VATICAN CITY, Jan. 20 (UPI) -- The Vatican began talks with China's government-controlled church this week over that nation's decision to appoint three bishops without papal consent.
The New York Times reported that two days of talks between the two sides began with plans to improve ties between them and to determine a stronger policy regarding the appointment of bishops.
The Rev. Bernardo Cervellera, an editor at the Roman Catholic news service AsiaNews, was outraged over the Chinese government's apparent attempts to completely control the church in China.
"It has become unbearable, this fact," Cervellera said. "The government just wants to control things."
However, Cervellera maintained that in order to progress forward, the Chinese government must increase its control over the Chinese Patriotic Catholic Church Association, the group that violated Vatican law by appointing the bishops.
"They want to show that China is a modern country, a great country at the center of the world," he told the Times. "They cannot have this face of a dictatorial country and of oppressing freedom of religion."
