{"id":301578,"date":"2019-08-28T20:52:33","date_gmt":"2019-08-29T00:52:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/?p=301578"},"modified":"2019-08-28T20:52:33","modified_gmt":"2019-08-29T00:52:33","slug":"the-communist-party-feels-comfortable-with-him-a-landmark-ordination-of-a-bishop-in-china","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/2019\/08\/the-communist-party-feels-comfortable-with-him-a-landmark-ordination-of-a-bishop-in-china\/","title":{"rendered":"‘The Communist Party feels comfortable with him’: A landmark ordination of a bishop in China"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

From The New York Times:\u00a0<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

\n

A 54-year-old priest who studied in the United States was installed this week as a bishop in China, the first to take office after a landmark deal signed last year between the Vatican and Beijing.<\/p>\n

According to\u00a0Chinese media reports<\/a>\u00a0that were\u00a0confirmed by the Vatican<\/a>, Msgr. Antonio Yao Shun was installed on Monday as bishop of Jining in the northern Chinese autonomous region of Inner Mongolia.<\/p>\n

The ceremony in Jining seemed to signal that Beijing was willing to make compromises as part of the 2018 deal, which was signed last year to facilitate appointing new clergy.<\/p>\n

Father Yao had been approved by the Vatican in 2010 to succeed an octogenarian bishop but Beijing\u00a0had refused to approve him<\/a>, even after the bishop died in 2017 at age 89.<\/p>\n

The Vatican was \u201cvery eager to see this,\u201d said Anthony Lam of the Holy Spirit Study Center, a Catholic research center in Hong Kong. \u201cThe diocese asked for the green light many times and now they got it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Held in the Our Lady of Rosary Cathedral, the ceremony was attended by an estimated 1,000 faithful and 120 priests.\u00a0According to a Catholic news service<\/a>, an approval letter was read declaring that Bishop Yao had been elected \u201caccording to the tradition of bishop election by the Holy Church and the regulation of the BCCCC,\u201d an acronym for the government-run bishops conference.<\/p>\n

The installation follows\u00a0the deal in September<\/a>, which was aimed at ending decades of animosity and estrangement between \u201cunderground\u201d Catholics loyal to Rome and government-sanctioned churches.<\/p>\n

The deal\u2019s cornerstone was an agreement that would give each side a say in how bishops are nominated and approved, allowing for a rejuvenation of the church\u2019s aging clergy in China.<\/p>\n

Critics of Pope Francis have\u00a0labeled the deal a sellout<\/a>, saying that the Communist authorities should have no say in how bishops are approved, especially after Rome asked two underground bishops\u00a0to step aside<\/a>\u00a0in favor of their government-approved counterparts.<\/p>\n

Defenders, however, said such deals were not without precedent in the church\u2019s long history, and argued that\u00a0it was necessary<\/a>\u00a0to end the division between government-backed and underground clergy.<\/p>\n

The installation on Monday seems to show that Beijing also has made concessions. In addition to approving Bishop Yao, the authorities\u00a0allowed a member of the underground church, Bishop Du Jiang of the Bameng diocese<\/a>, to attend \u2014 a tacit form of approval.<\/p>\n

Bishop Yao, however, is no antigovernment firebrand. His predecessor had been vocal in rejecting the government\u2019s role in religion but Bishop Yao is known for keeping a low profile and focusing on pastoral and evangelical work in his district, which has an estimated 71,000 Catholics, 31 priests and 12 nuns.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Communist Party feels comfortable with him,\u201d said Francesco Sisci, a Beijing-based researcher on Chinese Catholicism. \u201cThey don\u2019t want someone doing agitprop against them.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Read more.\u00a0<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

From The New York Times:\u00a0 A 54-year-old priest who studied in the United States was installed this week as a bishop in China, the first to take office after a landmark deal signed last year between the Vatican and Beijing. According to\u00a0Chinese media reports\u00a0that were\u00a0confirmed by the Vatican, Msgr. Antonio Yao Shun was installed on […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":132,"featured_media":301581,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[45],"tags":[232],"class_list":["post-301578","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-ripped-from-the-headlines","tag-china"],"yoast_head":"\n'The Communist Party feels comfortable with him': A landmark ordination of a bishop in China<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"From The New York Times:\u00a0 A 54-year-old priest who studied in the United States was installed this week as a bishop in China, the first to take office\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" 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