ROME (AP):
CHINA'S state-sanctioned Catholic church was defeating itself by fuelling the rift with the Vatican after decades of antagonism, Cardinal Joseph Zen of Hong Kong said yesterday.
Zen, an outspoken champion of religious freedom in China who was elevated to cardinal in March, said he could not tell whether Pope Benedict XVI would ever be allowed to visit China.
"But if they insist to keep this abnormal situation and to make it impossible for the pope to go there, they are defeating themselves, they are not achieving any victory," the cardinal said.
Zen made the comments after he celebrated a mass to take possession of his titular church in the outskirts of the Italian capital.
New cardinals are assigned a titular church in Rome to cement their links to the Eternal City, and Zen was assigned to the Church of Santa Maria Madre del Redentore.
China forced its Catholics to cut ties with the Vatican in 1951, shortly after the officially atheist Communists took power.
