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The official Catholic Church in China celebrated 50 years this week amid controversy surrounding its recent selection of a candidate bishop for Beijing without papal approval.
The Chinese Patriotic Catholic Association (CPCA) invited 5,000 people Wednesday to celebrate the occasion, though some guests with stronger ties to the Holy See reportedly chose not to go, reported Catholic-affiliated Asia News.
The celebration came during a time of weakened Sino-Vatican relations and after Chinese Catholics leaders and laymen from government-approved churches apparently selected the Rev. Li Shan to hold the office of Bishop in Beijing without the consent of Pope Benedict XVI.
Li, who is awaiting further approval from 69 other Chinese Catholic leaders, stands in line to replace Beijing Bishop Fu Tieshan, who died in April. Prior to his death, Fu was the hardline chairman of the Patriotic Association.
The Vatican claims that only it has the authority to name bishops, while Beijing views papal appointments as interfering with China’s internal affairs. The question of appointing bishops has been the main hindrance to normalizing Sino-Vatican relations, which was severed after the Chinese Communist Party forced Roman Catholics to cut ties with the pope in 1951.
Underground Catholics still loyal to the Vatican say the outcome of the recent selection was decided by the government beforehand. Last Tuesday, Asia News cited unidentified church sources as saying “government officials had earlier lobbied all priests to ensure that Father Li would be elected.”
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The chairman of The Patriotic Association, Liu Bainan, dismissed concerns that his organization and other government-bodies orchestrated the selection – claiming in an Associated Press report that “no outsiders were involved.”
On Tuesday, Pope Benedict played down the possibility of an imminent breakthrough in relations with Communist China, after Liu made overtures in an Italian newspaper for a landmark visit from the Holy. "I can't talk about that now. It's a bit complicated," the German-born pontiff had said.
China’s Roman Catholics are only allowed to worship in government-approved churches run by the CPCA. Though they see the pope as a spiritual guide, the state churches assign bishops regularly without papal-approval.
Catholics still loyal to the Vatican, meanwhile, opt to worship in unregistered “underground” churches. Government reaction to these churches range from physical harassment to imprisonment of the their followers.
