The Vatican is keeping up the pressure on the Catholic Church in China with the release of a new document from the Pontifical Council for Legislative Texts (PCLT) which amounts to telling any potential candidates for episcopal ordination that there is no excuse for this “without the necessary mandate” from the Pope that they face excommunication. Canon 1382 of the Code of Canon Law provides that “a bishop who consecrates some one a bishop without a pontifical mandate and the person who receives the consecration from him incur a latae sententiae excommunication reserved to the Apostolic See.” The PCLT reaffirms this noting that “Canon 1382 C.I.C. punishes with a latae sententiae excommunication reserved to the Apostolic See the Bishop who without the apostolic mandate consecrates someone as Bishop and also whoever receives episcopal ordination in this way. READ MORE No excuse for unauthorized episcopal ordinations (Give us this day)