Updated at 2:21 p.m., Saturday, December 2, 2006
Bishop's appointment in China saddens pope
Advertiser Staff
VATICAN CITY — Pope Benedict XVI felt "great sorrow" that China had ordained another bishop without papal approval, the Vatican said today.
The ordination on Thursday 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 and some of his top aides were in Turkey during a papal pilgrimage.
Yesterday, Hong Kong Cardinal Joseph Zen accused Beijing of reneging on a promise to the Holy See to stop the practice.
China's government-backed Chinese Patriotic Catholic Association on Thursday ordained Wang Renlei, vicar-general of the Xuzhou diocese in the eastern province of Jiangsu.
Beijing broke ties with the Vatican in 1951 after the communists took power and set up a separate Catholic church outside the authority of the Holy See.
The faithful are allowed to worship only with the state-sanctioned church. Beijing views papal appointments in China as an interference in internal affairs.
"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 Vatican statement said.
