China vows to ordain bishops without Vatican's OK
(RNS) In a move likely to aggravate tensions with the Vatican, China's
state-run Catholic church announced on Thursday (June 23) that it may
soon ordain more than 40 bishops without the approval of Pope Benedict
XVI.
According to the official Xinhua news agency, a spokesman for the
Chinese Patriotic Catholic Association (CPCA) said the church "faces an
urgent task" of choosing bishops for more than 40 dioceses, and planned
to do so "without delay."
For more than half a century, China's 12 million to 15 million
Catholics have been divided between the state-run CPCA and an
"underground" church of Catholics loyal to the pope.
