BEIJING, Sept 26: A controversial agreement was signed Tuesday, naming the Pope head of the Chinese Catholic church with the right to appoint bishops.

The Vatican said the accord, a breakthrough after years of negotiations, was “not political but pastoral” and the Holy See is acting in the best will of its 12 million parishioners.

The Vatican said the pope hoped “a new process may begin that will allow the wounds of the past to be overcome, leading to the full communion of all Chinese Catholics.”

Millions of Chinese Catholics have been split between an underground church swearing loyalty to the Vatican and the state-supervised Catholic Patriotic Association. The Vatican said the absence of a deal could have led to a schism between Chinese Catholics that would have been difficult to heal.

In future, new bishops first will be proposed by members of local Catholic communities together with Chinese authorities. The names of candidates will be sent to the Vatican.

Per the agreement, seven of the excommunicated state-appointed bishops will be recognized in Rome, while, in turn, Vatican-sanctioned ‘underground’ bishops will be accepted by state authorities.

Earlier this week, China's Catholic Church reaffirmed its loyalty to the country's ruling Communist Party on Sunday while welcoming a landmark deal struck with the Vatican on appointing new bishops.

A Vatican statement issued when the agreement was signed on Saturday said it was “not political but pastoral” and will not be published to facilitate review and fine-tuning in the future.

 
• Pope head
 
• Chinese_Catholic_church
 
• appoint_bishops
 
• Catholic_Patriotic_Association
 
• Vatican