Pope's sorrow over ordination of bishop in China

(Dec 3, 2006) Pope Benedict XVI felt “great sorrow” that China had ordained yet another bishop without papal approval, a “very grave” development, the Vatican said on Saturday. Wang Renlei, the 37-year old vicar-general of the Xuzhou diocese in the eastern province of Jiangsu, was ordained bishop on Thursday, and is expected to replace bishop Qian Yurong of Xuzhou who is 94 and in poor health. The ordination was the third known case this year, aggravating tensions between China and the Holy See.
“The Holy Father learned the news with great sorrow, because the episcopal ordination was conferred without the pontifical mandate,” and thus violated Catholic Church law, the Vatican press office said in a statement. It was the first reaction from the Holy See since the ordination, which occurred when the pope was on a visit to Turkey.
On Friday, Cardinal Joseph Zen of Hong Kong accused Beijing of reneging on a promise to the Holy See to stop the practice. Beijing broke ties with the Vatican in 1951 after the communists took power and set up a separate Catholic church known as the Chinese Patriotic Catholic Association, which does not recognize papal jurisdiction. Local faithful are only allowed to worship with the state-sanctioned church. The Xuzhou ordination “was the latest of illegitimate episcopal ordinations, which trouble the Catholic Church in China for several decades, creating divisions in diocesan communities and tormenting the conscience of many churchmen and faithful,” the Vatican statement said. “This series of extremely grave acts, which offend the religious sentiment of every Catholic in China and in the rest of the world, is fruit and consequence of a vision of the Church which doesn't correspond to Catholic doctrine and subverts fundamental principles of its hierarchal structure,” the statement said. There are some 10 million Catholics in China, divided between an "underground" church loyal to the Pope of Rome and the state-approved church.