Angry Vatican Excommunicates Chinese Bishop

Says Benedict alone has right to appoint bishops
By Polly Davis Doig,  Newser Staff
Posted Jul 16, 2011 7:50 AM CDT
Angry Vatican Excommunicates Chinese Bishop
Pope Benedict XVI attends an audience to the diocese of Altamura, Gravina, and Aquaviva delle Fonti, at the Paolo VI hall in the Vatican on July 2, 2011.   (Getty Images)

The Vatican has excommunicated a newly ordained bishop in China's Catholic Church, reports Reuters, peeved that the Beijing church went ahead and ordained the Rev. Joseph Huang Bingzhang without papal approval. The Vatican maintains that Pope Benedict alone has the right to name bishops; Beijing sees that as foreign interference, notes the AP. The priest defied numerous requests from the Holy See to refuse the ordination, it said in a statement, adding that Benedict "deplores the manner in which the church in China is being treated." (More excommunication stories.)

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