Beijing, China, Sep 6, 2007 / 08:01 am
The hope for reconciliation between the Chinese Catholic Patriotic Association (CCPA) and the Vatican seems to be dimming as the government-run church claims that it will ordain new bishops to lead 40 vacant Chinese dioceses.
According to the China Daily, a senior CCPA says that out of China's 97 dioceses, 40 do not have bishops while another 30 are headed by elderly church officials.
Liu Bainian, the vice-president of the government church said, "Many of the current bishops are old, with 30 of them above 80 years old," and that “[w]e are in dire need of bishops."
Liu blamed the shortage on the Vatican's long-time opposition to China's practice of appointing its own bishops. He said the country could no longer wait for the decades-old
rift to heal before making new appointments.