On September 22, the Vatican signed a 'provisional agreement' with the People's Republic of China. Pundits view it as either a sell-out or a success. Simply, the agreement concerns the appointment of bishops, with the Vatican's two-fold aim being to improve relations between it and the Chinese government and within Chinese Catholic communities.
The accord removes a major stumbling block to the resumption of international relations, given that the government has claimed the right to appoint bishops, which the Vatican has resolutely opposed. Interestingly, the Vatican and the government in Vietnam jointly select episcopal candidates, and in 16th century Luxembourg the king appointed bishops by right of papal indult, so there are precedents.
Additionally, 'With a view to sustaining the proclamation of the Gospel in China, the Holy Father Pope Francis has decided to readmit to full ecclesial communion the remaining 'official' bishops ordained without pontifical mandate.' Seven of eight named 'official' bishops are still alive. To understand what is at play, it is first necessary to provide some historical background.
In light of the self-serving and at times criminal behavior of bishops around the world as revealed by the sexual abuse crisis, it might seem strange that the appointment of bishops is such a neuralgic issue for Vatican-China relations. In China, however, the appointment of bishops has become the litmus test of a so-called orthodoxy in much the same way that right-to-life issues are in the USA. And yet the role of the Chinese bishop was not always so symbolically weighted.
In fact, although the first Chinese Catholic bishop was consecrated in 1685, it took over two centuries for the next ones, when Pope Pius XI ordained six Chinese priests as bishops in Rome in 1926. This act emphasised that Chinese Catholics should be guiding their own church. Even so it was only in 1946 that Divine Word bishop Thomas Tian Gengxin became the first Chinese cardinal.
Being a Chinese Catholic bishop is thus a relatively recent occurrence, not even a 100-year phenomenon in more than 400 years of continuous history, and the church had survived well enough all the same.
Since 1926, however, the bishop has become the personification of both universality and also particularity in that a Chinese bishop embodies a Chinese expression of Catholicism. Upon him is placed much symbolic weight, in some ways more than elsewhere, where bishops can often seem absent entities.
"From the Vatican point of view, recognising the bishops hopefully