Catholic Bishop Ordained In Beijing
China, Vatican Seen as Trying To Ease Tensions

By Maureen Fan
Washington Post Foreign Service
Friday, September 21, 2007

BEIJING, Sept. 21 -- The Rev. Joseph Li Shan, a 42-year-old priest based in downtown Beijing, was ordained as the head of the Beijing Diocese of the state-sanctioned Catholic church Friday morning in a private ceremony. The appointment underscores attempts to improve long-strained relations between the Chinese government and the Roman Catholic Church.

Nearly 1,000 Catholics and other observers crowded into the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary southwest of Tiananmen Square. Priests wore long white robes and red scarves around their necks. Outside, six police cars and a dozen officers blocked part of the street. The media were barred from the event, but some journalists managed to reach the outer courtyard.

"I'm very honored to be given this mission," Li said, according to program notes that quoted him as promising to "maintain unity" within the Chinese Catholic Bishops' College. "I will help all Catholics of this diocese abide by the country's constitution to maintain the country unity and social stability and to contribute to a well-off society and a harmonious socialist society."

While there is no formal relationship between the officially atheist Chinese government and the Vatican, both have made unusually conciliatory statements regarding the nomination of Li, who reportedly has the Vatican's approval.

The Vatican has gone out of its way to defuse tensions, commenting in July that Li was a "very good, well-suited" candidate to succeed Bishop Fu Tieshan, who died in April.

In a rare open letter to China's 8 million to 12 million Catholics in June, Pope Benedict XVI said the Vatican had no intention of challenging China's state authority and expressed hope for a reconciliation between China's underground and state-sponsored churches.

Then Liu Bainian, a vice chairman of the state-backed Chinese Patriotic Catholic Association, which controls the mainland's church, praised the pope's letter in an interview with an Italian newspaper and said the thorny problem of how to appoint bishops "can be resolved."

The Rev. Bernardo Cervellera, director of AsiaNews, a missionary news agency with close ties to the Vatican, said Thursday that the new bishop was a Vatican candidate, although he did not explain how that approval came about, whether a list was provided by the Vatican or whether the Chinese had unofficially sought approval.

China cut ties with the Vatican in 1951, shortly after the Communists took power. Officially, Chinese Christians worship only in government-controlled churches, which appoint their own priests and bishops even as they honor the pope as a spiritual leader.

In reality, however, there are many churches that register with the government but do not follow all of the government's rules, in addition to the many illegal "house" churches that must conduct services in secret.

News reports this week suggested the Vatican was having difficulty telephoning the new bishop, who went into seclusion in a Beijing suburb last Friday to prepare for his coming assignment.

"I didn't get any phone call from the Vatican during my five-day seclusion," Li said when reached on a cellphone Wednesday. "Sorry, I can't talk long, because I'm still in seclusion."

The Chinese Patriotic Catholic Association insisted there had been no communication between the organization and the Vatican. But, the association's vice chairman added, "if what the foreign media says is true, that the Vatican approves of Li, then it will certainly help to improve the China-Vatican relationship."

Li, a graduate of Beijing Theological Seminary, was born into a Catholic family in 1965 and was among the first priests ordained after the Cultural Revolution.

Special correspondent Sarah Delaney in Rome and researcher Jin Ling in Beijing contributed to this report.