China's Catholics divided by new bishop appointment

Beijing, China - Sparring between Beijing and the Vatican is set to intensify on Sunday as China installs another bishop apparently without the blessing of the Pope, extending a row over who rules China's divided Catholic Church.

Zhan Silu, also called Vincent Zhan, will become bishop of Mindong Diocese in eastern Fujian province, and he -- like two other bishops appointed in China in past weeks -- apparently lacks the Holy See's approval, which bishops even in China's state-controlled church have regularly sought in recent years.

"I did write to the Vatican to ask for recognition, but I've never heard anything back," Zhan said on Friday. "For me, Vatican approval is important, but I also have to consider local needs."

Zhan's impending appointment is the latest episode in a row over bishops that has deepened a rift between China and the Vatican, which have been exploring diplomatic ties after decades of division since the Chinese Communists won control of the mainland in 1949.

On Friday, China's official Xinhua News Agency said the country's recently appointed bishops - including two whose promotion the Vatican opposed - "have won wide support from priests and believers." It said the Vatican was told beforehand about the appointments.

But in private, many Chinese Catholics have said they are distressed by the rift between the two sides and by China's unilateral moves.

There are some 10 million Catholics in China, divided between an "underground" church loyal to the Holy See and the state-approved church that respects the Pope as a spiritual figurehead but has no formal ties with the Vatican.

Zhan, 45, was appointed a bishop in 2000, when China appointed five contrary to Vatican opposition, and he has since been based in Fujian. But he has not been formally installed as a head of a diocese or hosted a full Mass as bishop.

On Sunday, he in effect comes off the reserves bench to replace the former bishop of Mindong, based in the small city of Ningde, who died last year aged 88.

A priest from Fujian familiar with Zhan said priests even in the state-recognized church there were considering boycotting the ceremony as Rome had not signaled its approval, but were under pressure from government officials to attend.

"Some priests are very worked up about this," he said. "Because he has not been recognized by the Vatican, priests have not cooperated with him and so he hasn't consulted them."

He said the church in Fujian, an avidly commercial province where people have a history of spurning central control, is sharply split between the government-approved church and a large, often strong-willed "underground" church loyal to Rome alone.

"I don't think the Vatican has approved of Zhan because of his background and because the underground parishioners there are so opposed," he said. Zhan holds a senior post in the Communist Party-run Chinese Patriotic Catholic Association.

Zhan said he had invited representatives of the large underground Catholic church to his ceremony, but they had not responded. "We have different views about things," he said.

Officially atheist China traditionally refused to allow the Vatican to appoint bishops, saying it would be interference in its internal affairs.

In recent years, Beijing and the Holy See came to an implicit understanding that allowed prospective bishops to seek Vatican approval before taking up their posts, said Father Jeroom Heyndrickx, director of the Verbiest Institute at Louvain University in Belgium, who often travels to China.

But in past weeks, China has consecrated a bishop in Wuhu in the eastern province of Anhui and another in Kunming in southwestern Yunnan, drawing harsh criticism from Pope Benedict himself.

"It is such a pity, because there was a kind of peaceful evolution going on, with the (Chinese) authorities closing one eye to approval from Rome," said Heyndrickx.