William Nee
"The Pillar provides excellent analysis of an area of Sino-Vatican relations that has been little discussed: the unilateral merging and de-establishment of dioceses, which only Rome technically has the authority to carry out.
'With the Vatican-China deal up for renewal this year, the Holy See’s Secretariat of State will have to decide if Beijing’s unilateral redrawing of the ecclesiastical map is a calculated provocation, and how it can respond within its limited diplomatic room to maneuver.
As such moves become more common, however, the Vatican will have to reckon with the emerging divide between the Church in China recognized by Rome, which increasingly exists only on paper, and a different reality on the ground, run by the CPCA.'"
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