Peter Walker
Friday September 21, 2007
Guardian Unlimited
China took a significant step towards improving its traditionally turbulent links with the Vatican today with the consecration of a new bishop of Beijing who is widely believed to have the formal support of the Pope.
Joseph Li Shan was installed to the influential role within China's state-controlled Catholic church in a ceremony before hundreds of priests and nuns at the city's 400-year-old Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception, close to Tiananmen Square.
For more than half a century, officially atheist China has had no diplomatic links with the Vatican and has organised its own Catholic church, with bishops who swear loyalty to the state, not the papacy.
Bishop Li made no reference to the Vatican or Pope Benedict at today's ceremony, vowing instead to lead the Beijing diocese "in adhering to the nation's constitution, maintaining national unification and social stability".
However, unlike his predecessor - the fiercely anti-Vatican Fu Tieshan, who died in April - Bishop Li is known to have the approval of papal officials, who praised his appointment when it was announced.
"It's widely said among the clergy that Li has indicated he is acting with the approval of the pope," a priest at the ceremony told the Reuters news agency. "We can't know for sure, but we all hope that he does."
A senior Vatican official said this week that Bishop Li's appointment should be a "favourable step forward, a good occasion to build".
The consecration is seen as a boost for Pope Benedict's policy of rapprochement with the Chinese government. While he still insists on the Vatican's right to appoint all bishops, the Pope has spoken of perhaps doing this with some Chinese government consultation.
Beijing cut all official ties with the Vatican in the early 1950s and Catholicism was outlawed, along with all other religions.
However, with the relaxation of official attitudes to worship, the faith has grown rapidly. There are now believed to be up to 12 million Chinese Catholics. The Vatican views China as a potentially major source of converts.
China's Catholics are split between those who worship within the state-run church and those who attend so-called "underground" churches which swear allegiance to the Vatican and are harassed by police and government officials.
Even those who attend the official church often remain loyal to the Vatican, as one parishioner at today's ceremony said. "Of course, Vatican approval is important for us," said Chang Shuhua. "I think he's been approved by both sides. That's most important, because it means then that he's a true follower of the apostles."
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