Vatican ploy riles China

Beijing, China - An attempt by the Vatican to prod China into dialogue and possibly better relations appears to have backfired .

Four Chinese Catholic bishops have been banned from attending a synod in the Vatican to which they had been invited by Pope Benedict XVI .

On top of that, the official Chinese Catholic Church has accused the Vatican of showing it "no respect" by issuing the invitations without consulting it first .

The events indicated that recent signs of gradually improving relations between the Vatican and Beijing, who have had no diplomatic relations since 1951, might have been given too much emphasis .

Benedict XVI last week included four Chinese bishops among the 36 he publicly invited to take part in a synod in the Vatican in October. Two of the bishops were from the underground Catholic Church in China, which responds to Rome, and two were members of the so-called Patriotic Catholic Church, which pledges ultimate allegiance to the Chinese government .

The move was widely seen as an invitation to the Chinese government to show its readiness for dialogue by allowing the bishops to come. It would have been the first time Beijing had allowed bishops from either the official or unofficial church to come to Rome .

But this weekend the Patriotic Association of Chinese Catholics, which represents China's five million 'legal' Catholics, said the bishops would not be coming and it voiced irritation that the invitations should have been made public .

"It shows an absolute lack of respect for the five million Catholics and for the Patriotic Association of Chinese Catholics," it said .

"If the Holy See sincerely wishes to improve relations between the Vatican and China, we hope that concrete steps will be taken and no new barriers erected." Some sections of the Chinese press criticised the Vatican on Monday for having published the list of invited bishops before having contacted Beijing .

"This goes against the good intentions expressed by the pope previously," said New China news agency, referring to Benedict's recent remarks indicating a desire to establish proper relations with countries such as China .

It had appeared that the Vatican and China, whose underground Catholic Church is believed to have some eight million members, were slowly overcoming differences .

The last two bishops appointed by the Chinese government for the Patriotic Church were later recognised by the Vatican. Many bishops in the Patriotic Church are reportedly eager to convince their government that it has nothing to fear from their spiritual allegiance to Rome, should it be allowed one day .

Analysts said the decision to invite bishops from both 'legal' and underground churches showed that the Vatican now views the situation in China as that of a single, albeit divided, Catholic Church.