Pope Francis recognized the legitimacy of seven bishops appointed by the Chinese government. Because they had not been selected by the Vatican, they had previously been excommunicated.
ROME — The Vatican said Saturday it had reached a provisional deal with the Chinese government to end a decades-old power struggle over the authority to appoint bishops in China. It was the communist country’s first formal recognition of the pope as leader of the Roman Catholic Church in the world’s most populous nation, Vatican officials said.
Under the breakthrough, Pope Francis recognized the legitimacy of seven bishops appointed by the Chinese government. Because they had not been selected by the Vatican, they had previously been excommunicated.
The deal was in keeping with pope’s outreach to parts of the world where he hopes to increase the church’s presence and spread its message. It gives the church greater access to a huge population where the growth of Protestantism is far outpacing Catholicism.
But for critics loathe to share any of the church’s authority with an authoritarian government, the deal marked a shameful retreat and the setting of a dangerous precedent for future relations with other countries.
The deal comes at a time when the pope is under enormous scrutiny for his church’s handling of clerical sex abuse, one of several issues that conservative forces within the church have seized on to weaken Francis. The deal with China, which they deeply opposed, is likely to fuel that discontent.
Francis has for years talked about his desire to visit China, where Roman Catholicism has steadily lost ground in the face of intensifying crackdowns and surveillance on religious groups under President Xi Jinping. Protestants, whose faith is spreading fast around the country, have largely eclipsed the percentage in China of Catholics, who number about 10 million to 12 million.
For decades, many Chinese Catholics have risked arrest and persecution by worshipping in underground churches led by bishops appointed secretly by popes, while China’s communist government has erected a parallel structure: a state-sanctioned, state-controlled Catholic church. For years, dating back three papacies, the Vatican has sought to unify the two communities.
