A senior Vatican official has praised Auxiliary Bishop Thaddeus Ma Daqin of Shanghai for “showing great courage,” after he quit two Chinese government-sanctioned Church bodies during his controversial ordination last week. Archbishop Savio Hon Tai-fai, secretary of the Pontifical Congregation for Evangelization of Peoples, also said that “it is regrettable that the CPA [Catholic Patriotic Association ] and the Bishops’ Conference of the Catholic Church in China,” both not approved by the Vatican, “are trying to represent the Vatican’s role.” Archbishop Hon was speaking during a trip to South Korea yesterday to congratulate the new Archbishop of Seoul, Andrew Yeom Soo-jung, who received the pallium from Pope Benedict XVI recently, and after having participated in the 20th anniversary of the establishment of the Mongolian Catholic Church last weekend. He left Seoul for Rome today.