CHINA WARNS VATICAN OVER NEW CHINESE-LANGUAGE NEWS
SERVICE
BEIJING (CWNews.com) - Communist China on Friday warned
the Vatican not to interfere in its internal affairs after the Fides news agency announced
on Thursday that it is launching a Chinese-language service aimed at Internet-savvy
Chinese Catholics.
"China hopes the Vatican will not use media and the
Internet to interfere in China's internal affairs, including China's religious
affairs," a foreign ministry spokesman said by telephone. Fides, the news agency of
the Vatican Congregation for Evangelization, said the service is intended to spread news
about the underground Catholic Church in China. Catholic Chinese are required by law to
belong to state-sanctioned Patriotic Catholic Association which rejects certain Catholic
doctrines, including the authority of the pope.
The first official edition of the Chinese service,
online at (http://www.fides.org), included news about the political crisis in Indonesia
and the nuclear tests in India, Fides said.