Chinese Government Selects Catholic Bishops Over Holy See Objections

May 3, 2006

The Catholic Patriotic Association (CPA), which controls China’s registered Catholic community, consecrated two bishops without obtaining the Holy See's approval of the candidates, according to Chinese and foreign press accounts.

The Catholic Patriotic Association (CPA), which controls China’s registered Catholic community, consecrated two bishops without obtaining the Holy See's approval of the candidates, according to Chinese and foreign press accounts. On April 30 the CPA consecrated Ma Yinglin to be the bishop of Kunming diocese in Yunnan province, and on May 2 Liu Xinhong to be the bishop of Anhui diocese in Anhui province. Before the consecrations, Catholic clerics in and outside China asked CPA leaders to postpone the consecration and requested the candidates not to go through with the consecrations. Some registered Catholic bishops and priests refused to participate in the consecrations, while others were sequestered and put under intense pressure to participate, according to April 29, May 1, May 2, and May 3 reports by the Union of Catholic Asian News and April 28, April 29, May 2 (report #1 and #2), and May 3 reports in AsiaNews. On May 1, Joseph Cardinal Zen of Hong Kong issued a statement on the Web site of the Hong Kong Sunday Examiner, in which he said that the Patriotic Association dominates the registered Catholic community "through pressure, threats and, it seems, also deceit..." Noting the reports of renewed contacts between the Holy See and the Chinese government on normalization of relations, a May 1 editorial in the South China Morning Post (SCMP) (subscription required) called the CPA moves "an unnecessarily provocative act... the diplomatic equivalent of a slap in the face."

The consecration of bishops without the Holy See's approval followed an indication by a senior Chinese official of a less rigid policy. An April 3 report in the People's Daily characterized Ye Xiaowen, Director of the State Administration for Religious Affairs (SARA), as suggesting that the Chinese government might show some flexibility on whether the CPA or the Holy See has the right to select Catholic bishops. The People's Daily quoted Ye as saying that the issue "may be open to consultation." Ye further said that the Chinese government and the Holy See have been in contact about normalizing relations, though "it is hard to set a timetable."

The Chinese government founded the CPA in the 1950s to create a national Catholic Church independent of the Holy See, and the CPA has long asserted 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. 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.

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 persecuted by the government for its refusal to do so. The Holy See has sought since the 1990s to unite 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. 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 that a bishop for the registered community of Suzhou diocese in Jiangsu province was consecrated with Holy See approval as recently as April 20, 2006. 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, explains Sister Betty Maheu in an article reprinted by the Holy Spirit Study Centre of Hong Kong.

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