Palermo - A senior cardinal yesterday described the ordination in Beijing of five bishops by China's state-run Catholic Church as a "de facto schism" in the Roman Catholic Church. "It is an irregular situation that has been dragging on for some time," Cardinal Vincenzo Fagiolo, honorary president of the Pontifical Council for the Interpretation of Legislative Texts, said in the Sicilian capital, Palermo.
The Chinese church, which does not recognise the Pope's authority, has ordained 87 bishops in the past 20 years.