Vatican: China Unilaterally Appointed Bishop to Shanghai Despite Pact

0:00

/0:00

1×

Facts

• The Vatican on Tuesday claimed that Chinese authorities have unilaterally appointed a new bishop to Shanghai, the largest Roman Catholic diocese in China, apparently violating their bilateral, secret deal on the appointment of bishops.¹
• The Holy See's Press Office director, Matteo Bruni, reported that the Roman Catholic Church learned from the media that Bishop Shen Bin was transferred from Haimen to Shanghai.²
• AsiaNews revealed on Monday that Shen Bin was to be installed the next day after the Council of Chinese Bishops, which is not recognized by the Holy See, named its head the new bishop of Shanghai without papal approval.³
• The bishopric of Shanghai has been vacant since the death of the late bishop Jin Luxian in April 2013. The Holy See stated that the auxiliary bishop Ma Daqin, who has been under house arrest since 2012 for publicly rejecting the Communist-led Chinese Catholic Patriotic Association, should administer the diocese.⁴
• This latest crisis between the Holy See and Beijing comes a few months after both sides agreed on renewing for two years the 2018 deal aimed at reuniting the estimated 12M Chinese Catholics split between official and underground churches.⁵
• Last November, the Vatican also learned from the news that Beijing had installed Bishop Giovanni Peng Weizhao of Yujiang as the auxiliary bishop of Jiangxi, which is not recognized by the Holy See.⁶

Sources: ¹Al Jazeera, ²Vatican news, ³Asia, ⁴Reuters, ⁵Barrons and ⁶FOX News.

Narratives

• Anti-China narrative, as provided by The nation. Though Pope Francis is well aware of human rights abuses committed by Beijing that could amount even to crimes against humanity, he has chosen to turn a blind eye based on wishful thinking that the Vatican-China deal would provide the Holy See better access to Catholics in China. It has become crystal clear that Beijing simply does not follow this agreement, and the Vatican must change course and make this deal public and ensure that China respects freedom of religion.
• Pro-China narrative, as provided by Where peter is. Though it's tempting to reduce decades of a sensitive relationship between China and the Vatican to a simple conflict between good and evil to either attack Pope Francis or Beijing, one can only negatively affect the future and religious liberty of Catholics in China by doing so. The Holy See knows that the 2018 deal is not perfect and could indeed prove ineffective if not accompanied by a deep commitment by both sides. However, this agreement — especially the PRC's involvement — is nevertheless a necessary step to improve the situation of Chinese Catholics.

Predictions