 10/12/2010 01:49 |
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Qualified people will doubtless comment on this mess sooner rather than later, I hope, but what situation do we have when the new head of the Patriotic Association is a bishop loyal to Rome? If, from the outside looking in, we cannot reconcile such contradictions, imagine what a fix the poor bishop is in.. As all the other loyal bishops also elected to leadership posts in China's 'official' Church...
In defiance of the Vatican,
Chinese assembly elects new leadership,
including bishops loyal to the Pope
by Zhen Yuan
Beijing, Dec. 9 (AsiaNews) – The eighth National Assembly of Catholic Representatives has elected the new leaders of government-controlled organisations.
The unlawfully nominated bishop Joseph Ma Yinglin of Kunming is the new president of the government-sanctioned Bishops’ Conference of the Catholic Church in China (BCCCC), while Bishop Fang Xinyao of Linyi (Shandong), who is in full communion with Rome, is the new head of the Chinese Catholic Patriotic Association (CCPA).
The assembly, the conference and the association - none of whom recognize the authority of the Vatican - are not valid organisms of the Church.
Thew new vice presidents, five of them, includes one unlawfully-appointed bishop. And Joseph Guo Jincai, recently appointed bishop of Chengde despite explicit opposition by the Vatican, becomes the new BCCCC secretary general, a post formerly held by Bishop Ma.
The CCPA collective vice presidency includes bishops Ma Yinglin, Guo Jincai, Shen Bin of Haimen, Meng Qinglu of Hohhot; Fathers Lei Shiyin of Leshan, Huang Bingzhang of Shantou, Yue Fusheng of Harbin as well as Sister Wu Lin of Hubei province and layperson Shu Nanwu of Nanchang.
Former CCPA vice-president Anthony Liu Bainian becomes honorary president of both the BCCCC and the CCPA, together with the elderly Mgr Jin Luxian di Shanghai.
Bishops Tu Shihua of Huangshi, Liu Jinghe of Tangshan, Li Mingshu of Qingdao and Yu Runchen of Hanzhong, and laypeople Yu Jiadi of Anhui, Lu Guocun of Guangdong, Zhou Xiaowu of Shanghai, Liu Deshen of Chongqing are named advisers to the CCPA and the BCCCC.
Two members of the new leadership are bishops ordained this year with a papal mandate; one was ordained unlawfully.
In his closing address, Ma Yinglin said that the new leadership of the CCPA and the BCCCC would unite China’s Catholics behind the principles of autonomy, self-management and democracy to lead the Church, marching together with the universal Church, to be God’s witnesses.
“Catholics,” he said, “can write a new chapter in the patriotic work of the China Church.”
Speaking to AsiaNews about a new leadership that includes three unlawfully ordained bishops, some Catholics expressed serious concerns that additional unlawful ordinations will take place in the future.
A priest noted that while the Church in China has always been under the control of the CCPA, the latest events — unlawful ordinations, an elective assembly after four years wiuthout one, and new leadership — suggest that the government might be deliberately trying to cause chaos within the Church.
Another priest said the Church seems to have gone back to the old days when government exercised tight controls over its activities. He also why the government did not allow a bishop in communion with the Pope to head the Bishops’ Conference. [It would have been greater cause for wonder if they allowed a Vatican-approved bishop to head the conference! It's bewildering enough that the Vatican-approved bishops outnumber the 'official' bishops in the new leadership. One must think the puppetmasters pulled strings to coopt them into the 'official' Church! Whose interests will they serve now? And what will the Pope tell them?]
According to the State Administration for Religious Affairs website, the assembly reviewed the Catholic Church’s work of the past six years, outlined the tasks and objectives for the next five years, and passed revisions to the constitutions of the CCPA and the BCCCC.
[Modificato da TERESA BENEDETTA 10/12/2010 01:51] |
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