With an eye on China, Vatican issues new bishops' policy

VATICAN CITY (RNS) Catholics forced to participate in ordinations of
bishops without the pope's approval may be exempt from the usual penalty
of automatic excommunication, the Vatican said on Friday (June 10).

Bishops who consecrate other bishops without a papal "mandate" incur
automatic excommunication, as do the men they consecrate and all other
ministers who participate in the ceremony, according to a church
document published in the official Vatican newspaper L'Osservatore
Romano.

All of those excommunicated are thereafter forbidden to celebrate
Mass, administer or receive any Catholic sacraments, or "exercise
ministerial functions" unless their excommunications are lifted by the
pope.