Pope Leo XIV appointed the first Chinese bishop, reporting that he is continuing the Vatican’s controversial agreement
Vatican City (AP) – Pope Leo XIV took his first appointment of a Chinese bishop under the Vatican 2018 agreement with Beijing, reporting that he is pursuing one of the most controversial foreign policy decisions of Pope Francis.
The Vatican expressed his satisfaction that the appointment of bishop Joseph Lin Yontuan de Leo as a auxiliary bishop of Fuzhou was recognized Wednesday by the Chinese authorities.
The Vatican declared in a press release that Lin taking possession of the diocese and the civic recognition of its appointment “constitutes another fruit of the dialogue between the Holy See and the Chinese authorities and is an important stage of the common journey of the diocese.”
Francis had required conservatives when he approved a 2018 agreement on bishop’s appointments, which had been the most dividing issue of the Vatican-China relations since diplomatic ties were broken when the Communists came to power. China had insisted on an exclusive right to appoint bishops as a question of national sovereignty, while the Vatican affirmed the exclusive right of the Pope to name the successors of the original apostles.
The 12 million Chinese Catholics were divided between an official church controlled by the State which did not recognize the papal authority and an underground church which remained faithful to Rome during the decades of persecution. The Vatican tried for decades to unify the herd and the 2018 agreement aimed to cure this division, regularizing the status of seven bishops who were not recognized by Rome and Dégel from the decades of strangulation between China and the Vatican.
The details of the 2018 agreement have never been published, but it offers the State controlled a word to say in its church leaders, although Francis insisted that he has retained the right of veto on the ultimate choice.
The agreement was criticized by some, in particular on the Catholic right, for giving in to the requests of Beijing and sold the underground faithful in China. The Vatican said it was the best possible matter and has been renewed periodically since then.
One of the major questions of foreign policy to which Leo, the first American pope in history, was to continue to renew the agreement or take into account conservative requests and make changes.
There have been apparent violations on the Beijing side with unilateral appointments that occurred without papal consent. The question came to the head just before the conclave which elected Leo Pope, when the Chinese church proceeded to the preliminary election of two bishops, a stage which comes before the official consecration.
The coverage of the Associated Press Religion receives support thanks to the collaboration of the AP with the conversation in the United States, with the financing of Lilly Endowment Inc. AP is solely responsible for this content.
Originally published:
