The Vatican said it has had no direct contact with Auxiliary Bishop Thaddeus Ma Daqin of Shanghai, who apparently wrote a blog post in June that gave many people the impression he had recanted an earlier decision to abandon the Chinese government's Catholic Patriotic Association.
At his episcopal ordination in 2012 – an assignment that came unusually with the approval of both then-Pope Benedict XVI and the Chinese government – Bishop Ma said he would no longer hold any position in the Catholic Patriot Association so that he could focus on pastoral work and evangelisation. He was immediately placed under house arrest at Sheshan seminary and the government rescinded his appointment.
