China on Saturday defended the ordination of Catholic bishops by Chinese believers while lashing out at Vatican, saying the latter's criticism on China in this regard "makes no sense."

"The Chinese government had recently informed the Vatican about ordaining bishops in some Chinese dioceses but received no straightforward responses from the latter," said a spokesman for the State Administration of Religious Affairs.

"On the contrary, the Vatican made unfounded charges after the successful ordination, a move that ran against the remarks of the Vatican hoping to improve its relationship with China," he noted.

On Thursday, the Vatican's spokesman Joaquin Navarro-Valls accused China of ordaining two Catholic bishops in the country and threatened to punish the bishops ordained and the believers who participated in the process.

"The remark by Navarro-Valls makes no sense," the Chinese spokesman said, noting that the selection and ordination of bishops by the Catholic churches in China had lasted for half a century.

"The selection and ordination of bishops in China are a need of Chinese Catholic churches to conduct normal church activities," he said.

China now has 97 dioceses, but more than 40 of them do not have bishops. In addition, most bishops are old. "The churches could not exist without bishops," the spokesman said.

The development of Catholicism in China called for the self-selection and ordination of bishops, he said, citing an incident in 1958. In that year, a list of bishop nominees from some Chinese dioceses was submitted to the Vatican, which not only rejected the list but also threatened to mete out "extraordinary punishment."

"The move deeply hurt Chinese believers and forced the Chinese Catholic churches to set off for a road of selecting and ordaining their own bishops," the Chinese spokesman said.

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