Shangai bishop seeks to heal division

He’s been called a counterfeit cleric, a usurper who betrayed the Catholic Church while others languished due to their loyalty to the pope.

Shanghai Bishop Aloysius Jin Luxian’s 27 years in prison and labor camps have done little to ease the bitterness of supporters of China’s underground church. Nor has more than a decade of hard work spent rebuilding the Shanghai Diocese through the official Communist Party-recognized Catholic association.

Now at age 89, Jin says a tacit agreement between Rome and Beijing on his successor may help heal some of the division — although he doubts the two sides will be reconciled soon.

"The pope in Rome wanted to establish diplomatic relations with other countries, including China," Jin told The Associated Press in an interview this month at his office beside Shanghai’s century-old cathedral.

"If both sides don’t make some concessions, normalization won’t come about immediately," he said.