Chinese Catholic bishop dies: faithful to challenge Communists?

It's been some time since we looked at the schizophrenic state of the Catholic Church in China. Faithful Catholics must choose whether to give their loyalty to the schismatic "Chinese Patriotic Catholic Association" -- a puppet of the Communist government -- and the "underground Church", the bishops and priests who owe their allegiance to the Holy See.

The underground Catholics must meet in secret, for fear of being arrested and imprisoned...or worse. Their churches -- the buildings which survived the Cultural Revolution -- have been handed over to the CPCA or closed altogether. So also their shrines, which may still exist but are off limits to the faithful.

Rome has been pussyfooting around the issue. Led by the Vatican's left-leaning Secretary of State, Tarcisio Cardinal Bertone, the Holy See has been trying to find some way to reconcile with the "official" church.

New bishops have been consecrated with the consent of the Communist government. Some say those who accept their mitres from Rome and Beijing are no more than collaborators with one of the most repressive and autocratic régimes on earth.

Meanwhile, the old bishops are dying ... or being killed off. On August 28th John Yang Shudao, Bishop of Fuzhou, died at the age of 91, as the result of a crippling stroke.

Bishop Yang had been imprisoned by the Communists in 1955, released in 1981, but later sentenced to a new 3-year term, after his 1987 consecration as a bishop. He had been held for shorter terms at least twice since 2000. In all, he spent more than 28 years in Communist prisons.

His death poses a new test for the level of cooperation between the “official” Catholics recognized by the Beijing régime and the underground Church loyal to the Holy See. About two-third of the Catholics in the Fuzhou diocese adhere to the underground church.

Bishop Yang’s funeral is scheduled for September 1st, and government officials are reportedly working to "assert control", lest a massive public demonstration reveal the CPCA for the fraud that it is.