It's hardly news that 2011 has witnessed a severe deterioration of relations between the Vatican and China. Nor is it any secret what's at stake for Rome: the Catholic Church's freedom in China from state control. Benedict XVI can no more accept that the lay bureaucrats (some of whom aren't even Christian) who run the state's Chinese Patriotic Catholic Association should decide who will be China's Catholic bishops, any more than Pope Clement VII could acknowledge Henry VIII's absurd claim to be Supreme Head of the Church of England in 1534.
Read Full Article »
