Toxic woke has consequences. Give a guy like this a funny hat and a bully pulpit and it goes straight to his head. It’s like he thinks he speaks for God or something.
Maybe the very idea of having a pope is the problem. Rethink apostolic succession? Since the Church is liable to fall apart anyway, nothing should be off the table.
Sadly the Holy See is one of the few diplomatic allies of Taiwan as well. It would also be bad for Taiwan. The only reason the pope would make this move is financial pressure imo. Italy and the Vatican gets a lot of money from China, especially their tourist. Most tourist in Italy were Chinese to be honest, especially the ones with money to spend. The Gucci and designer stores all have staff that speak Chinese. More Chinese people there than Italians, and the clothes were clearly picked for Chinese (ugly) lots of red and things Chinese people like.
Today’s Daily Rowlandism™ 
Maybe Taiwan should switch recognition to Pope Michael of Kansas:
Taiwan dignitaries coming to Vatican will be referred as representative of “China”.
I recall in 2005, during the funeral ceremony of late Pope John Paul II. President Chen sat on a designated place with name placard “Chine”
Shouldn’t that have been “Sina”? Or maybe “Serica”…
The guy’s the head of a religion that aids and abets its priests in the raping of children…who gives a fuck?
It would be difficult to name a religion, or country, whose behavior is non culpa / non peccare.
Yes but in 2018 the Catholic Church is still actively protecting its child-raping priests. That’s pretty special. Why would anyone continue in this religion?
The Catholic church does a lot of good things. And a lot of bad things. A lot depends on just what sort of person is on top.
And that’s the real problem. They’re not all going to be John Paul II. You’ll have the occasional Borgia, or worse.
A sufficiently bad bishop of Rome can potentially destroy the Church.
Maybe because child-rape is not a defining feature of Catholicism, but is seen as more of an aberration. If ROC / Vatican relations are to be scuttled because of this, then why should any country maintain diplomatic relations with (picking a random country) Switzerland, which refuses to extradite Roman Polanski? Shouldn’t Switzerland rather be nuked?
Everything’s an aberration, if you don’t want to face the ugly facts of human nature. But the great thing about the Swiss is they tend to mind their own business, instead trying to tell the whole world to take up yodeling lest they burn in hell for eternity.
Also, they’re big on self defense. Not wise to pick a fight with. Neutrality is a fragile thing, but guns are guns.
Unless I’m missing something “the deal” is over who gets to appoint bishops in China. I don’t see anything about throwing Taiwan under the bus or raping children.
They want permission to operate in China, which entails formal relations with the Chinese government, which entails mutual recognition, which entails breaking formal ties with Taiwan. (Perhaps the Vatican could simply transform the papal nuncio into a trade office, or whatever the Latin equivalent would be.) Would this affect Taiwan’s Catholics, or Taiwanese generally? I can’t imagine how (but you could say that about any of Taiwan’s so-called diplomatic allies). If anybody is going to be thrown under a bus, it is China’s underground Catholics, who will now be instructed to submit to their former persecutors.
That all comes later.
I’ll come out and say it. Pope Francis is an intellectual mediocrity. It’s not just that he says stupid stuff. He says unoriginal stupid stuff. He’s a tool. He’s a mindless parrot of left wing talking points. Bad things will happen under the watch of such a person.
It’s French. The international language of diplomacy … duh…
Yes, but if even the Vatican won’t stand up for Latin, who will? 
Am-day ite-ray!
Catholicism is not and never was a religion. At various points in its history, the Roman Catholic Church (as opposed to the short-lived Catholic Church) always has been either a form of government/empire, a political movement, or an occupying power (or all three). The religious overtones are just by-the-by. That’s not to say other religions didn’t try to copy their success, but nobody ever came close to the Catholics for depth and breadth of social control. The key innovation IMO was ensuring that subjects, sorry, the faithful, swear allegiance to the Church rather than to God (religion) or to a ruler/country (common-or-garden nationalism). Still massively successful, although the reign-of-terror business model has fortunately had its day.
You pig!