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.”