Chinese Government Continues to Coerce Registered Catholic Bishops

The Chinese government continued to assert its control over the appointment of Chinese Catholic bishops during May, according to Chinese and foreign news sources. Government religious affairs authorities permitted the consecration of one registered bishop who was also approved by the Holy See, but authorities also installed another registered bishop who the Holy See did not approve. The government controlled press also reported prominently the government’s assertion of its right to appoint Catholic bishops. These events followed the consecrations of registered bishops not approved by the Holy See on April 30 and May 2.

• On May 7, the Catholic Patriotic Association (CPA), the body governing the state-controlled Catholic Church in China, permitted the consecration of Pei Junmin as coadjutor bishop of the registered diocese of Shenyang in Liaoning province, according to a May 8 Union of Catholic Asian News (UCAN) report and a May 8 AsiaNews report. The Holy See also approved Bishop Pei’s consecration, which some 5,000 people attended, according to the reports.
   
• On May 14, the CPA installed Zhan Silu, a senior CPA official, as bishop of Mindong diocese in Fujian province. About 500 people attended the installation ceremony, but some of those attending said they were under CPA pressure to attend. No other bishops attended, according to a May 15 UCAN report (via Spero News) and two May 15 AsiaNews reports (reports A and B). In January 2000, the CPA had arranged for Zhan to be consecrated as bishop without the Holy See’s approval. According to AsiaNews, the bishops of both the unregistered and registered communities in Mindong diocese died in 2005. The Holy See then proposed to the Chinese government that the coadjutor bishop of the unregistered community should succeed to the leadership of both the unregistered and registered communities. (The unregistered Catholic community in Mindong diocese is reported to be much larger than the registered community.) The installation of Zhan Silu, who serves as a vice-chairman of the CPA and also as a member of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, stands as a rejection of the Holy See’s overture.
   
• On May 15, CPA vice-chairman Liu Bainian said in a Voice of America interview that the CPA plans to consecrate more bishops, with or without the Holy See’s approval.
   
• On May 19, senior officials of the State Administration for Religious Affairs (SARA) and the United Front Work Department (UFWD), the government and Party agencies responsible for controlling religious practice, met in Beijing with 18 bishops consecrated or involved in consecrating others during 2006, according to UCAN reports of May 20 and May 24. At the meeting in the Great Hall of the People in central Beijing, the SARA and UFWD officials heard oral reports from the four bishops consecrated in 2006, and affirmed to the assembled bishops that the CPA will continue to select bishops. The officials demanded that the bishops uphold this government and Party policy.
   
• On May 27, CPA officials announced their refusal to recognize a bishop who was consecrated without their approval, and forbade him to act as a bishop. On May 22, Li Duan, the registered bishop of Xi’an diocese in Shaanxi province, who was known for his open loyalty to the Holy See, announced that in October 2005 he secretly consecrated Wu Qinjing as bishop of neighboring Zhouzhi diocese, also in Shaanxi, according to a May 26 South China Morning Post (SCMP) article (subscription required). Bishop Li died on May 25. Government officials warned Wu between May 22 and May 27 that they considered his consecration illegal and that he could not act as a bishop. On May 27, CPA officials met with Zhouzhi priests, announced the illegality of Wu’s consecration, and pressed for Wu to be displaced by a diocesan management group headed by Zhao Yinsheng, a registered priest. Defying the official warnings, Bishop Wu presided at a ceremony to mark the erection of a new cross in the Zhouzhi cathedral, according to May 29 SCMP, Reuters, and AsiaNews reports.
   
• According to a May 28 article (in Chinese) in Wen Wei Po, a pro-PRC Hong Kong newspaper, the CPA has already selected candidates for vacant episcopal sees in Hebei, Hubei, and Inner Mongolia. Upon approval by the registered Chinese Bishops’ Conference, the candidates could be consecrated within three months.
   
