New Chinese Bishops Face Vatican Censure
Improved Relations Imperiled, Rome Says

By Daniel Williams
Washington Post Foreign Service
Friday, May 5, 2006

VATICAN CITY, May 4 -- The Vatican said Thursday that two bishops ordained by China's government-controlled Catholic church this week faced excommunication and warned that their elevation endangered a lengthy dialogue designed to restore Vatican relations with China and to regularize Catholic worship in the country.

Pope Benedict XVI feels "deep displeasure" that the Chinese church ordained the men without his permission, Vatican spokesman Joaquin Navarro-Valls said in a statement. "So relevant an act in the life of the Church as a bishop's ordination has been done in both cases without respecting the needs of communion with the pope," he said.

The ordinations and the sharp Vatican response marked a sudden chill in relations between the papacy and the Communist government in Beijing after painstaking efforts to end a half-century of hostility.

In his statement, Navarro-Valls did not use the word "excommunication" but referred to Article 1382 of the church's canon law, which legal scholars said mandates excommunication for the new bishops as well as the two bishops who ordained them, for acting outside their authority. Excommunication excludes the offender from Holy Communion and other sacraments and prevents the person from holding any church office.

The ordinations were "a great wound to the unity of the Church," Navarro-Valls said. "Episodes of this type produce lacerations not only to the Catholic community but also within conscience."

The Vatican qualified its statement by saying it had information that the Chinese bishops had been put under "strong pressure and threats" to take part in the ordinations.

The bishops could escape excommunication, a Vatican official said, if they spoke directly with the pope or his representatives and said they had been forced into the acts. An article in the canon law says that a person "coerced by grave fear, even if only relatively grave," would not be subject to punishment.

The bishops' precise legal status as of Thursday was unclear. Asked by the Reuters news agency whether the bishops were now shut out of the church, Navarro-Valls replied: "Not at this moment," and, "We still don't have all the information."

The Rev. Michael P. Hilbert, dean of the faculty of canon law at the Gregorian Pontifical University in Rome, said: "The factor of coercion would imply that these people are not subject to sanctions" of excommunication.

China and the Vatican have no diplomatic relations. President Hu Jintao has promoted some religious activities, but the Communist Party is generally suspicious of outside influences over various sects, be they Christian, Islamic or Buddhist. Besides upholding traditional Marxist principles, Hu has tried to tap into traditional Chinese values aimed at building a "harmonious society."

The government oversees an official church known formally as the Chinese Patriotic Catholic Association and appoints its bishops and priests.

About a third of China's more than 10 million Catholics are affiliated with the association's congregations. The rest are loyal to the pope and often worship in covert churches, risking harassment and arrest.

Since his elevation last year, Benedict has moved to complete business left behind by his predecessor, Pope John Paul II. Bringing Chinese Catholicism back into the Vatican fold is primary among his objectives.

The Vatican has also announced a willingness to move its diplomatic representation from Taiwan to China, but indicated it first wanted papal authority over such matters as the naming of bishops.

Vatican officials and observers had recently speculated that Beijing stood to gain on the diplomatic front by bringing in one of the last holdouts of official recognition.

Hong Kong's archbishop, Joseph Zen Ze-kiun, whom Benedict named cardinal in March, declared himself a go-between with China in what appeared to be the endgame in restoring relations. "I think that the Holy Father wants to make use of my experience in China and will want to receive some information -- and maybe even some suggestions -- from me," he recently told Vatican Radio.

But the two ordinations -- the first late Sunday in eastern China's Anhui province, followed by one on Wednesday in Kunming, the capital of Yunnan province, in the south -- dramatically changed the mood.

On Thursday, a Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman referred reporters to a government statement issued after the first ordination, which called the Vatican's criticism "groundless."

"We hope the Vatican can respect the will of the Chinese church and the vast numbers of priests as well as its church members so as to create good atmosphere for the improvement of Sino-Vatican ties," the statement said.

The Rev. Bernardo Cervellera, an author and journalist and a missionary in the Pontifical Institute of Foreign Missions, blamed the Chinese Patriotic Catholic Association for damaging Vatican-China ties.

"They are against religious freedom and will do everything they can to block Vatican relations with China," Cervellera said. "If Hu wants to create a modern state, China must not involve itself in the inner workings of religious organizations. China is not yet ready for full religious freedom and will probably contemplate this situation for a while."