Vatican hope as new Chinese bishop takes post

China’s state-controlled Catholic Church installed a cleric well-regarded by the Vatican as bishop of Beijing today in a move that officials say should help ease tense relations.

Joseph Li Shan was appointed to the influential post in China’s capital at a ceremony at the city’s 400-year-old Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception attended by several hundred priests, nuns, officials and ordinary Chinese Catholics who were given invitations by the Beijing diocese.