China's Catholic church announced the opening of the country's largest seminary in Beijing on Thursday to train Chinese priests.

"Under the joint leadership of the Chinese Catholic Patriotic Association and the Chinese Catholic Bishops' Conference, the National Seminary of the Catholic Church in China aims to train priests with sound Catholic theology to commit wholly to the Holy Catholic Church and dedicate themselves to their ministry," said Liu Bainian, vice president of the association.

The Chinese government has provided 73.71 million yuan (US$9.214 million) to help with the construction of the seminary.

(Xinhua News Agency September 28, 2006)