Vatican: China bishop may avoid excommunication

(April 15, 2011) A Chinese bishop whose ordination caused a crisis in the Vatican's relations with China may avoid excommunication or automatic expulsion from the Church because he may have been pressured into being consecrated without the pope's consent, the Vatican said Thursday. A special commission on the church in China said the ordination of Guo Jincai as bishop of Chengde was nevertheless illicit and had caused a “grave wound” to the faith. The Vatican says only the pope can guarantee the unity of the church through his appointments of bishops. In a statement after a three-day meeting of Vatican officials, Hong Kong prelates and others, the commission said it hoped the Chinese government-backed church wouldn't appoint any new bishops without papal approval although it said there was an “urgent” need to fill vacant jobs. “The commission strongly hopes there will not be new wounds,” the statement said. The Vatican and China have no official relations and the communist government has long disputed the Holy See's instance on the right to appoint bishops. Communist China forced its Roman Catholics to cut ties with the Vatican in 1951. The government allows religious practice only to members of the government-recognized Catholic Patriotic Association, that does not recognize the Pope.