Vatican lead on China

DESPITE VATICAN efforts last month to draw up guidelines for the improvement of relations between China and Rome, a leader of the state-controlled Patriotic Catholic Association in China accused the Vatican last week of interfering in his country's internal affairs by secretly appointing bishops in Taiwan.
Bishop Michael Fu Tieshan of Beijing, who was ordained by the Patriotic Catholic Association, which rejects links with Rome, issued a statement last Friday in which he condemned the Vatican's appointment of bishops in Taiwan as an infringement on Chinese Catholics' rights to selfgovernment.
The Patriotic Catholic Association, which severed ties with the Vatican in 1957, emerged as one of the key points discussed at a meeting held in Rome by several Church officials on March 4. Bishop Jose Sanchez, the secretary, of the Congregation for the Evangelisation of Peoples, revealed last week that the meeting had been called to examine the "delicate problem" of the Church in China.
According to Bishop Sanchez, a set of guidelines, soon to be made public, were issued at the meeting. The guidelines included a warning to those Church officials who visit China that Rome has in no way abandoned the Catholic Community which has remained faithful to the Vatican (known as the "underground Church"), and an assurance, on behalf of Church officials, that they plan to retain their organisational unity in China despite the split with the "Patriotic" Catholics there.
The Vatican appointed Bishop Joseph Lin in Taiwan last December. There are already five Vatican-appointed archbishops in Taiwan.