Vatican warns China papal mandate needed for ordination of bishops
(July 04, 2012) The Vatican on Tuesday said the planned illicit ordination of Fr.
Joseph Yue Fusheng as Bishop of Harbin in China, would further divide Catholics
and threaten the fate of the Church in the country. China Church sources said this
week the ordination could take place as early as Friday. A strongly worded note from
Vatican’s Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples stated that Chinese government
authorities had been informed that the ordination would be conducted without the approval
of Pope Benedict XVI, and against the wishes of the Catholics of Harbin. It also said
the ordination would contradict those signals of dialogue recently put in place under
the auspices of both the Chinese counterpart and the Holy See. Harbin’s episcopal
ordination has been programmed unilaterally and will provoke divisions, splits and
tensions within the Catholic community in China,” the note said, adding that the
survival of the Church in China could only happen in communion with Rome. The note
said Fr Yue had previously been informed that he did not have papal approval to be
ordained bishop, and that he would have no authority to head the Catholic community
in Harbin and no recognition by Rome. Chinese authorities were also warned that Fr
Yue and all bishops taking part in the rite would incur “latae sententiae,” or automatic
excommunication. Quoting at length Pope Benedict’s 2007 Letter to Chinese Catholics,
the notification reiterated that bishop appointments “are a religious, and not a
political matter.”