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Pope gives Chinese bishops ‘warm welcome’
VATICAN CITY, Oct 3, 2018 (BSS/AFP) – Pope Francis on Wednesday offered a
“warm welcome” to two Chinese Catholic bishops attending a synod for the
first time following a landmark deal between China and the Vatican.
“Today, for the first time, we have also with us two bishops from mainland
China,” the pontiff said in a speech to kick off the month-long advisory body
meeting on the role of young people in the 1.2 billion-member church.
“We offer them our warm welcome: the communion of the entire episcopate
with the successor of Peter is yet more visible thanks to their presence,” he
said.
On September 22, the Vatican and China reached a provisional agreement
under which Pope Francis recognised seven clergy initially ordained by
Beijing without the Vatican’s approval.
The accord could pave the way for the normalisation of ties between the
Catholic Church and the world’s most populous country.
One of those recognised, Bishop Joseph Guo Jincai, is attending the synod
along with Bishop John Baptist Yang Xiaotin, another member of the Patriotic
Catholic Association (PCA), a body created by the Chinese government to
administer the church.
Francis said he hoped the synod would help “broaden our horizons, expand
our hearts and transform those frames of mind that today paralyse, separate
and alienate us from young people, leaving them exposed to stormy seas”.
The meeting of more than 300 church officials, outside experts and youth
delegates is taking place in the shadow of an existential crisis in the
Church over cases of widespread sexual abuse of minors by clergy and lay
officials in a number of countries.
BSS/AFP/1530 HRS