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Pope Benedict XVI has approved the ordination of a new bishop in China's Guangdong province, Hong Kong daily the South China Morning Post reported Thursday. Diplomatic relations between China and...

Pope Benedict XVI has approved the ordination of a new bishop in China's Guangdong province, Hong Kong daily the South China Morning Post reported Thursday. Diplomatic relations between China and the Vatican have been especially strained since the Chinese failed to seek Vatican approval when appointing three bishops in 2006. China now appears to be adopting a more cooperative stance toward the Vatican -- with an eye toward thwarting any aggressive moves by the church, in the event that a pending economic crisis gives rise to domestic unrest that Beijing could find unmanageable.

Diplomatic relations between China and the Vatican were severed in 1951, two years after an officially atheist Communist government took control of China. Since then, the Church and the communists have conflicted over who has the ultimate power to appoint bishops. The Vatican asserts that only the pope can officially name bishops to be recognized by the Roman Catholic Church. However, the Chinese government uses its Ministry of Religious Affairs and the Chinese Patriotic Catholic Association, the state-sanctioned church, to oversee bishop appointments.

The Vatican was particularly displeased over the appointments of three bishops in 2006 in the cities of Kunming, Anhui and Xuzhou. The disagreement has divided Chinese Roman Catholics -- one group supports the Vatican, and another supports the Chinese government.