Harbin’s illicit ordination delayed: Victory for "Faithfull’s prayers and fasting"
Rome (AsiaNews) - For months the faithful of Harbin
(Heilongjiang) have been praying and fasting lest the Episcopal ordination
without papal mandate go ahead, now they are quietly satisfied: the ordination,
scheduled for tomorrow, will not happen.
Local
sources have told AsiaNews that "there
will be no ordination tomorrow."
For
some time, rumors abounded in the Northern city that soon - June 29 - that Patriotic
Association (PA) candidate
Fr. Joseph
Yue Fusheng, 48, would be ordained a bishop. The priests had been contacted by the
Office of Religious Affairs and warned not to interfere and the Cathedral of Harbin had
been undergoing restoration work for the occasion. Fr. Yue has been pushing for his ordination
for years. In
December 2010 (see: 09/12/2010 Assembly
elects new leadership, causing major harm to the Church) he was chosen as one of three vice-presidents of the National PA, with
Paul, Lei Shiyin (Leshan diocese) and Joseph Huang Bingzhang (Shantou), both
became bishops without papal approval (see: 29/06/2011 Leshan:
seven legitimate bishops take part in Episcopal ordination that had no papal
mandate and 14/07/2011 Eight
bishops in communion with the pope forced to take part in illegitimate
ordination in Shantou).
The
faithful of the underground and official community have been holding moments of
prayer and fasting so that such a "slap in the face to the Holy
Father" would not occur. Even
the priests of the diocese have declared their opposition to this ordination.
Msgr.
Savio Hon Taifai, Vatican secretary of Propaganda Fide, in an interview with AsiaNews had warned the same Fr. Yue
not perform such actions that are contrary to communion with the Pope
(15/06/2012 Msgr.
Savio Hon: episcopal ordinations with no papal mandate reveal Party's lack of
ideals and internal fighting).
A
local priest tells AsiaNews that in
any case "our people will continue to pray and fast for the ordination to
be permanently cancelled." According
to rumors, in fact, it was only "postponed until next month."
The
priest however stresses that this delay is the fruit of the unity of the Church
of Harbin.
In the interview cited
above, Msgr. Hon
said that the illicit ordinations in the face of so many claims of liberal
leadership, is a sign of the struggle that is taking place in the party between
liberals and Stalinists, namely, the "princes", the sons of the great
Party leaders, who do not want to lose their grip
on power. In
fact, in recent days the news emerged that one of these Stalinists, Zhu Weiqun,
was forced to resign from the post of deputy director of the United Front on
age grounds and has been replaced by Zhang Yijiong. The
United Front controls the patriotic associations of the various religions.
Months
ago, Zhu Weiqun had defended the need to strengthen Party control over religion
(see: 20/12/2011 "Get
thee behind me Satan": No religion for the Chinese Communist Party members
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