The Oldest Problem for the Church. Again.

Catholic News Agency has the story.

China makes curious demands of the Vatican. Among them, she wants the Catholic Church to not "intervene" in her domestic affairs. Now that's interesting, considering China has no problem interfering with Church affairs. Including the latest outrageous but unsuprising insult:

The spokesman for the Chinese Foreign Secretary Qin Gang confirmed that his government has not granted permission to four bishops to travel to Rome, to participate to the Synod of Bishops, and subsequently worded three conditions in order to reestablish formal relations with the Holy See.

The laity in institutions of secular power have sought undue influence over ecclesial authority within the Catholic Church since at least the Middle Ages in Western Europe. The more things change, the more they stay the same.