Pope excommunicates China bishop

[xchrom]

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/breaking/2011/0716/breaking6.html

The Vatican said today that a Chinese bishop ordained without papal approval had been excommunicated from the Catholic Church, bringing relations between the Vatican and Beijing to a new low.

In a statement condemning Thursday's ordination of the bishop as illegitimte, the Vatican also said Pope Benedict "deplores" the way communist authorities are treating Chinese Catholics who want to remain faithful to Rome instead of switching their allegiance to the state-backed Catholic church.

China's state-sanctioned Catholic church ordained Joseph Huang Bingzhang as bishop in Shantou city in southern Guangdong province Thursday morning, the honorary president of the Chinese Catholic Patriotic Association, Liu Bainian, said.

Cardinal Joseph Zen of Hong Kong, an outspoken critic of Beijing and at times of the Vatican's handling of issues with China, said on a visit to the United States that relations could only be improved in the long term through dialogue with China's communist party leadership.

[laconicsax]

1. And yet he couldn't find it in his heart to excommunicate serial child rapists...

[onager]

2. Snort! Back in the good old days, the Pope excommunicated whole cities.

e.g., the whole city of Venice was excommunicated in 1284, 1309, 1483 and finally in 1605 by Pope Paul V - when Venice stood its ground, set an example for other uppity cities, and made sure no Pope would ever try that again (and none did). (For any lurking Freepers, that's the Venice in Italy.)

Tolerant, commercial, cosmopolitan Venice was always a thorn in the Vatican's side. Along with Official Spookeries of the One True Church, Venice featured Protestant chapels, synagaogues, mosques and a huge printing industry catering to heretical freethinkers.

In practical terms, excommunicating a city meant that all the priests locked up the Catholic churches and left town. Nobody Catholic could be officially baptized, buried or married for the duration. Even worse for the citizens, no official festivals or feasts could be held. No Carneval, no Xmas, etc. etc.

After a while, this BS wore off. People hauled out the booze, cooked the giant meals, and just went ahead and celebrated anyway. Without the priests and their official blessings.

The conclusion of the 1605 excommunication is beautifully summarized in J.J. Norwich's "A History of Venice:"

Another, better-documented case is that of the capitular vicar in Padua who, on being ordered to surrender certain letters from Rome, replied that he would act as the Holy Spirit moved him.

The Venetian Governor replied that the Council of Ten had already been moved by the Holy Spirit to hang all who disobeyed, and the letters were duly handed over.

[Deep13]

3. Well, that's one solution.

Maybe the Catholics around the world can just decide to stop taking orders from Pope Nazi II.