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.

Dozens of uniformed police officers were positioned around the church, controlling access and keeping foreign journalists from entering the cathedral.

Despite the security, the ceremony drew little public attention, with Catholics numbering more than 60,000 among Beijing’s 15 million people.

During the ceremony, the 42-year-old Li took a traditional oath of service to the church that also added a nod to government authority.

He promised to “lead all the priests seminarians and nuns of this diocese in adhering to the nation’s constitution, maintaining national unification and social stability.”

Li replaces Bishop Fu Tieshan, a Communist Party supporter and hard-liner towards the Vatican, whose death in April provided an opportunity for the state-controlled church and Rome for rapprochement.