Vatican accuses China of violating pact on appointment of bishops

VATICAN CITY: The Vatican accused Chinese authorities of violating a bilateral pact on the appointment of bishops by installing one in a diocese not recognised by the Holy See on November 26.

The Vatican learned with surprise and regret that the bishop of another district had been installed as an auxiliary or assistant bishop in Jiangxi.

A 2018 agreement between the Vatican and Beijing on the appointment of bishops appeared to be one of the most serious violations of the unauthorised installation.

The Chinese foreign ministry did not respond to a request for comment.

The accord, which some Catholics denounced as a sell-out to China's Communist authorities, was renewed in October for a two-year period. The statement said that Jiangxi was not recognised as a diocese by the Vatican, and that the installation did not conform to the spirit of dialogue that both sides agreed to in 2018.

It said without elaborating, the installation of the bishop, Giovanni Peng WeizhaoPeng Weizhao, followed strong pressure from local authorities AsiaNews, a Catholic news agency, that Peng was secretly ordained a bishop with papal approval in 2014, four years before the accord, and spent six months under arrest at the time.

The statement said that the Vatican was expecting an explanation from Chinese authorities and was hoping that the similar episodes would not be repeated.

The deal was a way of easing the longstanding divide between a loyal flock of the pope and a state-backed official church in mainland China. Both sides recognized the pope as the supreme leader of the Catholic Church for the first time since the 1950s.

Critics, including Cardinal Joseph Zen, 90, the former archbishop of Hong Kong, denounced it as offering too many concessions to China.

The Vatican statement came a day after a Hong Kong court found Zen and five others guilty of failing to register a now-disbanded fund for pro-democracy protesters.

Since the deal was struck, only six new bishops have been appointed, which is what its opponents say proves it is not producing the desired effects. They point out increasing restrictions on religious freedoms in China for Christians and other minorities.

When the deal was renewed, Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin, its chief architect, said that while the achievements may seem small in the context of a conflicted history, they were important steps toward the healing of the wounds inflicted on the Chinese Church.