official, state-sanctioned church and an underground church loyal to the pontiff.
The Vatican efforts toward reconciliation led to its willingness to sign what it admits is a far-from-ideal accord in 2018, which regularized the status of several bishops and paved the way in which for future nominations. Full details of the agreement never have been made public but Pope Francis has claimed he has final say in the method.
The agreement was seen as a step toward warmer ties that may help fill dozens of empty seats, nevertheless it was hotly criticized by many, including by Hong Kong’s influential bishop emeritus Cardinal Joseph Zen.
AsiaNews, which follows the Catholic Church closely in China, said Francis had ordained Peng clandestinely as bishop of Yujiang in 2014, 4 years before the 2018 accord, explaining the Holy See’s lament that he had been named by Beijing to a different diocese that it doesn’t recognize.
It was the primary time the Vatican had explicitly accused Beijing of violating the 2018 accord and got here only a month after the agreement was renewed for one more two years.
The Holy See said it hoped that “similar episodes won’t be repeated.”
Under nationalist leader Xi Jinping, the officially atheist Communist Party has pressured all religions to “sinosize,” meaning they have to closely adhere to its rulings on all matters and reject foreign involvement.
Strict anti-COVID-19 social distancing and quarantine rules have also seen religious services disrupted for the higher a part of 4 years for the reason that virus was first detected within the central Chinese city of Wuhan in late 2019.