China: Pope and Vatican Have No Say in Choosing Chinese Bishops

China has published new “Administrative Measures for Religious Clergy” that will come into force on May 1.

According to BitterWinter.org (February 17) which is published by the pro-Francis sociologist Massimo Introvigne, the regime has created a system of surveillance, and strengthens the already strict control on all clergy.

There will be a national data base containing the names of the official clergy who were trained and recognised by the five State authorised religions. Their loyalty to the Party is assessed periodically by awarding social credit or by sanctions which may cause the loss of the registration in the State data base.

Those Catholic, Protestant, Buddhist, Moslem and Jewish religious representatives who were cancelled form the data base, will commit a “crime” if they continue representing themselves as clergy.

Article 16 tells Catholics that bishops in China are "democratically" elected through the Chinese Patriotic Catholic Association. Interestingly, there is no mention of the Vatican or the pope as part of the election process.

Picture: © Mazur, CC BY-NC-SA, #newsOevwgaabna