China bishop who pushed for Vatican ties dies

BEIJING, May 25 (Reuters) A Chinese bishop and leading figure in China's Catholic Church died today, leaving another diocese vacant amid disagreements between Beijing and the Vatican over how clergy are appointed.

Anthony Li Duan, 78, archbishop of the northwestern city of Xian, died of cancer, said an official at the China Patriotic Catholic Association, which administers the state-backed church.

Li was seen as a figure pushing reconciliation between China and the Vatican, which broke off diplomatic ties in 1951, two years after the Communists took power in China.

He was one of four Chinese bishops denied permission to leave the country last year to attend a synod at the Vatican.

Hopes for rapprochement have been complicated in recent weeks by Beijing's appointment of three bishops without the Pope's blessing -- the heart of the row over who rules China's divided Catholic Church.

China has some 10 million Catholics, but they are split between an underground church loyal to the Holy See, and the official church, whose members lack formal ties to the Vatican.

Li was appointed by the state-backed church and tacitly recognised by the Vatican, in keeping with an understanding over the past few years between Beijing and the Holy See.

Anthony Dang Mingyan, the auxiliary bishop of Xian, was appointed in the same spirit of compromise but the recent installations of bishops took place without papal blessing, breaking that pattern.

AsiaNews, a Catholic news agency focusing on China, said Dang might eventually replace Li, but the official at the China Patriotic Catholic Association said there was no word yet on the next bishop.

REUTERS PR PC1630