Vatican, China extend bishop agreement over US opposition

The Holy See and Beijing government jointly announced a two-year extension to the 2018 agreement, which expired Thursday

October 22, 2020 04:05 pm | Updated 04:05 pm IST - Vatican City

File photo shows worshippers walking past the shadow of a cross at the entrance to the Zhongxin Bridge Catholic Church, in Tianjin.

File photo shows worshippers walking past the shadow of a cross at the entrance to the Zhongxin Bridge Catholic Church, in Tianjin.

The Vatican and China extended a controversial accord on bishop nominations Thursday over strong opposition from the White House and conservative Catholics.

The Holy See and Beijing government jointly announced a two-year extension to the 2018 agreement, which expired Thursday. The Vatican defended the extension by saying the agreement was purely ecclesiastic and pastoral in nature, and not political.

The agreement, which hasn’t ever been published, envisages a process of dialogue in selecting bishops. The Vatican signed it in 2018 in hopes it would help unite China’s Catholics, who for seven decades have been split between those belonging to an official, state-sanctioned church and an underground church loyal to Rome.

The Vatican has defended the 2018 accord against criticism that Pope Francis sold out the underground faithful, saying the deal was necessary to prevent an even worse schism in the Chinese church after Beijing named bishops without the pope’s consent.

The question of bishop nominations has long vexed Vatican-China relations, with the Holy See insisting on the pope’s divine right to name the successors of the apostles and Beijing considering such nominations foreign infringement on its sovereignty.

In a statement, the Chinese government said Beijing and the Vatican decided to extend the agreement after friendly consultations. The two sides will maintain close communication and consultations and continue to promote the process of improving relations, the statement said.

The Holy See for its part, issued a similarly terse statement, written in Italian, English and Chinese.

The Holy See considers the initial application of the agreement — which is of great ecclesial and pastoral value — to have been positive, thanks to good communication and cooperation between the parties on the matters agreed upon, and intends to pursue an open and constructive dialogue for the benefit of the life of the Catholic Church and the good of Chinese people, it said.

0 / 0
Sign in to unlock member-only benefits!
  • Access 10 free stories every month
  • Save stories to read later
  • Access to comment on every story
  • Sign-up/manage your newsletter subscriptions with a single click
  • Get notified by email for early access to discounts & offers on our products
Sign in

Comments

Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. They cannot be abusive or personal. Please abide by our community guidelines for posting your comments.

We have migrated to a new commenting platform. If you are already a registered user of The Hindu and logged in, you may continue to engage with our articles. If you do not have an account please register and login to post comments. Users can access their older comments by logging into their accounts on Vuukle.