China revokes title of bishop who left Patriotic Association

December 10, 2012

China’s government-controlled Catholic bishops’ conference has revoked its recognition for Bishop Thaddeus Ma Daqin as an auxiliary of the Shanghai diocese, in the latest in a series of punishments for the bishop after he resigned from the Catholic Patriotic Association.

Bishop Ma has been under house arrest since his ordination in July. At that ceremony he announced that he was leaving the Patriotic Association, and he conspicuously declined to share Communion with other bishops who were ordained without the Vatican’s approval.

Bishop Ma had originally been ordained with the approval of both Rome and Beijing. Chinese authorities quickly revoked their approval, however, after his highly public rebuke of the Patriotic Association. Both the Patriotic Association and the bishops' conference, established by the government, have been denounced by Pope Benedict XVI as clear efforts to exert political control over the Church.

 

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Further information:

• Under arrest, Mgr Ma Daqin is stripped of his title as Shanghai bishop (AsiaNews)
• China imposes ‘re-education’ on all clergy, religious in Shanghai (CWN, 10/5)