China ignores Vatican and appoints bishop

BEIJING - China pressed ahead with appointing a new bishop to its state-sanctioned Catholic Church on Sunday and warned the Vatican not to interfere, risking a deepening rift with the Vatican which objected to the promotion.

Ma Yingling was ordained bishop of Kunming, capital of southwest China's Yunnan province, the official Xinhua News Agency reported.

Earlier, a Vatican-backed news service said the Holy See objected to Ma's ordination because he was too close to the government and lacked pastoral experience. Hong Kong's Cardinal Joseph Zen also urged the ceremony be called off.

But officials in China's state-run church defended Ma's promotion. And on Sunday, the Ta Kung Pao, a Hong Kong-based newspaper that echoes official mainland opinion, quoted a spokesperson for China's Foreign Ministry as saying of the move:

"The Vatican mustn't interfere in China's internal affairs, including interfering in domestic matters in the name of religion."

Beijing and the Vatican severed ties after 1949, when the victorious Communist Party cracked down on religion and the Vatican switched official recognition to Taiwan, where the anti-Communist Nationalists fled.

China's 10 million or more Catholics are now divided between an "underground" church loyal to the Holy See alone, and a state-approved church that respects the Pope as a spiritual figurehead but rejects effective papal control.

But even in the government-controlled church, growing numbers of worshipers and clergy want their bishops to have the blessing of the Pope, and in recent years it has been customary for potential bishops to seek Vatican approval.

Ma has been secretary-general of the government-backed Council of Bishops, which Rome does not recognise, as well as a vice chairman of the Chinese Catholic Patriotic Association.

Both Chinese organisations follow Beijing's line that the Vatican should not control Chinese church affairs, including appointment of bishops, and must cut diplomatic ties with Taiwan.

Sunday's ordination may signal a hardening of China's position, a Beijing observer said.

"On the appointment and dismissal of bishops, China and the Vatican have never had truly significant negotiations," Ren Yanli, an expert on China-Vatican relations at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, a government thinktank, told the Ta Kung Pao.

Ma's appointment may be "a contest between China and the Vatican over this issue," he said.

- REUTERS