'Illicit' ordination will harm improving ties, Vatican warns Beijing

The Vatican issued a stern warning that its relations with China would be damaged if Beijing goes ahead with plans to unilaterally ordain a bishop tomorrow without papal approval - in what would be the first such ordination in four years.

Beijing's plan to ordain Father Joseph Guo Jincai as the bishop of Chengde in Hebei province, ahead of a national Catholic conference opposed by the Holy See, has raised fears that hardliners on the mainland want to derail ongoing Sino-Vatican dialogue.

Vatican spokesman Father Federico Lombardi said the Holy See was 'disturbed' by information that several bishops recognised by both sides are being forced to attend the ordination tomorrow afternoon.

'If these reports are true, then the Holy See would consider such actions as grave violations of freedom of religion and freedom of conscience,' he said. 'It would also consider such an ordination as illicit and damaging to the constructive relations that have been developing in recent times.'

If the ordination goes ahead it would be the first case considered illicit by the Vatican since November 2006, when Wang Renlei was ordained as coadjutor bishop of Xuzhou in Jiangsu province without papal approval.

As relations between the Vatican and Beijing have improved, 11 bishops have been ordained or installed with mutual approval over the past year. But with a key Catholic conference to select the new leadership of the mainland church scheduled in the next fortnight - an event opposed by the Vatican on grounds that it breaches Catholic doctrine - observers fear that the latest move was designed by hawks in Beijing to derail ongoing diplomatic dialogue.