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Articles By ZENIT Staff

Chinese Communist government takes advantage of Pope’s death to unilaterally impose new bishops

These appointments, proceeding so soon after the pope’s death, present an immediate and delicate test for the next pontiff. Will he continue Francis’s policy of cautious engagement with China, or draw a firmer line in defense of the Church’s independence? That decision could define the next chapter in Vatican-China relations.

For the first time an archbishop of Tehran, Iran, among the Pope’s electors

A Franciscan of Belgian origin, he received the cardinal’s red hat on 7 December during the last consistory. The Iranian Church is a ‘peripheral’ reality, a small flock that is ‘transparent’ in its faith. Criticism of those who harbour a ‘preconceived’ view of a nation rich in ‘contrasts’. The desire to train ‘local pastors’.