Priests From Poor Countries Called Home by Vatican

ASSOCIATED PRESS, June 12—Some dioceses in Africa and Asia have one-third or even one-half of their diocesan priests serving abroad, the wire service reported—and the Vatican wants the priests to come home.

Pope John Paul II approved updated guidelines for priests sent from poorer countries to the West. The guidelines expressed concern that many priests stay in the West, rather than returning home, where they are urgently needed. Some even defy their bishops' calls to return home.

Fides, the Vatican's missionary news service, added that some Western dioceses take advantage of the situation by assigning foreign priests to parish duties “without thinking of the damage they are doing” to the struggling dioceses from which the priests came.

China's ‘Patriotic’ Church Secretly Aids Loyal Priests

NEWSWEEK, June 11—The official “patriotic” church and the underground Catholic Church are growing ever closer, the national weekly reported.

China's Communist government still claims to appoint bishops, and persecutes Catholics who accept papal authority. Thousands have been harassed, detained and imprisoned, and in the past year hundreds of churches were demolished.

But behind the scenes, the Vatican has accepted nearly all of China's 70 government-approved bishops. Underground and “official” priests mingle, even sharing residences. Some official bishops protect the clandestine priests.

The Vatican has prepared an agreement, similar to the ones used in Communist Eastern Europe, by which the government-sponsored church could suggest bishops but the Vatican would have the final say. Beijing has not responded.

A recent push for reconciliation was derailed when Fides, the Vatican's missionary news service, obtained a classified government document planning a crackdown on Chinese Catholics.

Improving relations with the Vatican would raise China's chances to host the 2008 Olympic Games. Beijing also hopes that open relations with the Vatican would lead the Holy See to drop its recognition of Taiwan.