China criticizes Vatican for excommunicating bishops

BEIJING - China said on Monday the Vatican@@@s recent excommunication of two Chinese bishops who were ordained without papal approval was "unreasonable" and "rude," in a sign of escalating tensions between the Vatican and Beijing.
In the government@@@s first response to the Vatican@@@s recent denunciations of the ordinations by China@@@s state-sanctioned Catholic church, the State Bureau of Religious Affairs said it was "greatly concerned" about the excommunication of Joseph Huang Bingzhang and Lei Shiyin.
The "threats of excommunication" are "extremely unreasonable and rude, which has severely hurt the feelings of Chinese Catholics and made its members feel sad", state news agency Xinhua quoted a spokesman for the bureau as saying.
Huang was ordained without papal approval as bishop in Shantou City in southern Guangdong province in mid-July, and Lei was named as bishop of the city of Leshan on June 29.
Defense Ministry to conduct exercise on Highway 35 on Sunday afternoon
Ukrainian drone attack on Moscow forces airport closure, Russia says
US condemns shooting of Colombian presidential candidate Miguel Uribe
Israeli man arrested in Albania after trying to leave with undeclared €194,000 - report
IDF Arabic Spokesperson Avichay Adraee issues evacuation notice to residents north of Gaza City
Fire breaks out in Haruvit Forest, not yet contained
France's Armed Forces Minister reaffirms no weapons being sold to Israel
IDF arrests PIJ Jenin Battalion commander during West Bank operation
Twenty live hostages, two undetermined, 33 dead, says Israeli source
North Korea internet hit by a major outage, analyst says