Vatican examining harder line toward China

VATICAN CITY -- The recent consecration of bishops in China without the approval of Pope Benedict XVI is prompting the Vatican to reevaluate its push to restore diplomatic relations with Beijing.

Benedict’s top policymakers on China met Jan. 19 and 20, the Vatican confirmed in a statement, to take stock of the Holy See’s current policy toward China.

The uncertainty underscores Benedict’s struggle to defend church tradition -- such as his authority over bishops -- without alienating China’s communist government. Beijing fiercely rejects Benedict as an authority figure for Chinese Catholics, maintaining a state-run church that closely monitors its clergy.

Since Benedict’s election in 2005, the Vatican has made several overtures to Beijing -- such as offering to sever diplomatic ties with Taiwan -- aimed at restoring the formal relations severed more than a half-century ago.

Those efforts, however, have been hamstrung by an intensifying power struggle over control of China’s Catholic clergy. At issue is who ultimately holds the power to appoint new bishops -- Beijing or the pope.

In recent years, a tacit agreement has allowed the pope to approve new bishops that were nominated by the government. In November, China’s state-sanctioned church consecrated its third bishop in eight months without papal approval, a move that church law considers schismatic. The Vatican has publicly responded with searing condemnations and threats of excommunication. This spurred Cardinal Joseph Zen of Hong Kong, who attended the meeting, to demand tougher action against China.

More than 4 million Catholics belong to China’s state-sanctioned “open church,” which does not recognize the formal authority of the pope. The Holy See estimates that more than 8 million Chinese Catholics belong to an “underground church,” administered by clergy who are routinely persecuted for their loyalty to the Vatican.

Fr. Giancarlo Politi, a China scholar with the Pontifical Institute for Foreign Missions, says the “illicit” consecrations are fueling divisions among Chinese Catholics. The diplomatic standoff has also left an increasing number of Chinese dioceses without bishops. As more and more dioceses come into play, the stakes of the power struggle rise, Politi said.

“This kind of interference is really disastrous,” Politi said.

-- Religion News Service

National Catholic Reporter, February 2, 2007