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China does not allow the Pope to appoint bishops, allowing only its own appointed bishops to lead Catholics.

state-approved Chinese Catholic church pledges allegiance to China's Communist government and does not recognize the Vatican's authority

CWNews

1 posted on 01/29/2004 8:29:39 PM PST by Land of the Irish

To: Akron Al; Alberta's Child; Andrew65; AniGrrl; Antoninus; apologia_pro_vita_sua; attagirl; ...

2 posted on 01/29/2004 8:30:52 PM PST by Land of the Irish

To: Land of the Irish

The guy ignores history. Priests have been immigrating from Ireland for a century because the living was better than it was in Ireland. Ditto priests from other countries.

3 posted on 01/29/2004 9:04:27 PM PST by RobbyS

To: Diago; narses; Loyalist; BlackElk; american colleen; saradippity; Polycarp; Dajjal; ...

Interesting article. Some items that jumped out at me:

The Archdiocese of Washington currently has 19 priests on loan from 10 countries, among them Brazil, China and France. The Diocese of Arlington has 13 priests on loan from 10 countries, including Cuba, Ireland and Nigeria.

China and Cuba? We know about the huge problems with the communist-controlled Church in China. And wouldn't Cuba also need all the priests they can get?

Nationwide, there are twice as many priests dying or retiring as there are young men entering the seminary, according to Mary Gauther, spokeswoman for Georgetown University's Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate (CARA), which studies the Catholic Church.

Uh oh, what happened to the "leveling off" that we were promised? Looks like the "Springtime decay function" is going to continue in operation for some time to come.

Last year, the Washington Archdiocese, which includes parishes in the District and in Montgomery, Prince George's, Calvert, St. Mary's and Charles counties in Maryland, reported it had 202 active priests serving in parishes, while five were ordained. Arlington had 129 priests and four ordained. Richmond had 116 priests, but had no new priests ordained, according to statistics compiled by CARA.

What happened to Arlington as the great hope of "conservative" Catholics? This diocese was supposed to be a model for the rest of the US church. It's not so surprising to see zero ordinations in Richmond, and 5 in DC is actually a surprise on the upside, but I don't see how Arlington is going to set a standard to imitate with 4 ordinations.

And a good deal of "poaching" goes on between dioceses as well as between countries. Conservatives are attracted to dioceses with better reputations, which makes their numbers look better, but which doesn't mean that they are developing their own home-grown vocations. Arlington, for example, usually gets vocations from Christendom College, where the bishop recently forbade the students to kneel any longer for communion.

9 posted on 01/30/2004 10:56:40 AM PST by Maximilian

To: Land of the Irish

You are aware, aren't you, that there are really two Catholic Churches in China?

One is the above ground -- bowing to the pressures of the Chinese gov.

The second is the true Catholic Church that has gone underground with their congregations. They are the ones who need our prayers.

I've been following this for quite a while and will post some links for you to investigate.

You know I always like to present the other side of the coin, the other side of the issue.

26 posted on 01/30/2004 3:51:26 PM PST by Salvation (†With God all things are possible.†)

To: Land of the Irish

27 posted on 01/30/2004 3:54:04 PM PST by Salvation (†With God all things are possible.†)

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