Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian said on Monday that his country is willing to expand with the Vatican on the appointment of bishops. In 2018, he entered into an interim agreement.
The Vatican Earlier, in an unusually blunt statement, he criticized Beijing’s appointment of Bishop Jun Peng Wei Zhao as auxiliary bishop of Jiangxi Province on November 24. Xiangxi is not recognized by the Vatican as a diocese. There have been no diplomatic relations between China and the Vatican since 1951 – when the Communists took power and expelled foreign priests. In recent years, the Vatican has wanted to open up and ease tensions, primarily regarding the appointment of bishops.
The spokesman said at his press conference on Monday that he was not aware of the situation regarding Bishop Peng, but stressed that relations between China and the Vatican had improved in recent years in favor of Chinese Catholicism and its “harmonious development.”
China wants to expand the friendly consensus with the Vatican and maintain the spirit of the interim agreement
The spokesman told reporters.
According to the Vatican announcement, Peng’s enthronement ceremony took place after “long and arduous pressure from local authorities,” MTI reported.
In China, there are two Catholic churches: the official and the “secret” one.
Since the severing of ties, there have been two Catholic churches in China: the official church, which is controlled by the state, and the “secret” church loyal to the Vatican. Chinese Catholics are estimated to number between six and twelve million in both the state-recognized National Catholic League and the underground church.
As part of its reconciliation efforts, the Vatican was ready to sign in 2018 what it considered far from perfect. an agreementwhich settled the legal status of some bishops and enabled new appointments. Details of the agreement were not disclosed.
According to the official papal news agency AsiaNews, which closely follows the affairs of the Chinese Catholic Church Pope Francis In 2014, Peng was secretly ordained bishop of Yuejiang County, Jiangxi Province.
It was the first time the Vatican had explicitly accused Beijing of violating the 2018 agreement, exactly one month after it was extended for another two years. The Holy See expressed its hope that “such cases will not be repeated”.
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