• The government controlled press published articles during May that reported the government’s assertion of its right to select Catholic bishops, along with its plans to do so. Xinhua reports of May 6, May 7, May 12, and May 16, and a May 11 Beijing Review article reported these official assertions. Catholic Church officials outside China deny the Chinese government's claim to this right. The Holy See Press Office issued on May 4 a declaration (English translation below Italian original) in which it said that "bishops and priests have been subjected - on the part of external entities to the Church - to strong pressures and to threats, so that they take part in the episcopal ordinations which, being without pontifical mandate, are illegitimate and, besides, contrary to their conscience" and that this was a "grave violation of religious liberty." In an article appearing in the May 14 Hong Kong Sunday Examiner (diocesan newspaper), the Diocese of Hong Kong charged that the CPA had usurped the Church's authority. On May 31 Cardinal Lajolo, the Holy See Secretary for Relations with States, told the Romanian daily Ziua in an interview (in Romanian) that the right of the Church to appoint bishops "does not affect the organization of the Chinese state in any way..." and that "China's political authorities should not interfere in the Church's internal organization." On the same day Cardinal Zen said, “The Chinese government has clearly told Liu Bainian to stop these ordinations. But should more illicit ordinations be celebrated, the Holy See will have to announce the rupture of all negotiations with Beijing,” according to a June 1 AsiaNews report.
   

A leading Catholic expert on Catholicism in China interpreted the Chinese government’s recent actions as a response to Pope Benedict's March 2006 elevation of Bishop Joseph Zen of Hong Kong to the College of Cardinals, according to a May 11 UCAN report. Cardinal Zen has been an outspoken advocate of religious freedom, human rights, and democracy. The Chinese government may also have decided to break a deadlock with the Holy See over appointment of bishops and to consolidate its control over the Chinese Catholic Church before beginning new negotiations with the Holy See, according to the expert. Chinese press coverage lends some support to this view. The May 11 Beijing Review article said that "in recent years, Beijing and the Holy See--tentatively seeking the normalization of relations--have reached an unwritten consensus that prospective bishops seek Vatican approval before taking up their posts. According to the State Administration for Religious Affairs, while China had informed the Vatican of recent appointments of bishops many times beforehand, the latter failed to give any response." A Hong Kong diocese expert on mainland Church affairs denied that the Holy See failed to respond, according to a May 4 UCAN report. The May 24 UCAN report characterized Chinese officials as having said that "before China-Vatican negotiations achieve success, the Church in China will continue to have 'self-elected and self-ordained' bishops... though China and the Vatican have different views, mutual concerns can be easily resolved once diplomatic ties are established." Pope Benedict has shown little inclination to mute his call for religious freedom in China, according to a May 8 L'espresso article.

The Chinese government founded the CPA in the 1950s to create a national Catholic Church independent of the Holy See, and since its founding the CPA has asserted that it has the right to consecrate bishops without the Holy See’s approval. Throughout the world, the Holy See reserves to itself the right to select candidates for consecration as bishops. Since the 1950s, two Catholic communities have existed in China: a registered community that accepts the CPA’s supervision and control, and an unregistered community repressed by the government for its refusal to do so. The Holy See has sought since the 1990s to promote the unification of the two communities by legitimizing the consecration of many CPA-registered bishops. Although the Chinese government has insisted in public on its right to select Catholic bishops without the Holy See’s involvement, Catholic bishops and news agencies abroad claim that the government has acquiesced in the Holy See's involvement in the selection process. The May 11 Beijing Review article supports this point. For example, in June 2005, Xing Wenzhi was consecrated as the registered auxiliary bishop of Shanghai, evidently after quiet consultations between registered clerics from Shanghai and the Holy See; and the diocese of Hong Kong announced in its diocesan newspaper that as recently as April 20, 2006, Xu Honggen was consecrated bishop for the registered community of Suzhou diocese in Jiangsu province with Holy See approval. The Holy See views the issue of its authority to select bishops as particularly important today, since many Catholic bishops are elderly, a number have died since 2000, and their successors have not yet been selected and consecrated, according to an article reprinted by the Holy Spirit Study Centre of Hong Kong.

According to Canon 1382 of the Canon Law of the Catholic Church, a bishop who administers or accepts consecration as bishop without the approval of the Holy See incurs excommunication. Some canon law experts have claimed that, because of the CPA pressure, Canon 1382 may not apply to the Chinese bishops consecrated without Holy See approval, according to a May 19 UCAN opinion column.

For more information on Catholics in China, see the CECC 2005 Annual Report, Section III(d).