Vatican Approves of New Chinese Bishop

By Helen

China, a country with about one-fifth of the world’s population is also home to approximately 12 million Catholics. Recently, a new bishop of the Beijing diocese was elected with the customary approval of the Vatican. However, Father Joseph Li Shan was declared by a Vatican spokesperson to be “very good,” even though the Pope did not have any say in his appointment.

Chinese Catholics were forced to officially cut ties with the Vatican in 1951, after the communist takeover of the country. Now, Chinese Catholics are spilt into two churches; the state-approved Patriotic Church and underground churches that remain loyal to Rome. Recently, the Pope has encouraged the two churches to reconcile with each other, and has expressed his wish to have more control over decisions that are made in the Patriotic Church. The Vatican has reached workable agreements with other communist countries such as Vietnam, where the Vatican nominates several candidates for a position, and the government chooses one.

Sources:

NY Times
BBC