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"Vatican asks legitimate Chinese bishops to step down in favor of communist-picked bishops: report"
lifesitenews.com
"In what appears to be a capitulation to China’s communist regime, the Vatican has allegedly asked legitimate bishops to step down from their post in order to make way for the installation of new, illegitimate bishops, hand-picked by the government.
The Vatican has asked Bishop Peter Zhuang Jianjian to retire in order to allow a state-sanctioned and excommunicated bishop to take his place while 'another Vatican-appointed bishop was asked to downgrade himself as the assistant of an illicit bishop,' according to a report in AsiaNews.
Bishop Zhuang was secretly ordained with Vatican approval in 2006. The Chinese government wants to replace Zhuang with excommunicated Bishop Huang Bingzhang, who is a member of the National People’s Congress. Huang was previously excommunicated because he was ordained without Vatican approval.
'A letter dated 26 October demanded the 88-year-old bishop to resign to give way to the excommunicated bishop, whom the Holy See is going to recognize,' the AsiaNews report continued. 'Bishop Zhuang at that time refused to obey and rather ‘carry His Cross’ for being disobedience [sic].'
The news comes six months after Cardinal Joseph Zen, the first Cardinal from China and a key adviser to Pope Benedict XVI regarding China-Vatican relations, denounced a Vatican agreement with the Chinese atheistic Communist government. The Cardinal indirectly accused Pope Francis of backing a 'fake' church in China.
'But the whole thing is fake. They [the Vatican] are giving decisive power to the government … how can the initiative of choosing bishops be given to an atheistic government? Incredible. Incredible,' he said at that time.
Regarding the surprising demands of the Vatican as it acquiesces to the communist Chinese government, one underground priest told AsiaNews, 'We of course feel hard to accept but do we have the rights to oppose the Vatican?' He added that if things actually go this way, 'I may consider to quit and leave my priesthood.'...
Zen said that a Vatican deal with the Chinese government would damage the Church's credibility. After all, if the Chinese government can appoint bishops, other governments could expect to do so as well...
More than 1,500 Catholic and Protestant churches in China’s Zhejiang province 'have been targeted for demolition or cross removals in recent years, sources have said in a campaign against churches not coming under state control,' according to the UCANews report. 'Chinese authorities are increasingly using property regulations to remove crosses and demolish churches.'
Beginning last year, religious freedom and public worship became severely restricted in China, where the government has 'physically abused, detained, arrested, tortured, sentenced to prison, or harassed adherents of both registered and unregistered religious groups,' according to a 2017 U.S. State Department report.
The only priest of the Lishui Diocese, also in Zhejiang province, went missing shortly after Christmas when government officials abruptly took him away."
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