Vatican City, Dec. 19.
The Congregation for the Pro-paration of the Faith has extended to Catholics in China the permission granted some years ago to Catholics in Japan and Manchoukuo to take part in certain non-Catholic rites.
Rites such as bowing to statues and reliefs of Cónfucius, it is stated, are an expression of patriotism, and in this matter Catholics may conform to general usage.
The instruction also abolishes the special oath which missionaries and priests in China formerly had to take, by the order of Pope Benedict XVI, of obedience to the Holy See.—Reuter.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.