CHINA
from issue no. 05 - 2004
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The ordination of the first Chinese bishop publicly nominated by the Pope since the founding of the People’s Republic
Getting over the wall
by Gianni Valente
The ordination of the first bishop publicly nominated
by the Pope in China since the time of the foundation of the People’s Republic
took place in a very Chinese way. In Hengshui, in the province of Hebei, the
priests and laity conducted a long and frank negotiation, which concluded only
a little before the ceremony, in an attempt to agree with the political
authorities on how to conduct the liturgy for ordaining the young Pietro Feng
Xinmao as coadjutor bishop of the diocese, so that both the nomination received
from the Pope as well as the governmental acceptance be made public during the
ritual. Thus, on 6 January last, the liturgy began in the small local church,
where the initial stages of the ceremony took place, including that in which
the oldest priest in the diocese announced the papal nomination of the new
bishop. After which, also so as not to disappoint the faithful who could not
find room in the church, the people and clergy crossed the square and the
liturgy of consecration was celebrated in, of all places, the great hall of the
local House of the People.
Interest was aroused last summer by the open letter in which Giuseppe Han Zhi-hai, bishop of Lanzhou unrecognized by the government, affirmed full communion of faith with the Chinese bishops who are in communion with Rome, even though acting within the “patriotic” procedures and institutions wherewith the civil power controls ecclesial activities (cf. 30Days 10/2003, pp. 21-24). It resounded as an authoritative appeal to get over the division between “non-registered” ecclesial communities and the communities recognized by the government which in China had actually produced the phenomenon of two parallel episcopal structures (neither of which is recognized by the Vatican).
In the game of coded signals which the Vatican and the Chinese administration send each other in the absence of official channels for dialogue, this procedure “agreed” for the ordination of Hengshui, repeated on 29 April last at the consecration of Jinan, could represent a model for a provisional solution to be experimented, with a view to a tacit and gradual resolution of the anomalous situation. A process which the Holy See is going along with by suspending “underground” ordinations (the last without any recognition by governmental institutions took place mid way through the ’nineties) and trying in so far as possible to give its reserved consent to the nomination of candidates recognized as bishops by the government and not opposed by the so-called “underground” communities.
Interest was aroused last summer by the open letter in which Giuseppe Han Zhi-hai, bishop of Lanzhou unrecognized by the government, affirmed full communion of faith with the Chinese bishops who are in communion with Rome, even though acting within the “patriotic” procedures and institutions wherewith the civil power controls ecclesial activities (cf. 30Days 10/2003, pp. 21-24). It resounded as an authoritative appeal to get over the division between “non-registered” ecclesial communities and the communities recognized by the government which in China had actually produced the phenomenon of two parallel episcopal structures (neither of which is recognized by the Vatican).
In the game of coded signals which the Vatican and the Chinese administration send each other in the absence of official channels for dialogue, this procedure “agreed” for the ordination of Hengshui, repeated on 29 April last at the consecration of Jinan, could represent a model for a provisional solution to be experimented, with a view to a tacit and gradual resolution of the anomalous situation. A process which the Holy See is going along with by suspending “underground” ordinations (the last without any recognition by governmental institutions took place mid way through the ’nineties) and trying in so far as possible to give its reserved consent to the nomination of candidates recognized as bishops by the government and not opposed by the so-called “underground” communities.
