BEIJING, SEPT. 20 (ZENIT.org).-- The China government expressed anger yesterday at the Pope's plans to canonize 120 Chinese Catholic martyrs Oct. 1, the date of the foundation of the People's Republic by Mao Tse-tung, the London Telegraph reported.
"The Vatican's actions have seriously hurt the feelings of the Chinese people and the dignity of the Chinese nation, which is absolutely not tolerated by the Chinese government and people," the Chinese Foreign Ministry said.
A high-level Vatican delegation cut short an unofficial "academic" visit to Beijing at the weekend, the Telegraph said. It was reported to have come under pressure from Beijing to cancel the October ceremony.
The diplomatic row appears to have sent Sino-Vatican relations into the deep freeze. China also expressed anger that some 80 of the martyrs being canonized were killed during the Boxer Rebellion of 1900, delegation sources said.
Communist propaganda hails the fanatical Boxers as early patriotic heroes. Hundreds of Chinese Catholic nuns, priests and missionaries were butchered during the uprising.
The Pope announced the canonizations this year after a campaign lasting more than 20 years led by bishops in Taiwan. All the martyrs died before 1930. None of the many Christians murdered and tortured by the atheist Communist Party is included. Delegation sources insisted that the choice of Oct. 1, the feast of St Thérèse of Lisieux, was not meant as a provocation.
Beijing offered a public insult to the Vatican in January, when it created six "patriotic" bishops in Beijing on the same day that the Pope traditionally consecrates new bishops.
ZE00092021