“All Catholics in China, Pastors, priests, consecrated persons and lay faithful, are called to defend and safeguard that which pertains to the doctrine and tradition of the Church. Even amid the present difficulties, they look to the future with faith, comforted by the certainty that the Church is founded on the rock of Peter and his Successors”: it is a declaration of the Holy See, made known today, on two episcopal ordinations occurring in continental China, the first one in Harbin and the second in Shanghai. In the first case, the text says that Rev. Giuseppe Yue Fusheng, “ordained without pontifical mandate and hence illicitly, has automatically incurred the sanctions laid down by canon 1382 of the Code of Canon Law. Consequently, the Holy See does not recognize him as Bishop of the Apostolic Administration of Harbin”. Among other things, Fusheng himself “had been informed some time ago that he could not be approved by the Holy See as episcopal candidate”. In the second case, the ordination of the Reverend Thaddeus Ma Daqin as Auxiliary Bishop of the Diocese of Shanghai is legitimate. The only anomalous aspect is the presence at the ceremony “of a bishop who is not in communion with the Holy Father. That is inappropriate and shows a lack of consideration for a lawful episcopal ordination”, says the press release.

10/07/2012 -