중국 정부 승인을 받은 중국의 공식교회는 최근 전국 천주교대표대회를 내년으로 연기할 것을 만장일치로 결정했다.
중국 천주교애국회와 주교회의 상임위원 80여 명은 11월 25-26일 베이징에서 열릴 예정이던 제8차 천주교대표대회를 연기하기로 했다.
애국회와 주교회의의 최고 자치기구인 천주교대표대회에서는 애국회와 주교회의 지도부를 선출하며, 보통 5년마다 열린다.
7차 대회는 2004년에 열렸으며, 이번 8차 대회는 올해 후반기에 열리기로 돼 있었다.
최근 모임에 참석한 몇몇 주교들은 대회를 준비할 시간이 충분하지 않았다는 말을 들었다고 했다. 지난 2008년 5월의 쓰촨성 지진에 이은 구호사업과 같은 해 8월의 베이징올림픽 그리고 올 10월의 중화인민공화국 건국 60주년 등의 행사로 정신이 없었기 때문이라고 한다.
애국회 부주석 류바이녠(안토니오)는 최근 모임에는 공식교회 주교 대부분과 아직 주교회의 승인을 받지 못한 주교 후보 12명이 참석해, 천주교대표대회에 참석할 대표 선정 방식과 교구별 대표 수를 확정 지었다고 했다.
2004년 7차 대회에는 전국의 주교와 사제, 수녀, 평신도지도자 300여 명이 참석했으며, 정관을 개정하고 푸톄산 주교(미카엘, 베이징교구)를 애국회 주석에, 류위안런 주교(요셉, 난징교구)를 주교회의 주석에 재선출했다. 두 주교 모두 교황청 승인을 받지 않았다.
류 주교는 2005년, 푸 주교는 2007년에 모두 선종해 현재 두 자리는 비어 있다.
BEIJING (UCAN) -- A recent meeting of government-sanctioned Church authorities has unanimously agreed to postpone the next National Congress of Catholic Representatives to 2010.
Anthony Liu Bainian |
About 80 standing committee members of the Chinese Catholic Patriotic Association (CCPA) and Bishops' Conference of the Catholic Church in China (BCCCC) decided to delay holding the eighth congress at a Nov. 25-26 meeting in Beijing.
The congress is the highest self-governing body of the CCPA and BCCCC, and elects officials for top positions in the two organizations. It is usually held every five years with the seventh congress held in 2004.
The eighth was supposed to have been held in the second half of this year.
Any decision to advance or postpone the timing of the congress, because of special circumstances, must be approved by the standing committees of the CCPA and BCCCC, according to the organizations' constitutions.
Some bishops who attended the recent meeting said they were told that Church authorities did not have enough time for preparatory work. This was because they were busy with relief efforts following the 8.0-magnitude earthquake in Sichuan province in May 2008, activities for the Beijing Olympics in August the same year and celebrations of the 60th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China in October.
The exact date for the next congress has not yet been fixed.
Anthony Liu Bainian, a Beijing-based CCPA vice-chairman, told UCA News that participants at the recent meeting included most bishops in the government-approved Church and about a dozen bishop candidates who have not yet been approved by the BCCCC.
During the meeting, participants also listened to the two organizations' working reports.
Zhu Weiqun, deputy director of the United Front Work Department of the Communist Party of China, and Wang Zuo'an, the new director of the State Administration for Religious Affairs, also attended the meeting. They spoke to participants on the country's religious policies, according to Liu.
During a joint meeting of CCPA and BCCCC vice-chairpersons on Nov. 24, participants studied and confirmed methods for choosing congress representatives and allotment of the number of representatives from each diocese. Such proceedings are similar to those held during the previous congress, Liu noted.
In 2004, about 300 bishops, priests, nuns and lay leaders from all over the country as well as government officials attended the seventh congress. They amended statutes and re-elected Bishop Michael Fu Tieshan of Beijing as chairman of the CCPA and Bishop Joseph Liu Yuanren of Nanjing as president of the BCCCC. Neither prelate was recognized by the Vatican.
Both posts are now vacant following the death of Bishop Liu in 2005 and the death of Bishop Fu in 2007.
The eighth congress has attracted attention from Church people inside and outside China after Pope Benedict XVI indicated his disapproval of state-run Church agencies in his 2007 letter to Chinese Catholics.