VATICAN CITY—The Vatican on Saturday said a Catholic bishop recently ordained in China without a papal mandate has no authority to govern the Catholics in his diocese.
Huang Bingzhang was this week ordained in Shantou city, under the authority of the Chinese Patriotic Catholic Association (CPCA), in the southern province of Guangdong.
The Vatican and the CPCA have been locked in a bitter struggle in recent months over control of the Catholic Church in China.
“Reverend Joseph Huang Bingzhang, having been ordained without papal mandate and hence illicitly, has incurred the sanctions laid down by canon 1382 of the Code of Canon Law,” the Vatican said in a statement.
“Consequently, the Holy See does not recognize him as Bishop of the Diocese of Shantou, and he lacks authority to govern the Catholic community of the Diocese,” it further said.
China’s 5.7 million Catholics are increasingly caught between showing allegiance to the CPCA, or to the pope as part of an “underground” Church.
Three bishops loyal to the pope went missing or were detained recently in an apparent attempt to force them to take part in Huang’s state-sanctioned ordination, their diocese members previously told AFP.
Noting the incident, the Vatican on Saturday applauded the “resistance” of the bishops who “expressed their unwillingness to take part in an illicit ordination.”
“It is meritorious before God and calls for appreciation on the part of the whole Church,” the Vatican said.
The Vatican has not had formal diplomatic relations with Beijing since 1951, and in May, Pope Benedict XVI accused the country’s communist authorities of pressuring Chinese bishops into separating from the Holy See.
“The Holy See reaffirms the right of Chinese Catholics to be able to act freely, following their consciences,” the statement said, adding that the pontiff “deplores the manner in which the Church in China is being treated.”