Hong Kong (AsiaNews) –The illegitimate ordinations of bishops in China "should stop", considering that "the current level of dialogue between the Holy See and Beijing is positive and may tend to indicate there could be a cessation of such ordinations", although it is "impossible to predict definitively".

With these comments to the Sunday Examiner – the diocesan newspaper of the territory – the auxiliary bishop of Hong Kong, Mgr John Tong Hon, clarified statements he made during an informal session on the sidelines of the fifth Plenary Assembly of the Federation of Asian Bishops' Conferences that wound up on 18 July in Uiwang, South Korea.

The bishop said: "I never said the ordinations will stop; what I did say was that they should stop, given the current positive level of dialogue between the Holy See and Beijing. The one word makes a radical difference to the meaning of his comment." The bishop also said he never intended to judge the attitude or the sincerity of the Chinese government.

Mgr Tong added: "The Communist government knows the situation will change in the future, but it does not want this kind of change to happen so quickly. This is my view of the situation."