The Government has apparently not yet forgiven the Pope for the mass canonisation of 120 Chinese and foreign saints, some of whom were labelled by Beijing as imperial aggressors, a senior government-approved bishop indicated yesterday.
Bishop Fu Tieshan of the Beijing diocese yesterday continued to criticise the mass canonisation in 2000 and said it was a conspiracy by the Vatican and Taiwan to add fuel to the island's independence movement.
The canonisation, which came on China's National Day, caused an uproar in Beijing and led to the Vatican being accused of disrespect. In a protest gesture, Beijing named five Catholic bishops without consulting Vatican.
Bishop Fu, chairman of the official Chinese Catholic Patriotic Association, said two obstacles dividing China and the Vatican were the Holy See's relationship with Taiwan and the Catholic Church's refusal to recognise the association and the parallel Bishop Conference of the Catholic Church.
Bishop Fu insisted the 2000 canonisation had seriously harmed China. 'The effect of that incident is relatively serious,' he said on the sidelines of a National People's Congress meeting.
'The canonisation is a trick by Taiwan to support [the promotion of] independence by [President] Chen Shui-bian.'
He claimed that Catholic bishops in Taiwan had originally proposed the canonisation to the Vatican in the 1980s, but it was shelved because the Church was seeking better ties with China.
