Chinese bishops open meeting
amid tense Vatican ties
BEIJING, Dec. 7 (AFP) - Chinese bishops opened a meeting on Tuesday to elect top leaders that could further inflame tensions with the Vatican following the controversial ordination of a bishop by the state-backed church.
Chinese authorities have forcibly brought a number of bishops to Beijing for the gathering, while others have gone into hiding to avoid taking part, the Vatican-linked news agency AsiaNews said.
The meeting, expected to run to the end of this week, comes after already rocky China-Vatican relations were shaken further last month by the ordination of Father Guo Jincai in the northern city of Chengde.
The Vatican, which did not approve the ordination, has lashed out at the move, calling it a "serious violation" of religious freedom that "offends the Holy Father."
The ordination was announced by the Chinese Patriotic Catholic Association, which controls the state-backed church, does not acknowledge the authority of Pope Benedict XVI, and fiercely opposes clergy who are loyal to the Vatican.
Liu Bainian, the association's vice-president, confirmed that the highly secretive meeting had opened in Beijing.
"There are no results yet. The meeting is still underway," he told AFP. "We will comment on all that after the meeting, on December 10," he said, giving no further details.
AsiaNews said the meeting was expected to elect a new national president of the patriotic association and president of the council of Chinese bishops.
It called the two bodies "unacceptable to the Catholic Church because they aim to build a separate Church, detached from the Pope."
The Vatican and China have not had formal diplomatic ties since 1951, when the Holy See angered Mao Zedong's Communist government by recognising the Nationalist Chinese regime as the legitimate government of China.
The Nationalists had fled to Taiwan after losing a civil war with the Communists in 1949.
Official tallies put the number of Catholics in China at 5.7 million, including members of both the unofficial and official churches.[The Vatican estimate is 12 million.]
Human rights groups say that those who remain loyal to the Vatican often suffer persecution, with detentions of bishops common.
AsiaNews said the assembly has been postponed for at least four years because some officially-approved bishops refused to participate, in solidarity with the Pope.
Quoting unnamed sources, it said one bishop, Monsignor Feng Xinmao of the city of Hengshui in northern Hebei province, was seized by about 100 police officers and officials who struggled for hours against supporters and priests who sought to shield Feng.