Twice in the span of a few days, L'Osservatore Romano has given extensive coverage to two new episcopal consecrations that took place in China, the first on July 10 and the second on July 15.
The texts of both new stories, because of their delicacy from a diplomatic point of view, were not composed in the newsroom but directly in the offices of the Vatican secretariat of state.
Both, in fact, demonstrate a shift in the sequence of episcopal ordinations in that country.
In recent years, episcopal ordinations in China have seen fluctuating fortunes, between openness and rigidity on the part of the communist government. In 2005, all the new bishops were ordained with the approval of both the pope and the Chinese authorities.
In 2006, however, in reaction to the nomination as cardinal of Hong Kong bishop Joseph Zen Zekiun – a nomination seen as hostile by Beijing – the Chinese government resumed ordaining bishops without the pope's mandate.
In 2007, the year of Benedict XVI's letter to the Catholics of China, the bishops were again consecrated with the approval of Rome. The new bishop of Beijing was also installed with the agreement of the pope.
But starting in December of 2007, everything came to a halt. For more than two years there was not a single new ordination, in spite of the fact that a very high number of dioceses in China are vacant, or headed by very elderly bishops.
The impasse was broken on April 18 of this year, when in Hohhot, in Inner Mongolia, 47-year-old priest Paul Meng Quinglu was consecrated bishop.
Since then, new ordinations have resumed at a brisk pace. And always with the approval of both Rome and the Chinese authorities.
FULL STORY China. Seven new bishops do not a summer make (Chiesa Espress Online)