Serving two masters A bishop’s public resignation creates more problems for the church

STUDENTS at Shanghai’s Sheshan Catholic seminary, one of China’s biggest, learned on August 22nd that classes would be suspended indefinitely. The announcement was another twist in the latest standoff between Catholics and the government that began on July 7th. On that day, Bishop Ma Daqin, the new auxiliary bishop of Shanghai, announced at the end of his ordination homily at the Cathedral of St Ignatius that he would need to devote every effort to his new post, and it would therefore be “inconvenient” to remain a member of the government’s Chinese Catholic Patriotic Association (CCPA), the body which oversees China’s Catholic church.
 The faithful, packed into the pews, rose in spontaneous applause. Shanghai’s government was less thrilled; he has since been held under house arrest.

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