FOR THE FIRST TIME UNDER THE COMMUNIST CHINA, A BEIJING BISHOP IS NAMED VITH VATICAN APPROVAL
On 21 September 2007, China installed a new bishop of Beijing, Joseph Li Shan, the first since 1952, when the Communist forced the Chinese church to cut all its links with the Vatican.
Joseph Li Shan was appointed to the influential post in China's capital at a ceremony at the city's 400-year-old Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception attended by several hundred priests, nuns, officials and ordinary Chinese
Catholics who were given invitations by the Beijing diocese.
During the ceremony, the 42-year-old Li took a traditional oath of service to the church that also added a nod to government authority. He promised to "lead all the priests seminarians and nuns of this diocese in adhering to the nation's constitution, maintaining national unification and social stability."
Li replaces Bishop Fu Tieshan, a Communist Party supporter and hard-liner toward the Vatican, whose death in April provided an opportunity for rapprochement between the state-controlled church and Rome. When Li was named as Fu's
replacement in July, Vatican officials praised him, though they said Beijing had not consulted Rome before his appointment.
While publicly the Vatican did not comment on Li's installation, in recent days church officials have said it was done with Vatican approval.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/7005927.stm
In recent months, Li has been praised by both the Vatican and Beijing as
concerned with the welfare of the church and being open-minded.

<br><br>Post edited by: Jacques, at: 2007/09/21 16:57