China's state-backed Catholic church said on Friday it plans to ordain more bishops, a move that is likely to inflame tensions between the Roman Catholic church and Beijing.
The Chinese Patriotic Catholic Association is preparing to ordain about seven bishops, its honorary president Liu Bainian said.
"We're studying it now, but it hasn't been approved," Liu said, adding that he did not know when or where the ordinations would take place.
Last Saturday, the Vatican denounced the ordination of the third Chinese bishop without
papal approval and excommunicated him from the Catholic church.
In a statement branding the ordination of Joseph Huang Bingzhang as illegitimate, the Vatican said Pope Benedict "deplores" the way communist authorities are treating Chinese Catholics who want to remain faithful to Rome instead of to the state-backed church, which does not recognise the Pope's authority. .
China's 8-12 million Catholics are divided between the state-sanctioned church that names bishops without the Vatican's approval and an underground church wary of government ties.
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