Rome (Fides) - Fides' has been informed that tomorrow morning, Sunday June 25, at Hangzhou, in Zhejiang, south-east China, an Episcopal ordination has been scheduled. The diocese has been vacant for over a year. The candidate for ordination is Fr Matthew Cao, in his seventies, a priest of the "official" Church in China. Local Catholics describe Fr Matthew as a very discreet person, but who has been brain washed by the Patriotic Association to accept to be ordained a bishop.
On January this year, 5 men were ordained bishops in Nangtang cathedral in Beijing after being psychologically and physically bullied. In recent months the Patriotic Association has been repeatedly criticized by bishops and faithful for increasing opposition against the Vatican and the Holy See.
For its part, the Holy See has requested that ordinations in the official Church follow the same procedure as that of the universal Church. In particular it is necessary to render public the Holy See's approval of the candidate; for a bishop to be ordained the Pope's mandate is always necessary.
In this present case, a mandate Fr Matthew Cao was not even requested. What is more, none of the three ordaining bishops are lawful. They are bishop Yu (diocese of Haimen), bishop Wu (Nanchang); bishop Fu Tieshan, unlawful bishop of Beijing and Chairman of the Chinese Catholic Patriotic Association CCPA.
The "official Church in China has about 4 million members. Whereas the "unofficial" Church, has over 6 million. When the communist regime took power, in 1949 there were 3 million Catholics in China.
(Fides 24/6/2000)